Volunteers

Welcome Volunteers

The California Invention Convention is always in need of helpful volunteers of all ages. If you are passionate about helping students learn, enabling their inquisitive and creative nature, or just love kids and innovation, you’re the perfect person to get involved.

To keep our costs low and our student scholarships as high as possible, the Invention Convention relies on our very small staff and a talented pool of local volunteers. No matter what your age or profession, if you love working with students and believe in the importance of teaching our youth critical thinking skills, we’d love to talk with you about a role as a volunteer on our team.

As you can see by the list on the sidebar, we have several areas where you can participate.

Looking to fulfill hours with your service club or internship with a great non-profit organization? We welcome high school and college student volunteers as well!

Learn more about how to become a volunteer by contacting us.

Ways You Can Help

Event Staff – Helping to set up, registration and check-in, publicity, clearing up – so much to do!! There are Conventions at your local school where your help is needed. And of course, the state-wide Invention Convention in the Spring can only be a success if we have lots of volunteer help.
Judges– Each child’s invention is judged by “judging circles”. These judging circles can consist of peer groups assisted by an adult – or in the larger Conventions, the judging circles may all be adults. An important part of invention education consists of getting feedback and being valued – and this is in part what you do as a judge. There is a short training prior to the judging and we supply you with the rubrics you will need.
Mentors – Not every child’s family is able to give him the support he needs in the invention process. Mentors work with children one-on-one, discussing potential problems to solve and ways to approach the problem, providing encouragement. Mentoring is a commitment of 1-2 hours a month. For some children, you as mentor will make the difference so that he can believe in himself.
Marketing – As we grow, we need to spread the word about our vision, accomplishments, plans. We want every school in California that currently has invention education to participate in the state-wide California Invention Convention. We want all other schools to have at least one class participating in invention education. We need help getting our message to communities, schools, and school districts across the state.

Learn more about the California Invention Convention.