Sandia’s Student Intern Programs and Community Involvement collaborated on a day of service and fun in Berkeley, California, on June 15.

One of Community Involvement’s core partners, Scientific Adventures for Girls, hosted their year-end STEAMstravaganza festival, facilitating learning opportunities for underprivileged elementary-aged students.

Seven Sandia interns and three full-time workforce members donated their time to serve more than 300 attendees from 23 different schools in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond and Emeryville. The attendees explored the complexities of buoyancy, extracting DNA, volumetric estimating, and more.

Graduate intern Sid Sabhnani, who has prior experience as a teaching assistant at the University of Texas at Austin and was a lead volunteer at Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, explained that “these events and activities reward curiosity and encourage creative thinking for young students to apply throughout their life.”

Sid facilitated an activity where kids guessed how many items were in a container. He was able to show STEAMstravaganza attendees how to estimate the number of items.

Following the volunteer event, University of California, Berkeley, student and Sandia intern Sanjana Goyal led a handful of interns on a campus tour. The group learned about the deep-rooted history of the university and went to the top of the Campanile, the third tallest free-standing bell-and-clock tower in the world. The 307-foot tower offered those on the tour views of the campus plus the cities of Berkeley and Oakland.

“The opportunity for Sandia interns to connect with one another, the Labs’ culture of giving and getting acquainted with other employees added to a great day of volunteering,” Sandia Community Relations Specialist Michelle Walker-Wade said. “Now when we see one another on-site, our friendly smiles and ‘hellos’ have more meaning.”