Built by a Principal Who Wanted More for Her Own Kids
Journey to STEAM is the Portland metro's award-winning, principal-founded STEAM enrichment program: LEGO engineering, robotics and coding for ages 3 to 12 at schools, parks and libraries across four counties. Voted a Top 5 STEAM program by Portland families two years running.
"Why should my kid be the only one getting this?"
Arielle Hammond built robots at her kitchen table with her daughter and went looking for a program that would do it better. She found franchises selling a brand and a binder. She walked away from buying one and started Journey to STEAM in November 2023. The first class ran that December.
Three years later, Journey to STEAM runs programs across 10+ school districts, 75+ schools and community sites, and four counties in Oregon and Washington, with instructors she'd trust with her own kids and projects written by educators who teach kids for a living.
Bringing joy to learning.
What we believe
Joy is the point
Kids who love the room learn more in it. Every program is built to be their favorite day of the week, and the skills follow.
The person in the room matters most
Brand recognition doesn't teach a kid to debug a robot. A trained, screened, coached instructor does. Fewer than 10% of applicants make it.
Every kid gets a seat
Need-based scholarships in every program, funded by us. No child is turned away because of finances.
Future-ready means people-ready
Collaboration, productive struggle and presenting your work are on the plan every week, next to the coding and the building.
Schools shouldn't have to do more
A former principal built this so an office forwards one flyer and everything else is handled.
Local, by design
Portland-area instructors, Portland-area schools, and a founder who lives here. Oregon COBID-certified minority-owned and woman-owned business (#15065).
The team
Dr. Arielle Hammond, Ed.D.
Founder and CEO. Teach For America. Principal at 24. A decade leading schools. Ed.D. from Lewis & Clark focused on equity, access and STEM identity in K-12 enrichment; M.S. from Johns Hopkins; Amherst College.
Ryan Hammond
Co-founder. U.S. Coast Guard veteran. Technology, logistics and the equipment that shows up in every classroom.
Jessica Vorster
Program Manager. Twenty years of teaching on three continents: she began in Cambodia with a United Nations program, taught elementary after-school programs in Taiwan, spent a decade teaching English online and building e-learning courses, and substituted in Portland Public Schools elementary classrooms. A youth soccer coach who joined Journey to STEAM as an instructor in 2025, Jessica now runs every school partnership, roster and instructor schedule. Schools and families work with her directly at (503) 506-3287.
Cover story: NW Kids Magazine, April 2026
“AI Is Coming. These Summer Camps Are Getting Kids Ready.”
How one former principal is preparing 2,500+ Oregon students for jobs that don’t exist yet. By Patti Jo Brooks, Active Media. Pages 22 to 24.
NW Kids Magazine put Journey to STEAM on its April 2026 cover and Summer Camp Guide. The story follows Dr. Arielle Hammond from building robots at the kitchen table with her five-year-old to leading a team that has now taught 2,500+ kids across Portland, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Oregon City, Lake Oswego, Happy Valley, Corbett, Vancouver and Camas.
It also gets at why we teach the way we do. Teamwork, collaboration and productive struggle sit next to the coding and the building in every class, because the kids in our rooms will work in a world where the technical part keeps changing. Over 90% of surveyed parents said they would highly recommend us, and 95% of school partners invite us back.
Click a page to read it full size, or read the whole April 2026 issue at NW Kids Magazine.
Recognition
- PDX Parent Readers' Choice Top 5, 2025 and 2026
- NW Kids Magazine Best Camps finalist, 2024 and 2025
- Featured on the cover of NW Kids Magazine, April 2026
- Oregon COBID-certified minority-owned and woman-owned business, #15065
Come build with us
Find your school's class, get camp dates first, or bring Journey to STEAM to your school.