That's the only question this page exists to answer — honestly and specifically. Here's what the club asks of your student, what it gives back, and who's responsible while they're in the room.
CONFIRM One weekly meeting [day/time/room]. Beyond that, everything is optional: competitions, monthly service visits, summer programs, and — for students who earn it — travel. Members balance the club with sports, jobs, and coursework, and the club is built to allow that.
A faculty sponsor CONFIRM [name] is present, along with adult mentors. Students lead the room — that's the point — but they don't hold it alone. Equipment work happens at supervised benches, and travel is chaperoned. CONFIRM Stated safety practices for tools and trips.
Beyond the sponsor, this year's members are taught by Georgia Tech students (robotics) and mentored by Drexel University students (refurbishing) CONFIRM — college engineers a few years ahead of them, close enough to be believable, far enough ahead to pull.
Students don't just attend this club. They run benches, teach lessons, plan the calendar, manage equipment, and hold office. Responsibility isn't a reward for seniority here — it's the curriculum, and it starts early.
Circuits, code, robotics, hardware diagnosis and repair — learned hands-on, on real equipment, with real consequences: the machine either works when they're done, or it doesn't yet.
Service isn't an add-on. It's the club's output. Computer labs built for Evanston seniors, with monthly lessons ever since. Machines donated to shelters, community centers, and schools. Six students once rebuilt two clubs' worth of computers for post-Katrina New Orleans.
Alumni study cybersecurity at DePaul and mechanical engineering at Purdue — fields this club introduced them to. And "taught a robotics class to students in Namibia" is a college-essay sentence no admissions reader forgets.
For a freshman still figuring out who they are, the club offers something rare: a room where you're needed. There's always a machine to fix, a lesson to prep, a younger student waiting. Belonging here isn't social luck — it's built into the work.
It feels more serious than other spaces, but also more relaxed. People help each other and it makes everything go smoother.— Dexter, 17 · YTC student, Evanston
The best answer to every question above is twenty minutes watching the room work. Parents are welcome. CONFIRM [Parent night / open meeting date.]
Calendar →