MSOE staff and students volunteered with Ryan Braun at the Ryan Braun Summer Learning Gain Initiative, a SHARP Literacy educational program designed to use summer break to support academic success by helping urban school students prevent learning loss.

MSOE donated equipment for SHARP Literacy’s new baseball themed summer coding program and volunteers were able to play a variety of baseball themed games with the kids.

“The kids were so excited to use the equipment that MSOE donated to collect data related to their baseball swings,” said Deanna Leitzke, director of the CREATE Institute. “I love the thoughtfulness of SHARP’s programming; it is in perfect alignment with MSOE’s experiential learning approach and mindset development.”

Other MSOE volunteers included baseball coach Steve Sanfilippo and three of his baseball players, Cole Raines, Ian Knuth and Christopher Barnes, as well as his son Sam.

Approximately 375 students of all ages participated in the summer program, complete with games, a scavenger hunt, ice cream and the Famous Racing Sausages. 

MSOE has been partnering with SHARP Literacy since 2013 through the Office of Servant-Leadership. “We look forward to getting more involved with SHARP Literacy’s coding programs that introduce children to the fundamentals of engineering, like curiosity and making connections,” said Leitzke.