Students in this club learn engineering, rebuild computers for their neighbors, teach what they know — to seniors across town, to middle-schoolers in the Fifth Ward, to peers an ocean away — and graduate as leaders. Not because anyone made them. Because the club is theirs to run.
Most students who join YTC have never opened a computer or built a robot. They come in curious, or just following a friend. Then something happens that doesn't happen in most activities: they learn something real, and then they're asked to teach it to someone else. Somewhere in there — usually the first time a younger kid or an eighty-year-old looks at them like they're the expert — they find out what they're capable of.
The club has been student-run since it started at ETHS in 2009. Students hold the offices, plan the year, and teach the lessons, with adult mentors alongside and a faculty sponsor in the room. CONFIRM This year's sponsor: [name].
What parents want to know →Not a promotional video — a student telling you what actually changed for her.
CONFIRM [Day, time, room.] Competitions, service days, and trips are optional layers on top. It coexists with sports, jobs, and homework.
Students run the club; a faculty sponsor and adult mentors are present and involved. That balance is the whole design.
Most members start from zero. Older students teach newer ones — that's not a workaround, it's the model.
No dues, nothing to buy. Equipment is donated and student-maintained.
Nothing in this club is practice. The robots compete. The computers go to real people. The lessons have real students on the other end — some of them on another continent.
From first circuit to competition robot. This year's instruction comes from Georgia Tech students CONFIRM — college engineers teaching ETHS members, who then teach each other.
A Microsoft Registered Refurbisher club. Donated machines come in; working computers go out — to seniors, shelters, schools, and small businesses across Evanston. Drexel University students mentor the benches this year CONFIRM.
Monthly lessons for seniors at Blake Manor and Primm Towers. STEM mentoring for Fifth Ward middle-schoolers. Robotics classes for peers in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Mozambique.
The same path, every year, for every student willing to walk it. It has run without interruption since 2009 — students call it the club having generations.
Pick a bench. Build something real.
Show the next student how. Teaching is the badge of mastery here.
Run a bench, a project, an event — then hold office.
Train your replacement. Hand the club to the next generation.
YTC was the best decision I ever made, and I am confident that I will be successful in life because of it.— Emma Bernal · DePaul University, Cybersecurity · YTC 2021–2023
I can confidently say that this club has well prepared me for engineering in college and beyond.— Ava Mosely · Purdue University, Mechanical Engineering · YTC 2021–2023
No tryout, no form, no experience required. Freshmen especially welcome — bring a friend. CONFIRM [Day, time, room.]
Meeting times & the year's calendar →Robotics instruction, 2026–27.
Refurbishing mentorship, 2026–27.
Summer STEM partnership in Evanston.
Senior residences with student-built labs.