A to Z Experience welcomes first group of local students

Amazon’s A to Z Experience has officially begun.

On Monday, students from Rainier Scholars spent an entire day learning about exciting STEM-based career opportunities. They were guided and accompanied by Amazon employee volunteers, who shared their own experiences about working in STEM at Amazon.

The campus is amazing!

In the morning, they took a tour of Amazon’s urban Seattle headquarters. Along the tour route, they met many passionate Amazonians. They met a technical evangelist who taught the students about learning to code, a design technologist, who taught the students the importance of experimentation, creativity, and the power of DIY technology, an AWS solutions architect who reminded the students that failure is OK, and a member of Amazon’s horticulture team, who gave them just a taste of some of the unique plants soon headed into The Spheres.

The students then spent time in the Expressions Lab, Amazon’s art studio, to brainstorm Amazon’s next great invention – they invented an all-inclusive personal assistant, a delivery service, and a website that helps customers monitor global shopping trends.

Photo by JORDAN STEAD / Amazon

Students take part in an Amazon STEM Camp on Monday, July 17, 2017, in Seattle and Kent, WA.

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The students then boarded a bus and went to Kent, WA to visit Amazon’s BFI4 robotics fulfillment center. On their tour, they were wowed by innovative Amazon associates and state-of-the-art robotics technology working in harmony to deliver packages to Amazon customers.

After their tour, the students got to practice efficiently packing an Amazon truck, packing up an Amazon box, and then they assembled a model Amazon robot.

Finally, thanks to a generous donation from the Amazon STEM Store, they programmed a Sphero SPRK+ STEM toy and then each student received a set of K’NEX so they could continue their STEM inspiration at home.

At the end of the day, one student said, “Amazon is a great company with many job options” and another said “the campus is amazing” and “they are using pretty cool technology.” Finally, one said, “now I understand why my Uncle Bill loves his job here so much.”

Today was just the beginning of an exciting and inspiring three-weeks of the A to Z Experience. Amazon is excited to host students from the Kent School District, Boys and Girls Club, and Mary’s Place in the coming days to continue to inspire and empower local students to pursue interesting and exciting jobs in STEM-related fields.