All of Branch Out’s offerings are provided free of cost to participants. Traditionally underrepresented communities and students are given preference in registration.
YES Girls is an incredible opportunity for young women to collaborate and create a smartphone application that addresses a community need. Students develop apps from scratch before employing business skills to present their final products in front of a panel of judges and compete for awards. The March 2017 event featured a speaker panel comprised of local women in business, like Melisa Rillera from the Bay Area Tutoring Association and Christine Munroe from NASA.
Make-a-thons are day-long events comprised of workshops exploring engineering, computer science, and entrepreneurship. The November 2016 High School Make-A-Thon featured an introduction to hydraulic systems, as participants applied hydraulics concepts and developed robots that then competed against one another.
Branch Out’s original program, the Innovation Lab, is comprised of an entrepreneurial incubator and cryptography, game development, and model rocketry courses meshed into one immersive, week-long summer program for elementary schoolers. The Summer 2016 Innovation Lab was offered in two sessions in June and August.