Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Meet Ethan, future structural engineer (or architect).

A brand-new year is full of possibility and Think Together is excited to share with you the bright future generation of leaders currently enrolled in our programs. Each year, we grow more impressed hearing about our students’ passions and wishes for the world. These students inspire our work and fuel our mission to continue to change the odds for kids. To kick off the new year, we want to introduce you to Ethan, a particularly inspiring student from our Riverside County region.

Ethan, who is currently a fifth grader in our afterschool program, wants to be a structural engineer or an architect. He is especially interested in designing houses from the outside in.

Ethan has been enrolled in Think Together for two years, and currently his favorite subject is math. “I like math because I just like to add up all the numbers, and sometimes it can be really easy and sometimes can be really challenging.”

Fortunately for Ethan, a path to becoming a structural engineer or architect is filled with math.

STEM is one of the core curriculum pillars Think Together adds to the expanded school day. Students like Ethan get an additional 540 hours of academic lessons and support through their attendance in our program. In addition to STEM, students participate in arts, enrichment, and physical activity.

“I think that Think Together helps me because whenever we’re finished with our homework, they always give us the daily four, which is extra problems that you can do. You can practice spelling new words, and you can also do math problems.”

When we asked Ethan what his new year’s resolution for 2022 is, he said his goal is to finish the school year with straight A’s. (And he feels confident he can achieve that goal.)

As Ethan moves on to middle school in the 2022-23 school year, he will be equipped with a firm foundation to build on for the next stages of his academic career. And Ethan is ambitious with his future, he’s hoping to be part of Stanford’s freshman class of 2029.

You are helping students like Ethan reach for their dreams through your support of Think Together. We are thrilled to announce that in our Together We Light the Way end-of-year campaign we raised $410,000! Thank you for believing in Think Together’s mission as much as we do. 2022 is going to be an exciting year, and we are so happy to have you be a part of this journey.