General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation (GASEF)

2026 GA Participants in GASSSS Program


These participants have submitted a final GASSSS application. 

If your name is not on this list and you have participated in the GASSSS program, please contact Larry Woolf at Lawrence.Woolf@ga-asi.com

GA GASSSS Participant  Company  School Materials Purchased Activity
Aaron Sathrum  GA-EMS First Lego League Explore Team, San Diego CA Lego Spike Essential
Lego Spike Prime Expansion
Supporting First Lego League Team
Aaron Sathrum will be helping teach building, coding and problem solving to kids on a First Lego League (FLL) team consisting of K-6 students. Purchased materials for teacher. Printed curriculum for teacher. Helped with app installation and technology. The team will be from neighborhood schools in San Diego, mostly Curie Elementary and Pacific Coast Academy.
Summer Johnson  GA Tri City Christian School, Vista CA Structural channels for the frame of the robot as well as servos for motion on the robot.   I was a field re-setter for the 1st FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Tournament at Francis Parker High School in San Diego. My job included resetting each match after the robotics challenge. I was the official start coordinator for all 62 matches at the 2nd FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Tournament at Crawford High School in San Diego. I made sure the refs started the matches on time and announced the start of each match.
Sara Keller GA-ASI Carmel Del Mar Elementary, San Diego CA Used the funding to buy two ari bot entry kits from ozobot to donate to the science STEAM class at Carmel Del Mar Elementary. The robots are being used to train kids in coding.   The science teacher plans to use the robots to incorporate into existing and new unit lessons, serving as a powerful teaching tool. I will be there to support the younger grades use the robots during my daughter's class. 
Melissa Phillips  GA-i3 Jackson P. Burley Middle School Robotics Team, Charlottesville VA FIRST LEGO League Challenge Registration and Challenge Set. First day led an introductory activity to discuss using "Design Thinking" when creating a technical solution. Subsequent visits were to get to know students and help them understand how to use the robotics kits.
Bennett Hochner  GA-ASI University of Southern California, Los Angeles CA None I served as a judge for the Trailblazers Challenge, a scholarship competition open to USC undergraduate risk management students. As a judge, I heard presentations from the finalist students and gave feedback as part of the judging panel. After the presentations, I interacted directly with the scholarship finalists and provided mentoring in the areas of professional development, utilizing emerging technologies, the benefits of networking, and applying classroom concepts to real-world scenarios. (To reinforce the value of these topics with the mentees, I included some high-level examples from my experience at GA-ASI.) I also shared insight and guidance on the varying career paths and career opportunities that may be available to students with risk-related backgrounds.
Jake Detamore  GA-ASI Orange Glen High School, Escondido CA mechanical pencils, lead refills, highlighters, colored pencils, colored markers, pens, AAA batteries, staplers, stamps, scissors, erasers, pencil pouches, a planner Gave a presentation about GA-ASI and engineering in general. I specifically spoke about some of the planes we make in ASI and what I do as a manufacturing engineer in order to make those planes. I talked about how to get into engineering, both school and job, some of the classes you should take that will help, what life is like as an engineer, and what you can expect once you become one. Then we did a lesson on momentum and followed it up with a lab on elastic vs inelastic collisions and how that applied the principle of conservation of momentum.
Brian Ngsee GA-ASI Canyon View Elementary, San Diego CA First Lego League Explore Registratin
Lego Education Spike Essential Kit
Hosting and co-coaching duties for FLL 2025-2026 team ChickenB0t. This includes assisting with building/coding tasks, assisting with documentation, guidance for final team presentation tri fold.
Brian Ngsee GA-ASI Canyon View Elementary, San Diego CA Booth fees to cover 8-foot tables, booth space, and chairs.  Support the General Atomics booth and San Diego Office of Education PlayMath! activities. This included explaining some of the basics of products and services General Atomics sells and helping K-5 kids work through several math games. Pickup and drop off of PlayMath! activities in Linda Vista. 
David Eldon  GA Pacific Rim Elementary, Carlsbad CA At the request of Colin Chrystal and Rick Lee of the DIII-D tour/outreach program, I purchased 13x 8" plasma balls. The tour program leaves these with schools or other facilities they visit and wanted replenishment of their stock. I performed a 40 minute presentation and demonstration on some plasma physics concepts, which was repeated for 5 groups of fourth graders. The concepts were: why we are trying to make fusion, overcoming the Coulomb barrier, extreme temperature, difference between plasma and gas, how to ionize a gas, magnetic confinement of charged particles, and magnetic induction.
Christoph Hiemcke  GA-ASI Classical Academy High School, Escondido CA The bill from RMFG was for sheet metal parts, the one from goBILDA is for various robot parts, and the one from VistaPrints is for a banner for our booth. I was one of three mentors for Team CAOS, and I was engaged in all phases and aspects of the design and construction: brainstorming, engineering design process, documentation, code architecture, mechanical design. Not to mention team dynamics, scheduling, etc.! We had our last local tournament last weekend and have advanced to the regionals on 7 March. 
Jose Humberto Lucero GA-SI Manzanita Elementary School, Tucson AZ Wet erase markers. Mini precision screwdriver set. Rechargeable batteries. Lidded storage bins.
3D Printer. Inkjet printer. Colored masking tape. Filament bundle.
Volunteered with kindergarten and second grade robotics class. 
Leslie Tong GA-ASI The Classical Academy High School, Escondido CA None Manned a career fair booth at the high school, interacted and fielded questions from high schoolers about engineering, STEM and General Atomics. Distributed pre-printed and already available GA information cards and brochures.
Gerasimos Kondaris GA-ASI San Diego County Engineering Council, San Diego CA None Discussing General Atomics with prospective college students/industry persons.
Christian Anderson GA-SI Davis School District, Layton UT None I served as one of three judges for the Engineering category of the North Davis Area STEM Fair 2026 (grades 9-12 regional science fair). Each entrant's project was independently judged and scored three times, then we judges spoke again as a group with each entrant to determine final rank for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place awards. We also nominated projects for specific designated awards as applicable (e.g. renewable energy). All of the Engineering category entrants turned out to be 9th graders and nearly all were girls, so it was a wonderful opportunity to encourage their interest in STEM subjects and potential related career paths. Many thanks to GASEF and GASSSS for sponsoring my service!
Max Warren  GA-EMS University of Mississippi Center for Air and Space Law, Oxford MS None Presenting to the Center’s Drone Law & Policy class to give an engineering and technical perspective on drone application to students without an engineering background.  Also presentation given to US Space Law Class
Gracelin Limbo  GA-ASI Rolling Hills Elementary, San Diego CA None TK-5 grade students presented their science projects. Students generally followed, and presented, a problem, hypothesis, research, procedure, tools/materials, outcome and conclusion. I provided feedback, asked questions, and filled out a rubric for each student. 
Aaron Sathrum GA-EMS Rolling Hills Elementary School, San Diego CA None Judged 74 science fair projects TK-5th grades. Engaged with parents too. We had three GA employees as judges!
Laura Tran, Christina Tran GA-ASI Mira Mesa High School, San Diego CA Robot parts & tournament fee Attend weekly meetings to the help students plan for upcoming competition.
Jesus Rangel  GA-ASI Hoover High School, San Diego CA Purchasing equipment for robotics for high school FIRST robotics team. Gave presentation on what engineering is (objectively), why I chose engineering as a career, and my nonlinear or nontraditional path to becoming an engineering. Presentation also included a bit about GA and what the company does, and a general engineering design process. We also spent time answering questions and watching the kids work on their robot and ready them for competition
Joshua Pine GA-ASI Cal State San Marcos, Super STEM Saturday 2026, San Marcos CA None Helped man the GA booth at the Super STEM Saturday event. Answered questions from visitors and helped with setup, demonstrations, and teardown.
Jesus Rangel  GA-ASI Cal State San Marcos, Super STEM Saturday 2026, San Marcos CA None Performed demonstrations showcasing principles of magnetic fields and induced currents at GA's Discovery booth at STEM event. 
Daren Wade GA-ASI Cal State San Marcos, Super STEM Saturday 2026, San Marcos CA Items for science fair demonstrations Participate in Super Stem Saturday event
Robin Jacobson, Stevie Jacobson GA-ASI Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair (GSDSEF), San Diego CA None Judging at Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair for 2026 AIAA awards banquet
Robert Erwin  GA Science  Olympiad, San Diego CA Sand Hopper for testing towers and bridges. Judging Science Olympiad event "Write It Do It" and associated work.
Thomas Dring  GA-ASI Sage Canyon elementary, San Diego CA NOETIC Math Exam Fees (FALL + SPRING)
Math Prep Book
Taught 5th Grade Math Club Once per week during school year. Monitoring Math Exam when required.
Jesus Rangel  GA-ASI SeaPerch, San Diego CA None Set and re-set obstacle courses in shallow end of pool between rounds for an underwater robotics competition. 
Andrew Escalante, Jacob Obert, Michael Busch  GA-ASI Options For Youth, grades 9-12, Victorville CA None Andrew Escalante, Michael Busch, and Jacob Obert participated in the Options For Youth Career Fair at the Victor Valley College Event Center in Victorville CA. An MQ-9B Model along with 2 engines and 2 T.V's were used for our display. We engaged with students from grades 9-12 along with college students as well. We provided different career paths and information on internship programs that General Atomics provides.