About Us
We provide free education - a radical break from existing for-profit tutoring services.
Momentum Scholars is a 501(c)(3) NPO formally established in 2015 for the purpose of providing free, comprehensive, and quality instruction to students facing socio-economic, gendered, and/or racial barriers. Our equal opportunity initiatives were originally galvanized by a group of four, inspired high schoolers and a small AIM grant from DELL. That was in 2013. Since then, we have served hundreds of students, senior citizens, and Burmese refugees in Austin by providing comprehensive computer training, one-on-one STEM tutorials, expository writing and advocacy development classes, summer camps, and school supplies.
All of our programs are 100% free. We believe education is a right, not a privilege. Our next goal is to make our services available to all of Austin. Earlier this year, we received a small grant from UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts to create a Momentum Scholars university branch. However we need your help to expand further. Please consider joining the cause by volunteering or donating today.
Disclosure: Momentum Scholars is a recipient of a Google Ad Grants award. The Google Ad Grants program supports registered nonprofit organizations that share Google's philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.
Our Goals
Our long-term objectives are effectuated through a series of ad hoc inflection points.
Vague rhetoric helps no one. Lack of transparency in short-term goal-setting makes it difficult for an organization to quantify how successful they are in achieving those goals. To avoid this problem, we gauge the effectiveness of each of our programs through a series of precise and tangible policy indicators. Here is a list of our 2016 objectives:
• Increase Westwood High School Computer Science Club membership rates by 54% to fourty members
• Establish a year-long DIY hardware/software project that involves code, circuitry, and battery chemistry
• Launch two more week-long introductory computer science camps at middle schools in North & East Austin
• Relaunch a ten week program to teach senior citizens how to use computers with the help of SAIVA & the AARC
• Double the number of full-time volunteers in the Momentum Scholars UT Austin branch to twelve volunteers
• Teach advocacy development classes at two more AISD schools with the help of the Austin Bat Cave Project
• Work with the City of Austin to translate documents to Gujurati, Hindi, and Tamil for non-ESL individuals
• Expand outreach to the South Asian community with the help of the NPO, the Gujurati Samaj of Greater Austin
• Achieve equal gender participation in middle school computer science camps with the help of the NPO, GRISM
• Increase the frequency and intensity of donation drives to every three months under Resource Reach Out
• Expand group tutoring and practice sessions for speech & debate to twice a week at Westwood High School
Past Projects
Three years. Ten initiatives. Momentous change. Ready for more?
Over the last three years, we have embarked on innovative computer science projects in lower income neighbordhoods, undertaken technological acclimatization projects throughout the senior citizen Asian American community, and have introduced STEM clubs, tutoring programs, and educational classes across public school districts in Austin. Here is a chronological timeline of our progress to date:
Fall 2013 - We receive a small AIM Grant from Dell to start a computer science club at Westwood High School.
Fall 2013 - We create a computer science club that teaches Python and Java. Learn more.
Summer 2014 - We partner with SAIVA and the AARC to teach senior citizens how to use computers. Learn more.
Fall 2014 - We improve the Westwood CS club with the help of GSGA and Dell volunteers.
Spring 2015 - We acquire Resource Reach Out and donate school supplies to East Austin schools. Learn more.
Summer 2015 - We partner with STEMed Labs and Del Valle HS to launch a free CS camp. Learn more.
Summer 2015 - We relaunch the senior citizen computer instruction program with SAIVA and the AARC.
Fall 2015 - We continue the Westwood CS club and enter several members into a UIL competition. Victory!
Fall 2015 - We launch group tutoring sessions for speech & debate at Westwood High School once a week.
Spring 2016 - We receive a small Grant from UT's College of Liberal Arts to start a univerity branch.
Spring 2016 - We partner with the Austin Bat Cave to teach literacy classes at Martin MS. Learn more.
Summer 2016 - We partner with Canyon Vista MS to launch two free CS intensive camps. Learn more.
Summer 2016 - We relaunch the senior citizen computer instruction program with SAIVA and the AARC.
Summer 2016 - We automate SAIVA's vegetable pickup and delivery service with data analytics. Learn more.
