Adam Spontarelli -
Teach at Vector Space in Summer 2020!
Vector Space is seeking one or more maker educators to work alongside co-instructors during three, one-week maker camps in Central Virginia during July 2020. Since our founding in 2015, Vector Space has earned a reputation for our exciting and immersive STEAM programs for teens. Our unique programs have launched rockets and space balloons, combined fashion + tech on the runway, added public art to our city, designed autonomous boats and FPV drones, and more. This is an opportunity for a maker educator with at least 3-5 years experience to join our most ambitious project yet, as we invite rising college freshman from around the country to learn about the world in a new way before they set off for campus life for the first time. Qualified educators should have a wide expanse of expertise, though formal training in all familiar subjects is not expected.
Camp specifics are linked and listed below, as well as history and background about our organization and the Lynchburg, Virginia area. To apply to teach multiple camps, you must submit multiple appliations (non camp-specific answers may be copy/pasted when applying for more than one week). To preview application questions in PDF form, click here.
Summer 2020 Maker Camp Schedule
Week 1 - July 11 - 18, 2020
Wake Up: Learn to tell time by making an electronic alarm clock
Week 2 - July 18 - 25, 2020
Get Dressed: Make your dorm loungewear from scratch
Week 3 - July 25 - Aug 1, 2020
Take Notes: Make a pen and a journal, starting from the beginning
About These Camps
The task of the college student can feel overwhelming. Sent hundreds of miles from home into an environment unlike any they have experienced before, expected to live independently while simultaneously tasked with learning the depths of thermodynamics and calculus. Navigating dorm furniture, food plans, a laptop with decent wifi connection, and parking passes. But at its core, the task is simple: the student must wake up, get dressed, and take notes. To read more about our educational philosophy at Vector Space and how we are changing the future of youth in our programs, click here.
About Vector Space
Vector Space is a nonprofit makerspace: a physical place for people interested in science, technology, engineering, art, and math to collaborate, invent, discover, and build the things that interest them. Our mission is to build an open and collaborative community that fosters innovation, creativity, and the pursuit of science-based knowledge.
The makerspace is member-based for adults, and offers workshops for teens and adults. During and after school maker education programs are offered throughout the school year and during summer months. Our classes, workshops and projects inspire members to share knowledge, learn from each other, and mentor others. Each lesson is hands-on and taught by local makers and professionals: professors, engineers, graphic designers, woodworkers, computer scientists and more. Vector Space a is nonprofit corporation managed by a Board of Directors and organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg, Virginia is a small city of 80,000 residents, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and bordered by the beautiful James River. Like many former trade and manufacturing cities across America, ours is undergoing tremendous growth and revitalization after a devastating mid-century move towards suburbs and strip malls. In the last twenty years, Lynchburg residents are slowing beginning to look back up at the historic facades that have been mostly preserved, and are remembering a history of thriving maker businesses in downtown.
Vector Space is loced in Lynchburg’s historic and vibrant downtown district. Locally owned storefronts, coffee shops, eateries, and more offer unique and memorable opportunities year round. Multiple new restaurants and retail spaces are opening each year, while natural beauty remains accessible within city limits on the river, the rails-to-trails bike path, and along miles of beautiful hiking trails. Our home on 5th Street, formerly the thriving center for African American businesses, was once an abandoned retail area with high crime rates but has come back to life with the opening of the makerspace, restaurants, and small storefronts that have either survived the worst or returned to find a corridor almost reminiscent of its bustling past. Lynchburg is the home of five colleges and universities and the median age of residents is 28.7, providing a young audience invested in craft food, local culture, and meaningful objects and experiences.
Our Sponsor
This program is generously funded by Cognizant's Making the Future program, which seeks to inspire young learners to pursue science, technology, engineering and math disciplines by creating fun, hands-on learning opportunities.
