Kishen Mitra
- Indian Harbour Beach, FL
- West Shore Junior-Senior High School
Kishen started volunteering at the Space Coast FabLab in seventh grade, where he had the opportunity to mentor kids ages five and up during summer camps ranging from robotics to 3D printing. Experiences from volunteering at a makerspace for three years gave him the confidence to form the Engineering Club at his high school and eventually establish a non-profit organization, Central Florida STEM for Kids Inc, in January 2018. Through the Engineering Club at his high school, he hosted demo nights and launched a program called “Adopt a Buddy.” Through this program, a small group of two to three students from the local elementary schools is paired with a member from the club and spends time after school once a month with various STEM challenges.
In Spring 2019, Kishen expanded his outreach by hosting hands-on STEM enrichment activities at low-income neighborhood schools, where 80 percent of students are dependent on free or reduced lunches. He is proud to share that his non-profit provides the full cost of each event, lifting the burden from the schools. He and his group have worked with ten schools in Florida, mentoring over 550 students. Activities undertaken include snap-on circuits, programming a rover, and take-home magnetic motion machines!