History

STEAMachine was founded and is run by Julia Wang. Julia fell in love with reading when she was 10-years old because of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.  Inspired by Camp Half-Blood branches springing up in Austin, TX and Brooklyn, NY, Julia wanted to bring demigod training to Southern California.  Five years after discovering Camp Half-Blood in the pages of books, Julia created her own CHB branch in Tustin, California in the summer of 2017.  Camp Half Blood Orange County is a combination of her love of reading and her love of STEM.  Afterall, a demigod hero must know biology to dress wounds and engineering to create catapults and trebuchets.  As Athena always says, demigods must be strong and agile, both physically and mentally in order to win their battles.

After successfully launching her first summer camp and recieving positive feedback from campers, Julia wanted to do more. She wanted to expand her camp and give equal access to ANY student desiring to participate. With the help of a generous grant from the Dragon Kim Foundation, The Steam Machine Inc. was founded in 2018, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to making learning engaging for all children (or as we say, heroes) in our community. We make access to exciting STEM and physical fitness curriculum accessible to all through active and immersive play. Today, our programs have expanded to include Avengers Academy and a robust online activity database for students, parents, and teachers. Our activities have in-depth explanations linked to NGSS and Common Core standards. We also work with RoughFit and the Tustin Public Schools Foundation to bring our program to as many heroes as possible.   

Julia is now pursuing a Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology degree at Yale University where she continues to be involved in education outreach. She is currently in California for the summer to run her 4th consecutive summer of STEAMachine, featuring a partnership with the Tustin Public Schools Foundation Summer Academy for the first time.

Our Mission

Steam Machine Inc, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is a STEM and physical fitness program integrated with pop culture for upper elementary and middle school students in Orange County. STEAMachine seeks to launch a love of learning through engaging applications of school curriculum, including the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core Math Standards.

At STEAMachine, we bring popular fictional characters to life in our adventures and projects inspired by stories such as Percy Jackson, Star Wars and Avengers. We use them as a foundation to promote STEM learning and physical fitness through active play, and to build the framework for discovering the hero within us all.