One Baltimore nonprofit is stoking student interest in science and engineering by combining classroom lessons with dirt bike riding.
B-360 has been serving Charm City toddlers through teenagers since 2017, when CEO Brittany Young decided to retire from her city schools teaching job to start the nonprofit. This summer is the fourth year she’s offering a two-week-long summer program at no cost to families.
“I used to be a technology teacher that had five working computers with classes of 50 students max to 30 at the minimum,” she told WYPR. “I had to figure out, how do you keep your kids engaged? How do you make sure they learn? How do you make it fun?”
Young said she’s expecting to serve around 400 campers over the span of three sessions this summer. But funding is going to be tight, she said. Each summer season costs around $750,000.
The American Rescue Plan dollars that served as a “great, heavy ramp” to boost B-360’s budget for the past few years expire this year, Young said. And this spring, she found out the Trump administration revoked a grant earmarked for $1.25 million.
“That could have lasted for at least three to four years,” Young said.
The nonprofit is mainly supported by donations from local organizations, she said, notably including partnerships with the city’s Recreation and Parks Department and Baltimore City Public Schools.
But Young said the school district was only able to fund 30 summer camp seats this year. Last year, they backed 70.
“The cost is the biggest in the summer because it's basically a school for dirt bikes,” Young said. “We give them camp, we give the meals, we do the snacks, transportation. And then all the team staff, everyone that's here gets paid, from 11 up.”
In early July, the B-360 team set aside a week without campers to train the newest “junior counselors” — all former camp attendees who outgrew the programming.
There are 11 of them this summer, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years old. Each one is paid a $300 per week stipend, or employed by YouthWorks for $15 an hour.
In the midst of scorching July heat on the field behind Bocek Recreation Center, they learn how to fix dirt bikes, administer CPR training, and spread the skills they learned to the next generation.
Kamari is the youngest of the group, but he was a camper for six years. He said he’s most excited to “see the kids get better” at riding and repairing.
“I looked up to the older people when I used to be a camper,” he said. “I used to look up to them like, ‘Yeah, I want to actually work here and get the feeling of being a junior instructor and watching the campers do their thing.’”
Campers spend half the day Tuesday through Friday learning from Roland Park Elementary teacher Jasmine White, who’s been a math instructor for five years.
“Every single lesson relates to dirt bikes in some kind of way,” she said. “So it's more applicable than like being at school.”
White helps the kids run experiments like dropping a match in a rubbing alcohol solution to mimic an engine starting, or trying to free their finger from a mix of corn starch and water to simulate a bike tire stuck in mud.
Shyne, a 13-year-old junior counselor, says the lessons are much more interesting and relevant than normal school.
“In school, they just make you learn about stuff that happened, like, years ago. And it's the same stuff every year,” he said. “But here, you learn about new stuff every day. So you might learn about how to change the tire today, and tomorrow you learn how to change the spark plug.”
White says students are “absolutely more engaged” than they are in her typical classroom.
“They want to be at camp, so the buy-in is already there,” she said.
B-360’s annual report from 2024 says that 92% of students who attended either summer or weekend school-year programming expressed interest in STEM careers at the end of their sessions. The nonprofit interacted with 3,200 students in the past year.
But Young says one of the most important ways they measure success is the level of support they can give city teenagers from pre-K to college. For example, she said, the nonprofit gave a $5,000 scholarship to one of its employees, Treasure, who graduated from Baltimore City schools and will start at Bowie State University this fall.
“One of the big challenges we see now is with the current climate like, yes, she's ready to go to college, she has the grades,” Young said. “But the money isn't matching, right? And so we also need people to think about how to continue to support young adults in this journey.”
