When a freshman named Geo Tucker found STEM environments unwelcoming, he and his teammates responded by designing change rather than accepting exclusion. What began as a response to persistent bullying became a structured program that blends technical skill-building with community organizing. The Tempe-based teen robotics team AZTECH now hosts events, produces educational materials, and partners with local organizations to make STEM spaces explicitly welcoming to LGBTQ+ youth.
Rather than limiting their work to the lab, the students turned outward: tabling at community events, presenting at competitions, and amplifying a message of belonging. With support from a grant by the It Gets Better Project, the team launched Rainbow Robotics, a student-managed initiative that combines hands-on robotics, peer-led outreach, and resources for schools and community groups. The program emphasizes that technical learning and social inclusion are complementary goals, and it aims to make participation in engineering and design accessible to young people who have too often been sidelined.
Student leadership and statewide outreach
AZTECH’s members balance building competition robots with outreach duties: they staff booths, hand out flyers, and speak with peers at events. Leadership roles like Business President and Initiative Manager fall to students—Tucker among them—who coordinate logistics and partnerships. Rainbow Robotics is not only about one club’s visibility; it is creating an alliance model. To date, five robotics teams across Arizona have joined the alliance, and the group reports conversations with teams in other states. The alliance works with organizations such as one·n·ten to extend queer-affirming STEM programming into more neighborhoods and school communities.
Programming and community activities
The initiative uses several complementary approaches: hosting queer-friendly workshops, producing activity books, and organizing resource events. On April 3rd, Rainbow Robotics is partnering with Phoenix Pride to host a Teen Resource Fair featuring 18 organizations, an effort to link youth directly with support and learning opportunities. Students also design materials—like an activity book—and run outreach at competitions where they can counter isolation with visible representation. Program leads report that the best moments come from individual conversations where students hear that their identity can be accepted within STEM teams.
Funding, partnerships, and the role of youth grants
The project received backing from the It Gets Better Project’s Changemakers grant, an initiative that helps young people run community programs. Over five years, Changemakers has supported 170 youth-led projects totaling $1.6 million, and Rainbow Robotics is its first explicitly STEM-focused grantee. The funder provides oversight and strategic support while leaving creative control to the students, a model that helped the team move from online organizing to in-person engagement. Program staff note that face-to-face activities reinforce belonging in ways that virtual contact cannot replicate, and the grant’s flexibility allowed the students to experiment with outreach formats and tools.
Other recent Changemakers projects illustrate the diversity of youth-led work: Alaska grantees launched a monthly zine to connect Indigenous LGBTQ+ youth across distance, a St. Louis cohort organized a leadership conference that culminated in a community drag showcase, and a Washington group pivoted from a cultural space to emergency relief, collecting 2,700 pounds of food and supplies when local SNAP benefits lapsed. These examples highlight a common theme: youth identify gaps in services and choose to act, often producing practical community resources in the process.
Creative resources, challenges, and calls to action
Rainbow Robotics is also developing a children’s book titled Huehue Finds A Way, which draws on AZTECH’s cultural references and storytelling to teach persistence, teamwork, and respect for difference. Characters take a journey across Arizona, meeting peers from other teams and working on engineering problems related to sustainability and repair—an approachable way to introduce young kids to STEM concepts. The team emphasizes Arizona’s unique role as a populous yet underreported site for queer youth work, seeking to lift up local stories amidst national conversations about education and funding cuts.
Barriers and how adults can help
Despite progress, subtle barriers persist: gendered role assignments, inequitable lodging arrangements at competitions, and the difficulty of advertising school-based supports for trans students under current political pressure. The AZTECH students ask adults to be active allies—spotting isolated youth, advocating at the school board level, and publicly supporting gender support plans and inclusive policies. Organizers also recommend simple, tangible steps at events like stocking all restrooms with pads and tampons to promote menstrual equity. These practical moves, combined with visible student leadership, are what organizers say will sustain cultural change in STEM communities.