Jonathan Tamen ’26 earned $10,000 Projects for peace Stipend for Students Helping Hands, which aims to address disparities in education in Miami Beach, Florida. The organization supports immigrant and disadvantaged students through community-oriented STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) programming.
Tamin works in partnership with his brother, David, a student at Boston University, and Paula Cedeño, who is a Senior Honors student at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida.
“The goals are to teach STEAM concepts, introduce STEAM functionality, and summer slide address critical math, science, and comprehension skills—which have been exacerbated by the pandemic and identified in declining test scores at the city’s Title 1 elementary and K-8 schools,” the partners wrote in their project summary. This works. The program aims to bridge the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers, helping them achieve success in the classroom and be confident in their ideas for creating a better world.In partnership with the City of Miami Beach, our program will reach 300 students, mostly from ethnic minorities and economically disadvantaged groups, through four weeks of learning camps “.
In March 2020, Tammin and his twin brother, David, started a nonprofit organization called Helping Hands MB at their high school in Miami Beach. The 24-member group’s mission is twofold: to harness 3D printing technology to provide prosthetic limbs to children who have lost hands or fingers, and to provide and enhance STEAM education opportunities for students who may otherwise not have access to them.
Read more about Helping Hands MB »
Student Helping Hands Camps will introduce STEAM to children in grades 4 and 5 as they build their own smart city – Boomtown, USA – and collaborate on neighborhood design that promotes accessibility for people with special needs and creates a peaceful community. “They will learn about environmental science (climate change, sustainability), art and mathematics (architectural design), and engineering (electricity, construction),” Tameen’s project brief states. Small groups of students will use the Archi-TECH Electronic Smart House to create solutions to sea level rise, inaccessibility, and unsustainable development in their home construction, and then bring these ideas together to develop their new neighborhood.
For 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, The World of 3D Printing will teach them to assemble prostheses for children around the world through the e-NABLE Network, an online community of doctors and engineers who design 3D-printable prostheses for hands.
“We hope to motivate students to pursue advanced education and instill the use of STEAM education to change lives and create a more equitable and accessible world,” Tammin said.
Projects for Peace is a global program that encourages young people to develop innovative, community-centred, scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues. Along the way, student leaders increase their knowledge, improve their skills, and establish their identities as peacebuilders and change-makers. The Middlebury College Center for Community Engagement hosts Projects for Peace.
Clark University has been a Peace Projects Partner since 2008 and has been awarded 15 scholarships to date.