8 MIT students on a cross-country 3,500 mile bike ride across America

This summer, Spokes America has sent a team of 8 MIT students on a cross-country bike ride starting in D.C. and ending in San Francisco. Over the course of 75 days, the team will bike over 3,500 miles and will host Learning Festivals in several small towns along the America.

On Wednesday, May 29th, the MIT team was in Front Royal. The Royal Examiner played host and put them up for the night in our studio. We went to dinner at Rancho Nuevo for mexican food and afterwards to C&C Frozen Treats for ice cream. We just had to introduce them to “Crazy Willie”. They sampled several flavors, but the lemon zinger was a hit with several of the team. In the morning we started the day with breakfast at LDees Pancake House on Main Street.

We gathered the group in our studio and had this conversation:

From left to right, Maile Jim, Leah Yost, Caralyn Cutlip, Erin Leydon, Devin Seyler, Bill Kuhl and Edgardo Letona. The missing member Evan Tey will be joining the team after his graduation next week.

The team is ready to head out. They have applied the sunscreen and checked the map and headed down Route 340 to Skyline Drive.

Here’s a little background information about this year’s MIT Spokes:

Spokes America is a non-profit, student-run initiative as part of an effort to rethink STEM education.

They are a team of 8 students comprised of five freshmen, one sophomore, one senior, and a recent graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. They all came to MIT to pursue their passions in math, science and even humanities, but more importantly, they believe in sharing their knowledge with others to inspire future generations.

What they’ll do on the trip when they host the Learning Fesitvals is to create curriculums that complement each school’s curriculum inspired by MIT’s hands-on approach to education. They’ll teach these workshops to schools, libraries, and summer camps all across the United States. They will  establish strong connections with communities, students, and host families along the way. They’ camp. They’ll sweat (a lot). They’ll become a family.

Oh yeah…and they’ll bike the whole 3,500 miles.

Their initiative is two-fold. They want to show that yes, engineers and scientists can be athletic too. They are breaking stereotypes. They are also stepping out of their comfort zones, physically and mentally. And…how many people can say they’ve biked across the United States of America?

Follow their trip across America here.