At our regular Club meeting on August 20, 2026, in the first of two presentations, Jamie Rumsey, Executive Director of Broomfield STEM, symbolically accepted a $5000 grant from the Broomfield Rotary Charitable Foundation. Then Rumsey and 4 members of BROOMBOTS, a high school robotics team organized and sponsored by Broomfield STEM, gave a presentation about what they do.
Broomfield STEM is a 501(c)(3) charity whose mission is “to make quality, hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning accessible, inclusive and fun for all.” The challenges they face include: (1) feelings of isolation and loneliness among students, with screens and phones being the outlets, (2) there are very few extra-curricular STEM activities available to Broomfield students, especially at the elementary school level, (3) there is a growing demand for STEM professionals and the U.S. is not keeping up and (4) women remain dramatically under-represented in STEM professions, with only 15% of U.S. engineers being women. Broomfield STEM has grown exponentially. During the 2022-2023 school year, a total of 9 students were enrolled in Broomfield STEM programs. For the 2026-2027 school year, they expect total participation to be about 350-400 students and a large wait list. It now has 17 programs that serve students from elementary school through high school. Typically, boys rush to sign up for these programs as soon as they are announced, whereas girls tend to hold back. To address that situation, Broomfield STEM reserves a certain number of openings for girls. Last year, girls made up 48% of the participants in robotics programs.
One of their programs, BROOMBOTS, is a robotics program for high school students. BROOMBOTS competed in the 2026 First World Championships and took 15th out of 56 teams in their division. They also won the Think Award for best documentation of their engineering. After Rumsey’s presentation, 4 members of BROOMBOTS spoke and gave a demonstration of a ball-throwing robot they built.
Broomfield FISH