A Trip to Microsoft, Powered by Super Volunteers

During last month’s innovative STEM Expo, volunteers engaged with student presentations and prototypes both as an audience and as judges.

Then, earlier this month, the students who scored the highest had the opportunity to spend a day at Microsoft’s campus! It was a day completely curated for TAF@Saghalie students.

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The day began at the visitor’s center with a walk through Microsoft’s historic and present innovations. One of those is gaming, and students really enjoyed playing Minecraft and some of the latest Xbox games.

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Next, they did an activity to understand machine learning.

It was a race to sort and categorize objects against a group of college students and our TAF@Saghalie students won.

After lunch, three Microsoft employees came to talk to our students for a “Day in the life of a Microsoft employee” panel. The three employees told our students about their journeys into tech and what they do in their current roles while also giving advice they wish they had heard in grade school.

Then, our students got to ask questions.

They wondered how the employees dealt with challenges at work, if there were any positive aspects to being a woman of color in tech, and how to find their leadership styles.

It was a day that would not have been possible without volunteers like Raven who was on the panel.

(Here’s why she volunteers with community organizations like TAF ➡️➡️➡️)

It also would not have been possible without Demetri Wilright, who organized the whole day and sat on the panel.

(Here’s why he invests his time with students of color like those TAF serves ⬅️⬅️⬅️)

Beyond that, it was volunteers who engaged with every student’s project to determine the winners that went to Microsoft.

TAF❤️s our volunteers.

They help bring the real world into TAF classrooms and inspire our students to see themselves in any spaces or careers they can dream of.

Are you inspired to volunteer with our students? We have a wide array of volunteer needs, which you can learn more about here.