Student-founded. Student-run. Open to all.
Soaring Seeds
Through our nonprofit STEM community, I help young people find the guidance, teammates, and opportunities to grow.
The community / Why we began
Our name, Soaring Seeds, expresses a simple hope: ordinary young people can grow toward the light and find the confidence to go further.
Soaring Seeds began in July 2021 as a nonprofit STEM platform initiated and operated by students. Through this community, I work with fellow students to address gaps in access to innovation resources, competition information, hands-on academic work, and a structured path into mathematical research.
We keep our programs free and open to young people regardless of prior experience or access to resources. Through peer guidance, we connect first explorations with practical projects, innovation competitions, and deeper research.
01 / Conrad Challenge / Innovation & entrepreneurship
We make an ambitious competition approachable by helping members learn from older peers, practice the process, find a team, and develop a project through successive rounds of feedback.
We invite senior students to share what entering the Conrad Challenge actually involves: the rules, choosing an innovation topic, developing a business model, planning social impact, and preparing a clear defense.
By breaking down the judging criteria and the work behind an entry, we help younger students see where to begin. We want experience that once belonged to a small circle to become a resource our wider community can use.
Our internal simulation follows the competition journey from proposing an idea to refining a solution, modeling a business, presenting a pitch, and reviewing feedback. Beginners can experience that sequence before entering a high-level competition.
In our entrepreneurship workshops, we give students space to test an idea with teammates and explain it to an audience. Through rehearsal and critique, we make the next version more considered and the real event less unfamiliar.
We matched members by their strengths and research interests to form two competition teams. Both began as first-time participants, developing their own topics and working through project design, implementation plans, and business models.
We followed team formation with planning meetings, prototype work, and presentation rehearsals. Through the club, we gave members a structure for learning together as their projects developed.
Both of our club teams advanced through successive reviews to the Conrad Challenge China national finals. We had begun as two groups of first-time participants; now we could present our independent projects on the same national platform.
With my teammates on Team Soaring Seeds, I presented our water-purification project. We won first place in The Water Challenge and advanced to the global finals. Our entry connected an engineering response to a real community need with a proposed sustainable business model.
At the global finals, we presented our project’s technical design, social value, business model, and plans for implementation to an international audience.
We earned Conrad Challenge Global Champion recognition, and I received the Pete Conrad Scholar distinction in The Water Challenge. This journey showed me where shared information, sustained practice, and collaboration could lead—and what that experience could offer our club.
Following our national win, we received an invitation through the competition to join an entrepreneurship study and exchange program in Boston. At Greentown Labs, we visited an innovation incubator and explored how technical ideas can move toward sustainable ventures.
Through these visits and conversations, I connected our competition experience with research and entrepreneurship beyond school. Our path had taken us from an initial idea through development, business planning, national and global recognition, and international learning.
02 / Mathematical modeling / A free academic pathway
We see a gap in access to strong introductory modeling courses, research guidance, and international competition preparation. Many students learn to solve exam questions without the opportunity to develop modeling skills, investigate data, or produce and communicate original research.
We open up that path through a fully free, connected learning program: student-designed courses, beginner-friendly introductions, original research projects, hands-on camps, and international competition experience.
As a club, we independently develop a structured introduction to mathematical modeling for students with no prior experience. We start with real-life questions, teaching modeling, the logic of data analysis, and quantitative research methods beyond exam-based problem solving.
We prepare the lessons ourselves and continually refine the curriculum. By offering every course free of charge, we give young people with limited access to academic resources a first opportunity to explore mathematical research.
Building on our introductory courses, we guide participants as they develop small, original modeling projects. They practice collecting data, building models, analyzing variables, and visualizing their findings as parts of one research process.
We help students explain both their methods and their conclusions through academic reports and consistent formatting. With guided project work, we bridge the gap between understanding a concept and carrying out a study of their own.
We bring selected participants from our free camps into 10 dedicated teams for the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM). Our pathway supports students who began with no modeling experience as they move from their first lessons into an international competition.
In focused workshops, we help teams develop academic formatting, data visualization, English research-paper writing, and the ability to present and defend a project. We provide sustained guidance as every team takes its work to the international stage, making advanced academic opportunities accessible to students with fewer resources.
03 / Growth camps / Reflection, connection & well-being
Even the smallest seed has the strength to grow. At our growth camp, we reflect on our progress, share what we have learned, and support one another. I value the way one person’s efforts, questions, and discoveries can help our whole community grow.
At our annual personal-growth sharing gathering, we invite every member to take the stage and look back on their year. We set no entry requirements or prescribed topics: honest experience matters more than a polished speech.
We take turns sharing and listening. By responding to one another’s questions and experiences, we turn individual lessons into shared knowledge and discover different ways to take our next steps.
Member voices
Different stories. Shared growth.
Moments from our annual sharing gathering · Select a portrait to view the full photograph.
In small themed workshops, we discuss our academic plans, choose competitions, turn projects into action, and explore opportunities for community engagement.
We bring questions, exchange information, and brainstorm in groups. Through these informal conversations, we build a learning community where asking for help and sharing a useful idea are part of everyday club life.
I also value the growth that happens away from a desk. On regular club cycling outings, we head outside to move, unwind, and spend time side by side.
Riding together gives us a break from academic pressure and a chance to strengthen our friendships. Along the way, we practice persistence, self-discipline, and cooperation, making physical and emotional well-being part of growing together.
Through our growth camp, we bring reflection, shared experience, thoughtful conversation, well-being, and team connection into one community. Sharing helps us make sense of our progress and find encouragement in one another’s company.
Our hope is simple: everyone can draw strength from the group, put down roots, and keep growing toward the light.
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