about us

Education for the future

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Who We Are

The Steam Foundation is an international 501(c)(3) Nonprofit on a mission to make hands-on STEAM education accessible to all K-12 students. We design all our programs to include the following areas:

Science

Technology

Engineering

Arts

Mathematics

TSF By The Numbers

1910+

Students

50+

Camps

125+

Volunteers

$17,500+

Raised

Support Us

Our Programs

Leadership Team

Click on any of our leadership team members below to learn more.

Aadhav Prabu

Co-Founder, Executive Director

aprabu@thesteamfoundation.org | aadhavprabu.com

Aadhav is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. He has 9 years of 3D printing experience and has been teaching 3D printing for 5 years. In 4th grade, Aadhav was introduced to 3D printing by a room parent and was inspired to learn more. Coming into middle school, Aadhav was delighted to find out that the school had a 3D printer, but noticed that few students used it. So in 8th grade, he founded Windemere Ranch Middle School’s 3D Printing Club so that he could spread awareness and knowledge of 3D printing to other students. After moving on to high school, Aadhav has continued to support the 3D Printing Club as an Advisor.

Looking to teach 3D printing to students across the US, Aadhav partnered with a nonprofit organization to launch its very first virtual 3D Printing Workshop Series in Fall 2020. From there, Aadhav looked for ways to further expand his program, to benefit even more students. He then co-founded The Steam Foundation and now serves as its Executive Director.

Other notable achievements include being a Research Intern at the University of California, Berkeley, being an instructor and a 3rd Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, being a recipient of the Johns Hopkins University CTY Grand High Honors award, and being a four-time recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award, Gold Medal.

Akshar Raikanti

Co-Founder, Director of Operations

araikanti@thesteamfoundation.org

Akshar is currently a senior attending Dougherty Valley High School. During his 8th grade year in middle school, he helped lead an after-school 3D printing club that was proposed as an idea to teachers and the school principal. He helped promote the club in school and after receiving over 50 applications helped narrow down the selection process that ended with around 30 students in the club. He also helped make the 13-week program that taught beginners of 3D printing about the fundamentals of 3D printing, design and CAD software, and how to use a 3D printer and print models.

Akshar also came onboard with Aadhav’s workshop series in Fall 2020 as a co-instructor, and helped lead the nationwide workshop series. Akshar then co-founded The Steam Foundation and now serves as its Director of Operations. Through this, Akshar strives toward reaching out and helping more and more students so that they have a chance to explore multiple options when looking for hobbies or interests. Akshar also wants to reach out and support people and especially students from underserved or less fortunate communities.

A fun fact about Akshar is that he is a half-marathon runner!

Terrylynne Turner

Advisor, Board of Directors

tturner@thesteamfoundation.org

Kelly Cushner

Advisor, Board of Directors

kcushner@thesteamfoundation.org

Kelly is currently a guidance counselor at Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, California. With ten years experience in social work and education, she is passionate about working with youth and supporting their development throughout high school. Wanting to use her experience to benefit students on a global platform, Kelly joined The Steam Foundation, and now serves as an Advisor in the Board of Directors.

Originally from Boston, Kelly studied at the University of Massachusetts and completed a Master of Social Work degree from Boston University. Mom to 3 grown boys, Kelly enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her quirky mixed breed dogs. She volunteers and supports a non-profit educational foundation in rural Nicaragua and serves on the school counselor advisory board for the University of Pittsburgh.

Krishiv Haranath

Program Director, 3D Printing

kharanath@thesteamfoundation.org

Krishiv is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. He was first exposed to 3D printing in 8th grade where he joined the club that was held in his middle school. The club helped spark an interest in 3D printing for him, as he learned how to design with different CAD software and how to use the 3D printer itself. After the club ended, he decided that he wanted to pursue 3D printing by helping teach other kids about the fundamentals of 3D printing. So, he joined onboard to the 3D Printing Workshop Series with Aadhav and Akshar. After that, he further looked for ways to spread his knowledge, and so he joined The Steam Foundation. He now serves as the Program Director of 3D Printing Steam Camps for TSF.

Some of Krishiv’s other hobbies include baking, speech and debate, biking, and running. He has loved baking ever since he was a child and loves the reward of baking. He is also involved in the speech and debate club at his school as the Captain of the Extemp Event, and he also teaches speech and debate to middle schoolers and elementary schoolers. Krishiv also loves biking with his brother and his friends as well because it is relaxing. He also loves to run because it is a great way to take his mind off of academics.

Sarveshan Saravanan

Program Director, Robotics

ssaravanan@thesteamfoundation.org

Sarveshan is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. He first had experience in robotics through playing with Lego Mindstorms. He later joined a VEX robotics team, which he is currently captain of, and has won numerous awards. As part of his club’s larger team, he has won a Worlds-level award. Much of his coding experience comes from free online courses and self-teaching. As Program Director of Robotics, Sarveshan hopes to spread his interest in robotics to others.

To spend his free time, Sarveshan enjoys watching basketball/football (along with fantasy sports for both) or playing them with his friends at the park. He enjoys biking, playing the trumpet, and going on hikes with his Boy Scout Troop.

Swastik Patel

Program Director, Python Programming

spatel@thesteamfoundation.org

Swastik is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. During his time at Windemere Ranch Middle School, he participated in the new 3D printing club at school, run by Aadhav and Akshar, learning to use the CAD software to build models. He was also very interested in coding, specifically Python, and garnered lots of interest in the language through contacts in the 3D printing club. In order to spread his passion for programming, he joined The Steam Foundation, and now serves as the Program Director of Programming I Steam Camps.

Some of Swastik’s favorite subjects are Geography, Computer Science, History, and Earth Science. Swastik is the Vice President of the Geography Club at his school, and has helped run 2 successful Geography bees to spread geographic knowledge among the youth. He has also participated in many science competitions from earth science to computer science, as he really enjoys learning about all aspects of the world, both modern and geological.

Some of Swastik’s hobbies include programming, cooking, animating, drawing, Taekwondo, and making Youtube videos. He also enjoys working out, spending time with friends, and keeping up with the latest news in technology, finance and global affairs.

Prasanna Premkumar

Program Director, Java Programming

ppremkumar@thesteamfoundation.org

Prasanna is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. Prasanna was roped into programming when he was introduced to the world of machine learning and data science. To learn further, he started to study and learn more about various programming languages including Python, C#, Java, HTML, and CSS.

One of Prasanna’s favorite projects was when he created a website where a user could check if their article was truthful or spreading misinformation, which was created using a machine learning model. Prasanna joined The Steam Foundation because he felt it would be a great opportunity to spread his passion for coding and the world of technology to the younger generations and get them interested in a field that is always evolving, and he now serves as the Program Director of C# Programming Steam Camps.

In his free time, Prasanna explores a multitude of hobbies such as, table tennis which he play at a competitive level. He also enjoy biking with friends and working out. Additionally, Prasanna works as a tutor at JEI Learning center, teaching math to many students of different age levels.

Aniketh Eswara

Program Director, Graphic Design

aeswara@thesteamfoundation.org

Aniketh is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School and has been utilizing graphic design for many years. He specializes in Photoshop and Inkscape and has designed many graphics and logos for the public and his peers. He currently serves as Program Director of Graphic Design at The Steam Foundation and hopes to spread his interest in design to many students around the world.

In his free time, Aniketh enjoys playing sports as well as watching them, making graphics, and spending time with his friends. He enjoys math and physics in school and participates in the school band as well. By teaching graphic design to others he hopes to spread his passion for digital art and web designing.

Pranay Boreddy

Program Director, App Development

pboreddy@thesteamfoundation.org

Pranay is currently a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. He first got into programming in elementary school by playing around with swift and creating small applications that performed useful activities. One of his main goals is to inspire more people and get them motivated to code, which he aims to achieve through teaching App Development in an exciting and energetic manner. In addition to App Development, Pranay also knows Python, HTML/CSS, Javascript, and C++.

Some of Pranay’s favorite subjects are coding, and additionally math, and physics. He also prepares students of Windemere Ranch Middle School for the Math Olympiad contests. Pranay’s hobbies consist of reading, playing video games, and hiking.

Peter Dobbins

Program Director, Video Game Development

pdobbins@thesteamfoundation.org

Peter is currently a senior at California High School. He started his programming journey, focused on game development, over nine years ago with Java and has since expanded his knowledge by branching off to many other programming languages including C#, C, C++, Rust, Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Typescript.

Peter’s inspiration to make his own games comes from all the great video games he’s played such as Minecraft, Super Mario Bros, and No Man’s Sky, just to name a few. So far he has developed six games ranging from side-scrolling platformers to multi-player combat.

Peter is excited to share his passion for programming with younger students in hopes to make it as big of an impact in their lives as it is in his. He hopes to become a professional game developer and to inspire others to do the same, which is why he came onboard with TSF as Program Director of Video Game Development.

In his free time, Peter works on new programming projects. He also enjoys hiking and playing online video games with friends.

Heman Kolla

Director, Marketing

hkolla@thesteamfoundation.org