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The Caltech Y Rise Tutoring Program received a two-year grant from the Medtronic Foundation as it expands equity-based science, technology, engineering, and science (STEM) partnerships to reach over 30,000 students in new locations. The Medtronic Foundation launched 10 partnerships with leading equity-based STEM organizations serving students in Southern California, Colorado, and Ireland, among them the Caltech Y Rise Tutoring Program. Partnerships will remove barriers to quality STEM education and create opportunity for economic advancement. The partnership with the Medtronic Foundation will enable the Caltech Y to strengthen and extend its STEM pipeline. With additional support, the Caltech Y will open its summer 2023 programming to elementary school students and enhance data collection to better track academic performance. The Caltech Y will also increase efforts to help current Rise students transition from high school to college by funding more scholarships and forging a partnership with Pasadena City College. "The Caltech Y founded the Rise Program in 2006, driven by the belief that any student could excel in STEM if given the opportunity, and we found great partners in the Pasadena community, including Caltech, PUSD, and parents, who shared that vision,” said Athena Castro, the executive director of the Caltech Y. “We are grateful for the Medtronic Foundation’s generosity and look forward to helping even more underrepresented students become tomorrow’s engineers and scientists.” Medtronic plc is the sole funder of the Medtronic Foundation, whose focus is on improving lives for underserved populations worldwide, as well as supporting communities in which Medtronic employees live and give. For more information, please visit medtronicfoundation.org. We are excited to partner with the Medtronic Foundation to strengthen and expand the Rise Program!

The summer and early fall was well spent at the Caltech Y. Some of the students' most cherished programs came back after a long hiatus due to COVID, and we established some new partnerships, giving the students fresh opportunities to connect with the community. On July 11th, three Caltech students helped approx 50 local youth become engineers for a day at the Day One - SKILLZ Workshop Summer Camp. There, they organized a lunch workshop where students designed boats made from modeling clay. A fun day soaking in the sunshine was spent on the Trippet Ranch Day Hike in Topanga State Park. The hike was led by four Caltech students who coordinated travel and arrangements for visiting and local SURF/WAVE students. On September 30th, The Caltech Y and SURF office cosponsored a mini Farmer's Market for summer students on the Caltech Y front lawn. Over 100 students stopped by to pick up healthy food. A special thank you to the Caltech Employee's Federal Credit Union for their awesome donation of bags and water bottles for the event. All summer, groups of students participated in the Union Station Adopt-a-Meal Program, one of the first programs to return in person. They volunteered at both the local Family and Adult Centers to provide home-cooked meals for shelter residents. All graduate and undergraduate student volunteers coordinated, shopped, cooked, and served meals for the centers. This year, we also saw the return of the annual Y-Hike, the first since the beginning of the pandemic! The group of new and returning students headed to Sequoia National Park, where they hiked and saw "The General Sherman", the largest tree in the world. Upon their return to LA after camping and hiking, the group went kayaking in Long Beach. From the mountains to the beach to Caltech!

Welcome to Caltech! I am Albert, a rising senior in Chemical Engineering from Avery House, and President of the Caltech Y Student Executive Committee (ExComm). The Caltech Y is a campus non-profit run by students and staff to connect undergraduates and graduates with opportunities in the community both on-campus and beyond. We are here to enrich your student experience and support your growth as an engaged citizen of the world. The Y offers many opportunities to explore the greater L.A. area and meet other people on campus through trips to local attractions, service and cultural travel abroad, volunteering at local schools, civic and political talks and screenings, cultural and social events, hikes near campus, camping trips to national parks, and much more… all organized by Caltech students for Caltech students! We also offer a wide range of low-cost equipment rentals to Caltech community members, including outdoor gear and AV equipment if you are interested in hosting your own events. Check out the Y website, or talk to any student on the Y ExComm to learn more about our organization and the opportunities we offer. If you are interested in going beyond participation and helping organize and lead programs, feel free to check out and join the ExComm, or one of our other leadership groups. Everyone on campus is welcome to join! Please reach out to me (at akyi@caltech.edu) or any of our ExComm members if you want to learn more about what we do at the Y. As part of our email list, you will get information on our tickets, events, projects, and trips. We hope to see you out there, maybe even on the Y-Hike (details above)! Caltech Y Leadership Opportunities Most students are involved with the Caltech Y as participants, but for those also interested in helping to choose, organize and lead Caltech Y programs, projects, or trips that opportunity exists. Check-out some of our opportunities for leadership: Y-Outdoors Planning Team Contact caltechy@caltech.edu for more information. Y-Outdoors is looking for outdoor enthusiasts, from novice to experienced leaders, interested in helping others explore the great outdoors. They meet are every other week to organize hiking, camping, and other adventure outings; talks focused on adventure venues, skills, and resources, and to help select equipment for students to use on their own adventures. Student Activism Speaker Series (SASS) Committee Contact caltechy@caltech.edu for more information. The SASS Committee organizes speaker events focused on policy and world issues, as well as science and global policy trips to Geneva, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC. No experience is needed – just a desire to promote awareness and engaged citizenship. The SASS Committee meets briefly each week to discuss possible speakers and topics, work on invitations and advertising, and organize event logistics. Service Leadership Opportunities Contact caltechy@caltech.edu for more information. Students through the Caltech Y coordinate a variety of service projects, on-going as well as one-time efforts, including serving meals at our local homeless shelter, doing science demos for local afterschool programs, reading to kids, and tutoring local middle and high school students throughout the year as a part of our Rise tutoring program. Let us know if you are interested in helping to coordinate projects or tutor for Rise. Student Executive Committee (ExComm) Contact caltechy@caltech.edu for more information. The Student Executive Committee (ExComm) oversees all Caltech Y programs - organizing activities as well as providing funding for the other leadership groups above. The ExComm meets weekly over lunch to discuss ideas and plan trips and programs that are primarily social and service orientated. It is open to any interested students. The Caltech Y is an independent, student-driven, non-profit organization affiliated with Caltech, that was founded in 1916, as a student chapter of the YMCA, to provide programs planned by, and for, students… and to promote leadership development and self-discovery. While the Caltech Y has added a staff and board of directors, the spirit of our founding remains – student-driven opportunities that enrich student life and challenge students to be engaged citizens of the world.

We are pleased to present the Caltech Y 2020-21 Annual Report to you. Dear Friends, I am proud to share the 2020–21 Caltech Y Annual Report with you. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed publishing this important report, but I hope you will agree it was worth the wait! Looking through the pages, I am filled with pride and admiration for all the Caltech Y accomplished during the pandemic, and grateful to the prudent donors, community organizations, and Caltech clubs who continued to support our mission. Inside the report, you will also find a special note from senior Jen Yu, who reflects on the impact the Caltech Y had on her life. In 2020–21, while the pandemic was still impacting all, we hosted nearly 50 virtual and in-person events and volunteer opportunities for students. The Caltech Y staff and I ensured each program embodied at least one Caltech Y pillar—leadership, service, civic engagement, adventure, and perspective. Today, the world is in a different place with COVID. Caltech Y students have just returned from their Yosemite camping trip. For the first time in two years, Caltech undergraduate and graduate students got a chance to breathe deeply and explore Yosemite’s beauty, enhance their friendships, and start a new demanding school year bolstered and empowered. We will be with them through another year filled with research, learning, and self-discovery. While the health and safety of our students and friends remain our top priority, I am thrilled to offer more in-person events this school year. We ask you to stay involved with the Caltech Y in ways that work for you—read our newsletters, make a financial donation, attend a speaker series, tell your friends about us, become a Friend of the Caltech Y. As you know, the Friends of the Caltech Y provide essential financial support for all Y activities. Friends of the Caltech Y are invited to private special events during the year as a thank you for their invaluable support. Please see page 16 of our annual report for ways to donate or become a Friend of the Caltech Y. Enjoy the annual! (You can check out the pdf of the print version of our annual here.) With much gratitude, Athena Castro Executive Director Caltech Y

I have a vivid memory of me as a frustrated middle school student spending an evening at the kitchen table working on those classic word problems – “Andrew is able to kayak 6 miles per hour in still water. If the wind is blowing upstream at 2 miles per hour and the river’s current is …” But this memory wouldn’t be complete without my mom and dad sitting patiently with me, drawing picture after picture of rivers, stick figures in boats, and arrows everywhere. I am so grateful that I had someone encouraging me to work hard and persevere through a challenge. Now, I love that I can be that person to the students at Hathaway Sycamores, whether I’m tutoring fifth-graders in those exact math problems or helping a high school student with biology. The students are now eager to joke around with me, boast of a good grade, or inform me that they absolutely need me to come the following week to help them study for a big test. I have been tutoring through Caltech Y’s partnership with Hathaway Sycamores since the fall of 2017. In those early days, I would walk into the Learning Lab with another tutor who had been volunteering at Hathaway for years. The students would greet the other tutor with such joy and familiarity, whereas they were reluctant to work with me and hesitant to trust my help. However, one evening, after many months of consistently coming to the Learning Lab, I realized that the students were welcoming me that same excitement and enthusiastically clamoring for my attention. The students are now eager to joke around with me, boast of a good grade, or inform me that they absolutely need me to come the following week to help them study for a big test. As the students and I work together, sometimes they will ask about my job as an engineering grad student. I try to emphasize the importance of their high school math and science classes in everyday life and in their future careers. To encourage their interest, the Caltech Y, Hathaway Sycamores, and I worked together to organize the students’ visit to Caltech, including a campus tour, lab tours, and a visit to the Mechanical Engineering machine shop. I hope that I have been able to make a lasting impact on the students by helping them build confidence in themselves and their work, because in return, they challenge me to be the very best role model possible and keep my joy of teaching alive.

(1926 – 2011) Ingrid, you were a very special person to many international students and faculty who passed through the International Desk office, giving advice, being a confidant and friend understanding special needs and interests challenging foreign scholars having immigrated to the United States yourself. A personal thank you, Ingrid, for your continuing support of international students,scholars and their spouses at Caltech. Though not a student, I benefitted from your work at the International Desk by receiving a phone call after I arrived from Sweden in the mid 1950s. You invited me to join the InterNations Association (INA), an organization at Caltech in need of girls for programs and social activities at the then all-male university. INA met on Tuesdays for “tea” at the Greasy Spoon. Through the INA, I made lifelong friends and had opportunities to explore with this great group of students on trips from the desert to the sea, and in between. I met a “foreign” student from the Territory of Hawaii, Rolf (my husband to be), at one of the many INA dances. Dr. and Mrs. DuBridge were strong supporters, and their home was open to many of our functions. Talking about support, you invited me to live with you and your husband, Bengt, instead of going back to Sweden after I had been here about half a year. I am still here and calling California my home. During the first dinner at your house, I discovered my parents and Bengt’s parents knew each other quite well and Bengt had met my parents!!! You both encouraged me to struggle with typing lessons at PCC in the evening and do odd jobs during the day until I could pass the test required by Caltech to work in the General Library, then located in Bridge. Later in my life, I worked in the Caltech Environmental Engineering Library. The Swedish Women’s Educational Association (SWEA) has just had their annual Christmas Festival, and I met quite a few people who purchased some of your personal belongings, which Dr. Piko arranged to have donated to SWEA. They were very excited about the items they had bought and appreciated to know a little bit about you, so I can say everything is in good hands. . . . The Caltech Y is deeply grateful to be the recipient of your gift and will strive to honor your memory for many years to come for the purpose it was intended. My memory of you will always be with me as well, and I appreciate our friendship and the important part you played in my life.

The Caltech Y Presents "Finding the Right Words: A Memoir about Alzheimer’s, Literature, and Neurology" Prof. Cindy Weinstein Eli and Edythe Broad Professor of American Literature at the California Institute of Technology & Dr. Bruce Miller A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor in Neurology Director, Memory and Aging Center Co-Director, Global Brain Health Institute at UC San Francisco Tuesday, June 22, 2021 5:00pm - 6:00 PT Webinar is Free but Registration is Required There will be an opportunity drawing for a signed copy of the book for those who sign up for the webinar by June 18th and are in attendance during the webinar. Please contact us at caltechy@caltech.edu if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing all of you! REGISTER HERE Join us as Prof. Cindy Weinstein and Dr. Bruce Miller discuss writing a memoir that combines literature and neurology in order to tell the story of Cindy’s father’s early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. The book guides readers through the emotions and grief that many families experience, while giving them knowledge about dementia that they need to care for their loved ones. Prof. Cindy Weinstein is the Eli and Edythe Broad Professor of American Literature at the California Institute of Technology. In addition to writing Finding the Right Words: A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain (forthcoming Johns Hopkins University Press, September 2021) with Dr. Bruce Miller, she has written three monographs and edited four volumes on American literature. She teaches courses in women’s fiction, Black literature, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe. She is currently Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer. Dr. Bruce Miller holds the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professorship in Neurology at UC San Francisco where he directs the Memory and Aging Center. As a behavioral neurologist whose work emphasizes brain-behavior relationships, he has reported on the emergence of artistic ability, personality, cognition, and emotion with the onset of neurodegenerative disease. He is the principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and program project on frontotemporal dementia. Additionally, he helps lead the Tau Consortium, the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia, and the Global Brain Health Institute. He was awarded the Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology and elected to the National Academy of Medicine. ***The Caltech Y is an independent, student-driven non-profit that relies on contributions from individuals and organizations. Please consider joining the Caltech Y family and become a Friend of the Y. *** SUPPORT US This webinar is free, but please register to guarantee your spot. Once registered, the Zoom link will be sent a few days before the event.

It is our pleasure to announce the 2020 graduates who have served on the Caltech Y Executive Committee: Sunny Cui, Hazel Dilmore, Helena Wu, Evan Yeh, Noelle Davis, and Michelle Zhao. Thank you for your hard work and commitment to the Y during your time at Caltech. You have made a world of difference in our community, and we are confident that you will keep doing so in the future. Below is a video honoring all of our senior Y Executive Committee students from the Class of 2020. Enjoy!

Remote Learning: Lessons Learned and Opportunities for the Future Thursday, October 29th, 2020 | 5pm - 6pm PST Educational institutions around the world shifted quickly to online classes in response to COVID-19. Caltech and other schools reimagined learning as they adopted new digital tools and tailored their curricula. Please join us as our featured speakers discuss lessons learned from the previous spring term, share student and faculty experiences with remote learning, and consider possibilities and opportunities for the future. Featured Speakers: Prof. Katie Bouman, Assistant Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Electrical Engineering, and Astronomy and Rosenberg Scholar Arushi Gupta, Chair of the Academic Research Committee (ARC) Dr. Jenn Weaver, Associate Director for University Teaching, and Center for​ Teaching, Learning and Outreach Leslie Maxfield, Director of Academic Media Technologies and Communications Moderator, Dr. Nathan Dalleska, Director of the Resnick Water and Environment Laboratory and Caltech Y Board Member. This webinar is free, but please register to guarantee your spot. REGISTER NOW

The Caltech Y is excited to announce a new program in collaboration with ASCIT and the YWCA starting in January 2021. Girls in the YWCA TechGYRLS® programs will be matched with Caltech college students who serve as STEAM mentors. Mentors provide four hours per month of individual tutoring and mentoring to help girls achieve academic excellence and successfully navigate their personal journeys in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. The program kicks off virtually, with 20 girls and 20 Caltech mentors, and possibilities for in-person mentorship in the future. The program was spearheaded by Caltech undergraduate student and ASCIT President, Varun Shanker, with support from the Caltech Y. Shanker said this about ASCIT’s motivation to start a mentorship program: “Over the past year, the important role we, as students and as a united student organization, play in our local community has been increasingly clear. Many of us have had impactful mentors or have found mentors on this campus who have shaped our interests and future path. Inspired by these two facts, ASCIT has been working with the Caltech Y to develop a new Caltech Community Mentors Program. The core mission of this program is to provide youth in our local community with a structured support group that can help them navigate challenges on the path to college and develop new college and career readiness skills. As an undergraduate community, we strongly believe that we can utilize the experience and expertise of Caltech undergraduate students to mentor and impact younger students as they consider career opportunities and chart the course of higher education, particularly in STEAM.” ASCIT is also exploring opportunities to grow student engagement by partnering with other local organizations, based on interest. We are excited to work alongside ASCIT, the Caltech Y ExComm, and our student leaders as they continue to expand their service efforts in the community.

The Lucy Guernsey Service Award is given in honor of Lucy Guernsey, the Caltech Y Executive Director from 1989-1991, in recognition of her leadership, dedication to students, and diligence in furthering the Y’s commitment to volunteerism. The selection criteria for the award include exceptional service to the Y and the community, involvement with on- and off-campus service projects, and leadership in community and volunteer service efforts. In 2020, the awards committee selected 2 students: Alex Phillips and Iman Wahle. Alexandra (Alex) Phillips Alex has tutored in the Rise Program for the last 5 years and serves on the Rise Advisory Committee. Alex is also a professional photographer and has volunteered her time to photograph Rise students in the last several years. Most significantly for the Y, she founded the Rise/SAT Summer Prep Program for rising high school juniors and seniors in 2018. She initiated the idea, helped recruit students during the summer, and got the program started. In addition to her research and other activities, Alex also founded the @women.doing.science Instagram account to highlight female scientists in the field. Alex is truly an inspiration to others. She has used her many talents and skills to make a difference through her commitment to outreach and passion for creating a more inclusive STEM environment. Iman Wahle (BS 2020, Computer Science) Iman Wahle tutored in the Rise program for 4 years and served on Rise Advisory Committee. Her students describe her as a patient and caring tutor and mentor. Iman also volunteered with Union Station Homeless Shelter and the adopt-a-meal program. Leading the Union Station program is a monthly commitment, and Iman created the menu for the meal to be served, she also shopped for the food, recruited volunteers, managed the volunteers during the meal prep, and then helped serve the nearly ~60 residents of the shelter. She has been the most active Union Station leader in the 2 years she was involved. Iman was also a collaborative leader. She stood out not only because she led and volunteered herself, but because she successfully encouraged others to do the same. Related links: https://www.caltechy.org/single-post/2019/01/28/union-station-preparing-and-serving-dinner

The Caltech Y is honored to welcome three new board members: Cindy Bengtson Cindy retired after 30 years of leadership positions with ARCO/BP and devotes her time to community service. At age 25, she created Big Sisters of Los Angeles, which merged 41 years later as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles. Her other non-profit work has included memberships and board roles in over 15 organizations, most recently Leadership Pasadena and Los Altos Auxiliary for Hathaway Sycamores. Nathan Dalleska Nathan began working at Caltech in 1995 and is presently the Director of the Resnick Water and Environment Laboratory. Nathan earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Utah. Nick von Gersdorff Nick is a Caltech alumnus (MS ‘06). He started his career in hydropower as an undergraduate student at Harvey Mudd, analyzing critical infrastructure, which paved the way to his current position as Southern California Edison’s Chief Dam Safety Engineer. He is passionate about traveling and fostering green energy internationally and is currently working to develop hydropower in the country of Georgia. Cindy, Nathan, and Nick bring a considerable amount of expertise to the board of directors. We are thrilled to have them join the Caltech Y family!