After traveling to Kenya last year as members of the Millburn High School robotics program, juniors Ayden Dai and Karson Jiang returned this August, joined by fellow junior Derek Zhang and senior Roger Zhu. Together, the four took on leadership roles through TEEEM (The Empathy Equality Entrepreneurship Mission) and the GRACE Initiative, working with Kenyan students and educators. 

They arrived with robotics kits, lesson plans, and plenty of technical knowledge. They left with a different perspective on education, communication, culture and the power of simply giving someone an opportunity. 

Cracking the Code

For Dai, robotics has been part of his life since third grade. Now captain of his high school team, he has experienced firsthand how much the discipline can teach beyond engineering. “What I love about robotics is that it brings so many different areas of learning together,” he says. “You get teamwork, communication, and strategy, but you also use concepts from subjects like physics and math while actually getting to use your hands and see a product you made.” 

The partnership introduced the students to Kenya’s efforts to expand access to quality education and gave them an opportunity to bring robotics to students. And the goal was to teach them how to think. “When we partnered with TEEEM, we saw an opportunity to introduce students to robotics at an earlier age, exposing them to problem-solving skills and the engineering process,” Dai says. 

Jiang was surprised by how hands-on learning could be in Kenya. To demonstrate why precise instructions matter in coding, “One student guided their blindfolded partner through a task, which forced them to make the instructions extremely precise,” Jiang says. “In my opinion, learning this way through firsthand experience is much more effective than just listening to a lecture.” 

Learning to Lead

For Zhang, teaching meant communicating with students, teachers, and school officials, often people he had just met. With technical knowledge alone not enough, he had to figure out how to make complicated concepts understandable to people with different backgrounds and levels of experience. “I had to introduce myself confidently to staff and officials I’d just met, then immediately shift into explaining robotic concepts in a way that was clear and easy for the kids to understand,” he says. 

That meant simplifying his language, reading the room, and changing his approach when something wasn’t landing. “I used more hands-on demonstrations and step-by-step instructions and checked in with students and teachers more often to make sure everyone was on the same page,” Zhang shares. “Overall, this experience has made me a more adaptable communicator.” 

He also remembers the deep respect shown toward teachers and elders, the constant greetings and the strong sense of community woven into everyday interactions. “The greetings and respect of teachers and elders, and the rhythmic exchange really emphasized a sense of community that I hadn’t really experienced consistently back in the States,” he says. 

For Zhu, the most powerful moments came during home visits. Seeing where some students lived and understanding the challenges their families faced put the entire experience into sharper focus. Some students were being raised by grandparents or had limited contact with their parents. Some families could afford to send only one child to the Greater GRACE Academic Center. “It made me realize just how important the scholarships offered by the school and STEM education were to the people of Kenya,” he says. 

Built to Last

Long-term impact is central to TEEEM’s approach. Rather than creating a program that depends on American students returning year after year, the organization is working with the GRACE Initiative and CEMASTEA (The Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa) to train Kenyan educators who can continue teaching robotics and coding themselves. The MHS students helped launch the robotics initiative during the 2025 to 2026 school year. Since then, they have helped recruit students from five additional New Jersey schools, each partnered with a school in Kisii, Kenya. 

The program is also expanding its focus to coding, using VEX’s block-based platform to make programming more accessible while connecting coding directly to autonomous robotics. Students can experiment, see what happens, and revise their work. For TEEEM, the students are peer leaders, mentors, and collaborators. The Kenyan educators remain essential to the program’s future, bringing local knowledge and ensuring the lessons continue after the American students leave. 

Moments That Matter

As the trip concluded, five schools competed in a robotics competition, the first STEM competition of its kind for those schools. Zhangs says, “Watching students who had only recently been introduced to robotics confidently demonstrate what they’d built and show off the skills they’d learned was incredibly inspiring and powerful.” For Zhu, “I went expecting to teach robotics and came home having learned more about Kenyan culture, classrooms, and community than I taught.” 

For the students who had arrived only recently knowing little about robotics, the competition represented something bigger than winning. “They made the impact of the trip feel real and lasting,” Zhang says. “Not just something that ended when I left. But hopefully the start of something that continues to grow in Kenya.” 

Dai hopes that is what people take away from their story. “We brought robotics to Kenya thinking we were going there to teach, but we also saw how quickly students could take an unfamiliar idea and make it their own when they were just given the opportunity.”

Photograph courtesy of Millburn High School robotics program