Evergreen to the Engineering Podium: How Two Summers at STEM4Kids Transformed Arjun's Confidence and Career Vision

Bottom Line: Arjun came to STEM4Kids from Evergreen as a quiet 9-year-old who thought robots were "just for YouTube." Two summers later, he walked off a Santa Clara County robotics stage with a trophy — and a plan. Here's what changed, and why Silver Creek families are signing up before spots run out.

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When Priya and Raj first registered their son Arjun for STEM4Kids' Junior Lego Robotics camp, they had modest hopes. Their Silver Creek 9-year-old was curious about technology but mostly passive — he watched hours of robotics videos online but had never touched a build kit.

"We figured it would be a fun week," Priya recalls. "We didn't expect it to become the thing."

By the end of Week 1, Arjun was explaining sensor arrays at the dinner table. By the end of Summer 1, he was asking when camp started back up. By the end of Summer 2, he had placed second in a regional VEX IQ robotics invitational — competing against kids from Monta Vista, De Anza, and Cupertino — and was named team captain for his after-school club.

What STEM4Kids Does Differently

STEM4Kids isn't a "here's your kit, figure it out" camp. Every program — from VEX Go Robotics for younger kids to Python Programming for teens — follows a structured, skill-building curriculum developed over 12 years of working with South Bay students.

For Arjun, the turning point was Week 2 of his first summer. The Advanced Lego Robotics (Spike Prime) cohort started working on autonomous navigation challenges. "He came home and said, 'Dad, the robot does what I tell it to do,'" Raj says. "That clicked something for him."

The instructors noticed it too. Rather than moving him on, they let him dig deeper — iterating on the same challenge with different code until his solution was clean, not just functional. That iteration mindset is central to what STEM4Kids teaches: not just "does it work," but "can we make it better?"

From Evergreen to the Stage

Arjun's second summer at STEM4Kids was in the Advanced VEX IQ Robotics program. The curriculum that summer pushed into driver control strategy, autonomous routines, and collaborative build optimization. His team of three — two from Silver Creek and one from Willow Glen — treated the Cupertino location's build lab like their personal engineering floor.

"They'd finish the day's challenge in 40 minutes and spend the rest of the afternoon rebuilding from scratch," says the camp director. "That's what we love to see."

When the regional invitational came in October, Arjun's team was ready. Second place, competing against programs with year-round dedicated coaching.

For Families Near Silver Creek, Evergreen, and South San Jose

Arjun is one story. STEM4Kids has been running camps in Cupertino and the Evergreen/San Jose area for over a decade, and families from Silver Creek, Blossom Hill, Willow Glen, and Almaden Valley return summer after summer — often bringing younger siblings as they move up the curriculum.

Summer 2026 runs June 8 through August 12, Monday–Friday, 9am–3:30pm. Programs serve ages 5½ through 14.

Register before spots fill — early bird discount saves $25, and multi-week packages save up to $250.

→ Cupertino families: stem4kids.co/oncampus-cupertino → San Jose / Evergreen / Silver Creek families: stem4kids.co/oncampus-losgatos-sanjose