RAFT Blog, News, and Events

Annual Fundraiser Recap: RAFT to the Future of STEAM Education

September 25, 2025

On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, RAFT hosted its annual fundraising event: RAFT to the Future. Over 130 supporters were present at RAFT, which was transformed into a beautiful space for the special event for the night. That evening, we honored the individuals and organizations that have made a profound impact on RAFT and the education…

STEAM Dream Summer Camp 2025: A Season of Innovation, Discovery, and Fun

August 19, 2025

This August marks the exciting wrap-up of RAFT’s 2025 STEAM Dream Summer Camp and DreamBox season-our biggest yet! Over the course of eight action-packed weeks, we delivered more than 180 hours of hands-on STEAM programming, engaging TK-8 students from across the Bay Area in engineering challenges, storytelling adventures, and STEAM experimentation. With programs running across…

🏆 RAFT Wins Double Gold in Bay Area Parent’s 2025 Best of the Best Awards!

July 29, 2025

RAFT is proud to announce that our STEAM Dream Summer Camp has been awarded Gold in two categories in Bay Area Parent Magazine’s 2025 Best of the Best Awards: 🥇 Best Day Camp – Silicon Valley 🥇 Best Science & Technology Camp – Silicon Valley This exciting recognition reflects the strength and impact of RAFT’s…

STEAM in Action: RAFT Joins Synaptics for Bring Your Kids to Work Day

July 25, 2025

RAFT kicked off July with a hands-on, minds-on celebration of innovation by partnering with Synaptics for their Bring Your Kids to Work Day at the company’s San Jose campus. Synaptics employees brought their children to learn more about what their parents do and how STEM and STEAM skills power the technology all around us. RAFT…

2022 RAFT Awards

Nov 25, 2022 | Comments Off

GreatNonprofits 2022 Top-Rated Award RAFT once again made it to GreatNonprofits‘ Top-Rated List. The Top-Rated Award is a people’s choice award where volunteers, donors, supporters,and community members share stories about their experiences with a nonprofit and rates the organization out of 5 stars. Maintaining…

AmazonSmile: Shop and Support!

Nov 17, 2022 | Comments Off

Help support RAFT by shopping on Amazon! AmazonSmile allows you to support your favorite charity every time you shop. You’ll find the exact selection of items, prices, and services with the added benefit that Amazon will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the…

Subscribe, Save, STEAM!

Nov 11, 2022 | Comments Off

Get regular access to affordable, sustainable, and quality STEAM kits and learning activities through RAFT’s STEAM Subscription Kits! This subscription service was launched in 2021 as a way for us to share our dedication to making STEAM learning more accessible and engaging. Individual Subscription…

RAFT – Found Engineering

Nov 3, 2022 | Comments Off

At RAFT we strongly believe that hands-on learning is crucial to a student’s development and learning. Students who are more physically engaged in the learning experience tend to have a deeper understanding with higher engagement and improved outcomes. Hands-on activities require materials that can…

Arista Funds RAFT Makerspace Build at Local Elementary School

Oct 20, 2022 | Comments Off

With its goal to provide educators with STEAM learning resources, Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), a non-profit organization founded in 1994, organized a makerspace build for the Kathryn Hughes Elementary School in Santa Clara. RAFT believes that makerspaces are a great way to encourage…

RAFT Participates in Viva EscuelaSJ

Oct 12, 2022 | Comments Off

October is International Walk to School month! The CDC recommends that children ages 3 through 5 years need to be active throughout the day, while children and adolescents ages 6 through 17 need to be active for 60 minutes every day (see here for…