Designing and programming a robot to fling as many rubber ducks off a wheel as possible in 30 seconds is a joy only a small portion of students across the nation have experienced. I have participated in after-school and summer programs including FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST LEGO League for many years, and have become both a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) enthusiast and an advocate for after-school programs in the process. Without after-school programs, I would not be where I am today: an aspiring astrophysicist with a dream to work for NASA or at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.