The Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) initiated the yearly SPLASH conference in 1957. It is an academic outreach program that invites high school students to attend classes/workshops taught by undergraduates, graduates, alumni, staff/faculty, and local community members. Typically, there is a fee associated with this two to three day event during which students are exposed to experiences designed to empower them to discover what they love, determine new potential careers, and expand their leadership skills.
Last year (2016-2017), UC Merced hosted the first annual SPLASH conference and served approximately 250 high school students. UC Merced is the first college in the Central Valley to host this conference. As a student run non-profit organization, we decided to make our SPLASH conference free of charge to accommodate Central Valley families who wanted to attend the event. Our organization was able to provide T-shirts, bags, folders, and lunch for all the attendees including: high school students, volunteers, workshop teachers, and community members. We obtained the funds to support this effort from UC Merced student government, CalTeach, Admissions, various fundraisers, and private donors. During the first SPLASH conference, I taught 3 workshops on Personal Statement/Scholarships and that was how I got connected to the organization, Generation to Generation.
As an alternative to solely focusing on empowering high school students to further pursue their education, we wanted SPLASH to be the day where UC Merced and local communities unite to establish relationships. Community members as well as various clubs and organizations were invited to our event where we also had performers and clubs/organizations (from on and off campus) participate. Since UC Merced is a newer university and currently has limited dorm space, we decided that making it a one day conference would better suit the attendees. The conference in 2016-2017 was a success and won Best Program of the Year!
This year, I became the head coordinator for the 2nd Annual SPLASH conference which was held on March 3rd. We expected 500 high school students; however, due to the storm warning many students called to cancel and approximately 200 high school students were able to attend the event. Similar to last year, we were able to provide all the materials to the high school students at no cost to them. Although the weather affected a few of our locations and many of our attendees, the conference went smoothly and the students seemed to enjoy their experience. There were pros and cons, but it was a great learning experience for me since this was the first time that I coordinated a large scale event. Personally, I believe that this conference has given me many skills and I will use these abilities to improve myself in the future.
Ya Yang
