Welcome to a series where we explore the various branches of Robin’s Nest in order to share some of the opportunities we offer! Today we’ll be talking about our Competition Branch.
The Robin’s Nest Competition Branch is a partnership with Lubbock STEM Club, and co-managed by Austin Chen and Helene Deng. A sophomore and a senior at Lubbock High School, respectively, its student tutors have worked hard to give students throughout the Lubbock community the chance to compete in various STEM competitions, such as MATHCOUNTS, American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME).
“[The creation of the Lubbock STEM Club] was sparked by Bill Tang and I not having the opportunity to compete in MATHCOUNTS when we were in middle school and us wanting to give the opportunity to other students,” Austin says, referring to the unique program, which in its founding year allowed for students at JT Hutchinson Middle School to participate in the nationwide middle school competition. “Last year, we also competed as an official MATHCOUNTS team with Hutch and we won first in Chapter,” he adds. This win allowed them to qualify for the competition on the state level.
This organization would eventually grow and become Lubbock STEM Club as coaching expanded to incorporate additional STEM-based competitions, including most math and science UIL competitions, as well as an introduction to Chemistry Olympiad. Eventually, the club merged with Robin’s Nest in order to “better reach out to local students and volunteers and generally improve the structure and services of the organization as a whole.” he says.
Even during the pandemic, Lubbock STEM Club worked hard to help its students succeed in the numerous STEM competitions that its coaching offers. They have provided many online resources, such as having Google Classrooms for each class and having a Youtube channel for posting recordings of meetings.
Signing up for this great service is very easy, with students only needing to join the Google Classroom for their respective class in order to participate. These codes can be found on the resources page on their website. They also have a Discord server that can be found on their website, along with other information.
If you’re interested in being a tutor for the competition branch, all you have to do is email them at lubbockstemclub@gmail.com to be sent an application.
When asked about their plans for 2021 and beyond Helene says they hope to “refine our coaching methods by introducing new ways of teaching” and “reach out to more communities.”
Regarding their long term goals, Helene says “We look forward to working hard to serve our community.”
This article was written by Ruby Barenberg. Ruby is a current sophomore at Lubbock High School where, outside of volunteering for Robin’s Nest Tutoring, she participates in academic decathlon, math and science UIL, and Model UN. She also runs a book blog.
This article was edited by Helen Xie. Helen is currently a sophomore at Lubbock High School and is involved in many extracurriculars in addition to volunteer work, including Model UN and Robotics.
Robin's Nest Tutoring 