Fairfax High School Senior Kiran Ashok believes in using technology to help others and to give back to her community in big ways.

Her path to community involvement evolved over a period of more than 10 years while she learned the basics of engineering, programming, problem-solving, and teamwork as a competitor in events organized by FIRST Robotics.

FIRST is an international nonprofit which seeks to grow the next generation of leaders in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) through friendly competitions and hands-on construction of automated machines that perform challenging tasks.

When Covid hit during middle school, Kiran taught online coding classes and found she had a natural gift for leadership, mentoring, and public speaking. “I began to think about robotics as more of an opportunity to reach out and teach new students rather than just compete for myself,” she says.

Upon entering high school, she and a classmate recognized that resources for STEAM were unevenly distributed around Fairfax County. This prompted them to co-found FIRST For Youth in 2021. FFY is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that deploys high school volunteers weekly to some of Fairfax County’s low-income Title 1 schools to introduce FIRST robotics programs developed especially for grades K-8.

Since its start, FFY has conducted programs in 5-10 schools.  These include weekly programs at the elementary schools Daniels Run, Providence, and Eagle View, along with work at Katherine Johnson Middle School and a summer camp at the Madame Curie School for Science and Technology in Herndon. Volunteers work with as many as 10-20 children at each school.

Kiran saw how STEAM projects particularly inspired the younger students on her robotics teams. This has motivated Kiran to continue using robotics and technology programs as tools to not only educate students but also to empower them with the same sense of accomplishment and peacefulness she felt when first discovering the potential of robotics.

According to FFY’s web site, the organization’s 58 volunteers have tallied 625 volunteer hours, started 15 tech teams, and raised a total of $22,445, all of which has led to a combined impact on 23,50 students and families across northern Virginia.

Kiran believes the more equitable distribution of STEAM resources contributes to peace by giving students the resources and opportunities to explore STEAM careers in an open environment without the additional costs these programs tend to have.

“I feel like this work can promote peace because it gives students the opportunity to think that they can do something besides the typical,” she says. “They're learning from outside of their curriculum. That could possibly lead to them exploring their own fields in STEAM.”