BrainSTEM Without Borders 501(c)(3) Nonprofit · Baden, PA

501(c)(3) · Baden, Pennsylvania

BrainSTEM Without Borders

Expanding access to STEM education and FIRST robotics—from Western PA classrooms and competition fields to international Robots without Borders outreach.

Legal organization name: BrainSTEM Without Borders

Our story Partner with us Contact

Our story

BrainSTEM Without Borders equips young people with STEM skills, mentors, and competition pathways so opportunity is not limited by zip code or border.

Based in Baden, Pennsylvania, we support FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge teams, mentor FRC 8393 The Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team, and extend robotics and medical STEM outreach through Robots without Borders.

Associated with BrainSTEM Learning and the Robots without Borders outreach initiative.

Legal status

A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. EIN available upon request to verifiers and partners.

Location

BrainSTEM Without Borders
600 Spang Rd
Baden, PA 15005
United States

Focus

Youth STEM education, FIRST robotics mentoring and tournaments, and equity-focused robotics outreach locally and abroad.

Programs

Local competition pathways and global equity outreach—connected through mentoring, tournaments, and hands-on STEM.

Western PA FIRST LEGO League

Supporting roughly ~20 FLL tournaments across Western Pennsylvania so elementary and middle school teams can compete close to home.

Tournament operations for Western PA FLL are run separately at pafll.com.

FTC & FRC mentoring

Mentors 6 FTC teams and 1 FRC team: FRC 8393 The Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team.

FRC 8393 on The Blue Alliance

Robots without Borders

International and local equity outreach in STEM and medical STEM, including work connected to Belize, Haiti, Türkiye, and Tanzania, plus community programs that lower barriers to robotics and engineering education.

Classes and regional partner activity historically associated with BrainSTEM Learning (CAD, 3D printing, robotics engineering, and more) complement this work.

Impact

Recognition from FIRST and storytelling from the field—shared carefully, without inflated metrics.

Impact video

Prefer a download? Download the Impact video (MP4).

  • Championship FIRST Impact Award Finalist, 2026 (FRC 8393)
  • Regional FIRST Impact awards
  • Mentoring pathways across FLL tournaments, FTC teams, and FRC 8393
  • Robots without Borders outreach connected to Belize, Haiti, Türkiye, and Tanzania

Read the team’s FIRST Impact Award essay: 2026 FIA essay (PDF).

Award highlights are taken from public FIRST materials and the prior site copy. Confirm any numeric claims before using them in formal grant or verification filings.

Teams

FRC 8393 and BrainSTEM FTC teams. Poster art below is real team creative; teams without poster assets are shown as text cards only.

FRC

8393 — The Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team

Mentored FRC team competing in FIRST Robotics Competition. Championship FIRST Impact Award Finalist, 2026.

View on The Blue Alliance

FTC teams with posters

BrainSTEM Amygdala FTC team poster

Amygdala

FTC · poster art

BrainSTEM Cortex FTC team poster

Cortex

FTC · poster art

BrainSTEM Dendrite FTC team poster

Dendrite

FTC · poster art

BrainSTEM Synapse FTC team poster

Synapse

FTC · poster art

Additional mentored teams

FTC

Additional FTC teams

BrainSTEM Without Borders mentors a total of 6 FTC teams. Poster assets are shown above for Amygdala, Cortex, Dendrite, and Synapse; remaining team cards will be added when official names, numbers, and art are confirmed.

FRC

8393

Featured above. No separate logo asset is hosted on this site yet— link out to The Blue Alliance for the public team record.

Partner & sponsor

Sponsors and in-kind partners make tournaments, mentoring, travel, and Robots without Borders outreach possible. Support covers parts and fabrication, competition registration, mentoring capacity, and equity-focused STEM programs in Western PA and abroad.

Parts partners such as WCP (West Coast Products) and other FIRST ecosystem suppliers help student teams build competitively and share engineering practice across our FRC and FTC programs. Financial and in-kind gifts also sustain FLL tournament capacity in the region.

Interested in sponsoring or partnering? Email gwalton@brainstemwithoutborders.org with your organization, interest area (tournaments, team mentoring, international outreach, or in-kind parts), and how you’d like to help.

Email about partnership Donate (interim)

Contact

BrainSTEM Without Borders
600 Spang Rd
Baden, PA 15005

Email: gwalton@brainstemwithoutborders.org

Mail the Baden address above, or use brainstemlearning.org for associated BrainSTEM Learning programs.

Blue Alliance · 8393 BrainSTEM Learning Western PA FLL (pafll.com) Privacy