ASCENT Club - Advancing Strong Curiosity & Exploration in New Thinkers

A.S.C.E.N.T. (Advancing Strong Curiosity and Exploration in New Thinkers) Club is a high school and undergraduate student-led organization dedicated to igniting a passion for learning and changing the world through STEAM and readiness education in the future generations (PreK-6). Founded by Ezekiel Gonzalez and co-founded by Andy Chau and Rodolfo Castellon, our mission spans diverse fields—from medicine and engineering to creative writing. Through hands-on activities and true connections that cultivate curiosity and academic excellence, and close work with all chapters and members, we aim to inspire and teach children how to pursue truly world-changing fields in STEM and the written arts. By providing equal opportunities for all, and first helping students discover what sparks their curiosity, we can guide and encourage them to explore their passions early. This promotes a brighter future not only for the next generation but for all, a future of worldwide change and positive impact. Together, we can advance learning and exploration for the leaders of tomorrow!

ASCENT Club is a High School and Undergraduate student-led organization solely dedicated to inspiring and educating youth (PreK-6th) in STEAM fields, so that they can one day change the world as well! We were founded humbly at Santiago High School (Garden Grove) in 2024, and are now a multi-chapter network of clubs throughout California (and soon beyond!). We work closely with all our chapters, partner organizations, and Elementaries, employing a simple yet effective system between chapters, the parent Org, and regional executives that allows for our model to reach children everywhere: We focus on quality, long-planned, life-changing events to genuinely motivate, often underrepresented, students to further chase a STEAM field they are passionate about, through our supplemental events, curriculum, and more, so that they too may one day teach others and go on to change our universe for the better! A universe that will one day be in their hands!
Feel free to explore us further below and throughout our site, and to join the mission if you haven't already!

Our organization has raised over $20,000 of books donated to Choc and Ghana, we have had over 8 chapters from Southern to Northern California, we have setup all of our contracts, systems, and annual plans.

We need chapter starters, elementary partners, impactful outside-hosted volunteer events (to complement ours), finances (under 30k a year at the moment), and organizational partners!

California, United States

When it comes down to it, one man can make all the worlds difference in the world, but it will matter nonetheless if corresponding solutions are not implemented elsewhere. I have always loved teaching the youth, and shared in their feeling of success when they figured out something new.
This is why I started ASCENT Club. To truly leave a mark on the world, my impact truly needs to go beyond my single field, no matter how passionate I am about it or how much of a difference I make in it. For our world to truly change for the better, various people need to implement corresponding solutions all across STEAM.
I spent a while, with my Co-Founders, looking into other organizations that supported this mission. Yet I found a common theme, they all existed essentially solely for the purpose of the filler event hours of the volunteers rather than for the real inspiration of the students they taught, while their little focus went to the slightly older, easier-to-teach grades (middle school). This, along with my desire to improve the world, led me to start a different organization, and a system that could lead to genuine change, inspiration, and exploration for our world's crucial youth, and create a pipeline for them to one day change it as well.
May ASCENT Club stay true to its mission, and may ASCENT youth and volunteers truly change the future.