It’s a brand new year with brand new opportunities to learn and succeed at AMRoC Fab Lab! January is also National Mentoring Month and all month long we’ll be celebrating the many amazing mentors who make so many of our programs and projects possible. First a look at what’s on the calendar!
Coming Up in January
- January 9 – 11:30am – Tune into our FIRST Robotics Competition 2021 Season Kick off – Hosted by ROBOTICON Digital, Live Online from AMRoC
Fab Lab , we’ll be joined by Paul Sohl, CEO of the Florida High Tech Corridor, engineers from SOFWERX, FIRST Alumni and student team members to check out the new Innovation Challenge debuting this year for high school student robotics teams - January 13 & 27 – 6:30pm – Tampa Bay Inventors Council Meet Up – Check in with our friends at the Tampa Bay Inventors Council, online for a while longer, to learn the latest news and opportunities for inventors. RSVP at for the meetup.com/TBIC-us meetup link.
- January 20 – 6pm – Consumer Car Care with Pam Oakes of US Auto Training on AMRoC Facebook Live – Get some tips and tricks on keeping your car running well, and save money and time – plus hear some good stories from our automotive tech trainer
- January 23 – 2pm – Uptown Tampa Focus Group Meeting hosted by Gentrispot – There are a lot of changes underway in the Uptown area. Uptown and University area residents are invited to attend a focus group hosted by Gentrispot , to learn about challenges and opportunities and how to have a voice in their future. Learn more and register to attend at our Uptown Tampa Community Collaborative page.
- January 27 – 6- 7:30pm – Equity in Entrepreneurship Spring 2021 Information Session – If you’re interested in being part of our Spring 2021, 16-week early stage entrepreneurship person, join us January 27 to get a full program overview, and to hear from mentors and previous participants about this future-changing opportunity. In person, attendance capacity 10 – Register HERE to attend.
- January 28 & 29, 6pm to 7:30pm – ASE P2 Automobile Parts Specialist test prep helps you prepare for and successfully passing the P2 certification exam, helping increase earning and career potential – Register at our Workforce Skills page.
New Programs on the Way!
We’re delighted to welcome our new program partner Tampa Drones, who has literally taken up shop at AMRoC Fab Lab. You’ll be able to see Joshua and Clinton working at the front of the Fab Lab, repairing and building drones. They’ll also be running our youth and adult Drone Education programs, including our new VRAD virtual drone competition team and our VEX RAD drone competition team. Look for our first drone programs taking to the sky in February!
We’ll also be launching a series of community competitions soon, starting with the Upcycling Challenge, in partnership with eSmart Recycling. Look for more information on that fun opportunity soon. Speaking of e-recycling – we’ve got a big eSmart Recycling bin at the front of AMRoC where you can bring your old electronics to drop off. Your ewaste becomes opportunities for computers for youth in our programs.
Thank you Mentors!
We started this off mentioning that January is National Mentoring Month. So we’ll wrap up with a big shout out to the enormous group of volunteers who work with both our youth and adult programs, donating their time and expertise to share everything from entrepreneurial education and training, to computer programming skills, 3D printing, machine shop and tool skills, Computer Aided Drafting, teamwork and more.
We’ll be taking a closer look at some of our mentors throughout the month, so check back to meet them, and learn how you can get involved, too!
We need each other now more than ever. Join us to amplify opportunities for others. Join us to learn from others.