Middle School student from Westford teaches a free robotics camp and raises $1061 for charity

Shriyans Sapkal, a 13 year old student from Westford, MA conducted a free Lego Robotics camp in his basement to raise funds for charity ‘Bighelp for Education’. Shriyans did not charge any fee for the class and asked for voluntary donation for Bighelp and successfully raised $1061. He wants to support education of about 8 students in underprivileged rural areas of India. President of Bighelp, Mr. Chand Pasha attended the graduation ceremony and camp students demonstrated the work they learnt during the camp. Shriyans handed over the collected donation check for $1061 to Mr. Chand Pasha during the ceremony. 100 percent of the money collected through camp was donated to Bighelp.

Shriyans is a rising 8th grader from Westford, MA. Shriyans has been doing robotics for last four years and an active member of SmartGears Robotics Club. He participated in various robotics competitions. He wanted to to utilize his free time in summer and decided to ass on his knowledge. So he spent more than 2 weeks to prepare the content for the robotics camp. He prepared the flyers and posted it in various places. He was able to get 17 students registered. Seventeen students ranging from 4th to 8th grade attended the camp. Shriyans taught them Lego Technics, Gears, Lego Robot building and EV3 programming. He had a lot of fun teaching the students. He plans to continue teaching robotics and mentor rookie teams taking part in robotics competitions. Shriyans is very grateful to his friends, Ankit Nkhava, Tanay Gada and Aditya Bains, who volunteered during the camp.

Shriyans has been participating and volunteering in Bighelp events for last 8 years. He picked up Bighelp charity to support as he feels connected to Bighelp charity and they are doing  great work. Bighelp For Education is a nonprofit organization dedicated for uplifting the underprivileged children in India through education. It supports education of about 1000 students in underprivileged rural areas of India. It also adopts government schools to provide basic facilities like drinking water, sports equipment, lab equipment, teaching/learning material, school building infrastructure, additional teachers, restrooms (toilets), uniforms or books to the students.

Shriyans decided to have graduation ceremony for his robotics camp and invited Bighelp president Mr. Chand Pasha to attend and see what kids have learnt. Mr. Chand was very excited to see the lego gear assembly, lego robot built by students during the camp. Kids even explained how the EV3 program works and demonstrated robots to complete various challenges. Naavya Vora, who attended the camp said that she really liked how Shriyans taught her about various gears and gave everyone chance to build lego models to see working gears in motion. Irith Midha said that he really liked how Shriyans gave them challenges for robot to complete and they had to write EV3 programs to complete those challenges.

During his speech Mr. Chand Pasha addressed the kids and said that the underline is it has to be about fun and learning. Shriyans made this camp all about fun and learning add added charity to it which is great. Mr. chand said that It is a great thing about the kids like Shriyans that they are not only teaching but also learning at the same time leadership skills. He was impressed with how Shriyans made flyers and advertised and enrolled kids. Mr. Chand urged all the kids “This is what everybody should be doing. Going forward when you grow up to be a teenager you should all be doing the same thing like Shriyans and learn and demonstrate leadership skills. It helps you more than anyone else.” 

Mr Chand thanked Shriyans and said “it is going to be with you for a very long time. When you reflect what you have done, you will remember it as a great experience what you have done to combine fun, learning and charity”

Shriyans said that only about $11 per month and $132 per year can sponsor one child’s education in underprivileged rural parts of India to provide student with tution,food, books, school supplies, uniforms, bags and shoes. Shriyans felt very happy that he was able to raise $1061 which can sponsor about 8 students for a year.  He thanked all the students and parents for their support and generous donations for a great cause. Shriyans made an appeal to all readers to help a great cause and donate  funds to Bighelp at http://www.bighelp.org/bhp/site/donatenow .

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