YOUTH STEAM INITIATIVE (YSI)

(brief description abt what steam team does, and a link to our website (https://youthsteaminitiative.org/index.html)

Lex Lux Projection Shows

The LexLux Animated Projection Mapping project was a key feature of the LexLux illumination activity (2025) in the town of Lexington. In collaboration with the Munroe Center for the Arts and the Lexington Lyceum Advocates (LLA), the Youth STEAM Initiative team created two unique projection mapping installations that seamlessly blended creativity, technology, and historical storytelling. This interdisciplinary project showcased the powerful fusion of art and technology, demonstrating how innovation can reimagine public spaces. More than just a visual spectacle, the installation fostered a sense of community, sparking curiosity, conversation, and a deeper appreciation for Lexington’s cultural heritage. For more information about the project, please see the link and leadership section.

Final Projection Video: Lexington Historical Society & Ellen Stone Building

“This project raises awareness about the history of Lexington and introduces a new medium of idea expression, that is, projection mapping, to the residents in Lexington. From this event, I have also grown a lot, through all the new skills that I’ve learned and the challenges I’ve overcame as the leader of the team.”

ChiRP Project

The Children’s Room Project, also called the ChiRP Project, was to raise money for the renovation of Cary Memorial Library’s children’s room and the large meeting room on the lower level. The ChiRP Project included two parts: a webpage development competition, where the YSI gave competitors tutorials of creating a webpage, giving people chances to learn new skills and get involved with Cary Memorial Library’s funding process, and the website construction, where YSI members constructed the different parts of the ChiRP fundraising website.

For the website competition, I took charge of fundraising for the event, as we did not have much budget for the different things we needed. No one on the team had ever done fundraising before, so it was a huge challenge for me to try to figure out how to raise fund from the beginning. I

For the website construction, I was responsible for the development of the info page, which is also the landing page of the ChiRP website. I was really nervous at first, as the landing page is usually the most important page that needs to be concise and attractive to the visitors of the website. After many rounds of discussion of how my page should look like with the people in Cary Library Foundation, I was able to eventually construct a page that we were all satisfied of. I also helped out at the Gala Night on 4/6/2024, where I checked people in for the event and guided them to the activities. I am very appreciative of how patient the Cary Library Foundation advisors were and how helpful our team members were. This project taught me a lot about not only website development, but also about efficient communication and collaboration.