Chinatown’s Catholic school, one which serves students from all over Philadelphia, is giving young people new technology and teaching tools to help empower them toward their future careers and vocations.
Holy Redeemer School, on 915 Vine Street in Center City Philadelphia, has unveiled its new STEM Lab with technology used on everything from space stations to an archdiocesan robotics competition.
“A lot of our students are not just from the Chinatown area, they’re from Northeast and North Philly. If they had gone to their local schools, they wouldn’t have these opportunities,” said Susan Pui Shan Chan, the school’s principal who began her tenure last summer. “This is a game changer for them.”
The lab includes plentiful space for more than two dozen students to do STEM and technology arts work at one time, utilizing everything from laser engravers to 3D printers and a robotics station.
“They actually used the 3D printer to print a metal part for the International Space Station, Chan said. “This technology that was developed for the military, for NASA, all these like big corporations has been offered to us. We benefit from utilizing these technologies.
“We recently partnered with the Foundation for Catholic Education which provides free Marty robots and cobots to the schools, teaching kids how to do coding.”
The robot and cobot technology will allow students to take part in activities like the annual archdiocese-wide STREAM Expo, held earlier this year at Cardinal O’Hara High School.
The arts programs will also be able to use the technology, with the ability to make props and costumes for their theater productions.
STEM lab planners particularly focused on making sure technology could be accessible to even the youngest students in the school with proper adult leadership in the room.
“It’s not just teaching the higher grades, but a curriculum for K-through-eight. We’ll start this in December for the kindergartners, and as they move up to grades, they know how to do block coding,” Chan said.
“Who is to say that we need to limit their ability to do anything? Even though it may be a cliche in some ways, they can do anything they put their mind to. As long as there’s an adult or somebody that’s supportive of them, the sky is the limit.”
The tools at these students’ disposal will help them gain experience in real-life applications and collaboration, giving them a leg up in interpersonal and soft skills as well.
“Education is not just about learning about math or English. Those things are important, but I look at education more as being able to have conversations with people in everyday life,” said Chan.
“How can you relate this, use it (in) your real life? Adults in this world are able to relate that technology to what is being used in our everyday life.”
Chan had concerns that the STEM lab would not open until 2026, but the fundraising efforts of Capuchin Franciscan Father Thomas Betz, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Center City, finished the fundraising phase and took that burden off her shoulders.
“The credit goes to Father Tom, all the donors, everybody that believes in this vision,” Chan said.
“I thought I was going to have to do really tough fundraising this year, but Father Tom made it happen. The fact that he was able to pull this off, and the fact that the contractor was able to do this in six short weeks, I’m really grateful.”
One of Chan’s goals involves making the program accessible to far more than just the students at Holy Redeemer, but the entire Chinatown community and beyond, particularly for people of color in Philadelphia.
She aims to build a community-centered program of access to the lab on Saturdays, though it will initially be just for Holy Redeemer students.
“Education should be open to everyone,” she said. “It should always be equitable. It should never be the haves and the have nots. I see this as an opportunity not just for my students, and that’s why I want this to open up to the rest of the community.”
Chan sees a Catholic school’s STEM center as a location where young people can add to the equation an “e” for experience, “a” for arts, and “r” for religion (STREAM), to help them understand God’s will for their own individual journey.
“God in some ways is guiding them to ask if engineering is or isn’t exactly their thing, or if art is, or if designing is,” Chan said.
“We don’t realize that right at that moment, and we might not realize it in like 10, 15 years from now, but that experience at Holy Redeemer really might pivot what they’re called to do. That’s what I want the students to have here.”
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