TGR Foundation’s professional learning workshops have been a revelation. Prior to attending the workshops, I heard about many of the concepts I’ve now adopted including student-centered instruction and project-based learning. What makes TGR Foundation’s teacher training program unique is that you experience the pedagogy from the perspective of both the teacher and the student.

It began with my initial glimpse of the TGR Learning Lab. A futuristic and modern facility, the entry heralds the promise of an exciting, eye-opening experience. Soaring glass windows and an open-air feeling pervades the space. Appropriately located next to a golf course, the TGR Learning Lab, Tiger Woods’ ode to STEM education, is both inviting and inspirational.

I attended my first educator training workshop in 2017, and I was blown away.

“Together” is a word that has been used frequently throughout the course of the pandemic. As TGR Foundation navigates life in a new season of change and uncertainty, the support from its community is essential to its ability to continue meeting the needs of students, families and educators.

TGR Foundation’s partnership with Aptive Environmental began in 2019 with their pledge to support the Earl Woods Scholar Program. Aptive recognized the academic accomplishments of two students in the Class of 2023 and provided financial support for their collegiate career.

As I look back on the 15 years since the TGR Learning Lab opened its doors to students and families in Anaheim, California, I am immensely proud of the hard work, growth and student success that has taken place. Thousands of underserved students have walked through our doors into a safe space that has given them opportunities they might not have had otherwise. The Learning Lab has helped students find their passion and pursue it, experience innovation and foster creativity all while being supported by caring adults to mentor and guide them on their journey.

As TGR Foundation celebrates National Volunteer Appreciation Week, the TGR Learning Lab shines a spotlight on TGR Learning Lab volunteer Nancy Rich Villa. Nancy’s experience as a volunteer with virtual STEM classes reconfirmed her decision to pursue a career supporting underserved youth.

A mother and a full-time student, Nancy will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology Science from the University of California, Irvine this June. She plans to attend graduate school at Cal State Fullerton to work toward a master’s degree in social work.

Here she shares her experience being a virtual volunteer with the TGR Learning Lab’s instructional staff and community of students during the pandemic.

I was born in a village in China and my only perception of the world used to be my village. It wasn’t until my parents decided to take a leap of faith and fly more than 1,500 miles to the United States so I could pursue the “American Dream” that my perception of the world expanded. Because my parents did not speak English, I had to navigate this foreign place on my own. I have been trying to pave my own path from the moment I landed in the United States, with both successes and failures.

I heard “you need to go to college to get a good job” my entire life. I was always told I needed to attend a school like UCLA or UC Berkeley because it was all my parents heard from other people. Though these school names became very familiar, I had absolutely no idea how to get there. Until my junior year of high school, I had no idea what the SAT, FAFSA, UC applications and even the Common Application was. As the first person in my family to apply for the FAFSA and fill out college applications, I was met with obstacles at every step. However, through a college-access program called College Match, I not only gained the tools and support to pursue higher education, I discovered the Earl Woods Scholar Program in the process.