Great Space for All is Ready for Launch

One day during his undergrad years at Hopkins, Blaze Sanders' classmate from Brunei asked him why she was one of the few women in the Electrical Engineering Department. Was it common for girls to not pursue STEM programs in the U.S.? This question both troubled and inspired Sanders, Engr '10. Not one to leave problems for others to solve, he decided to create Great Space for Girls, which he describes as "a fun, educational program for young women, especially designed to spark interest in science, technology, engineering, and math and stop middle school girls from leaving STEM." With the support of the JHU chapter of the National Society for Black Engineers, he won a $1,000 grant to make his vision a reality.

From 2010 to 2011, Great Space for Girls operated at Barclay Middle School in Baltimore. The program provided students with STEM-centered activities, like designing space suits, building robots, and launching "rockets" with isopropyl alcohol and nitrous oxide from whipped cream cans. It also brought in female teachers and professionals from the space industry to talk to students about their careers. However, when Sanders left Baltimore, Great Space for Girls was left without leadership and went on hiatus. Sanders was still inspired to expose kids to STEM, so he spent the next several years after graduation fundraising for a new iteration of the program—Great Space for All.

Great Space for All, launching later this year, is a summer program for high school seniors and first-year college students from underrepresented backgrounds. Located in Brownsville, Texas, near a SpaceX launch site, the program will bring in professionals from places like NASA to teach students about topics that include space exploration, robotics, and coding.

Providing mentorship to young people is important to Sanders. "I didn't have it as a kid," he explains. "I also just find it fun. Kids are super smart and a hundred percent honest and full of great ideas."

While working to get Great Space for All off the ground, Sanders has made time for connecting kids to STEM programs in Las Vegas, where he currently lives. He has given presentations for local Rotary youth clubs and worked on innovative projects with kids at hackerspaces— including helping aspiring engineers build a tiny home that fits on the back of a pickup truck.

Sanders credits his Hopkins experience with giving him the tools he needs to make connections and make progress toward his goals. He says, "My undergrad experience taught me to network and that anything was possible if you asked the right person nicely."