PICO is deeply committed to mentoring and supporting social entrepreneurs.
PICO Kids is the social enterprise of PICO Venture Partners and an embodiment of our firm’s values
PICO Kids is a Jerusalem-based organization, which consists of programs and partnerships that deliver STEEM (Science Technology Engineering Entrepreneurship & Math) education through hands-on, project-based learning designed to develop a sense of wonder and propensity for action. We deliver programs to students from first grade through high school, in both in-school and after-school settings, across Jerusalem schools and cultural landmarks, with vastly differing economic, social, and religious groups.
Learn more at www.picokids.org
At PICO Kids, we are driven by two core beliefs:
First, we believe that the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants have unique attributes for entrepreneurial success. We invest in educating Jerusalem youth because we know that they will become the leaders of our innovation nation.
Second, we believe that the accelerating pace of technological change calls for a transformation in education. This requires cultivating 21st century skills built on a foundation of core values and driven by a sense of mission.
This is the PICO recipe for significance and success. Ultimately, our goal is that our kids will grow up to be positive change makers both within Israel and across the world.
Our programs include:
+ PICO ROBOTICS
Partners with the FIRST, an international youth organization which operates robotics competitions, to challenge kids to think like scientists and engineers, as they work together to design, tinker, and build robots.
+ PICO MAKERS
Provides a collaborative workspace for creator kids to take their ideas from design to construction. Kids have the opportunity to compete in makeathons, team-based competitions that involve solving complex challenges through a rapid prototyping process.
+ PICO AMBASSADORS
Builds bridges by allowing kids to participate in an exchange program with advanced schools around the world, and facilitates an understanding that we all share challenges for which we can co-create solutions.
+ QUEEN B
Aims to increase the number of women in the hi-tech industry by utilizing female mentors from the field of computer science to train school-age girls to code.
+ DA VINCI
Allows highly motivated high school students to take courses at Hebrew University.
Featured
We also support the following initiatives:
KAIMA
In Israel there are more than 30,000 boys and girls, some as young as 15-years-old, who have dropped out of school. Kaima’s mission is to help these young kids turn their lives around through a multi-layered educational process combining hands-on organic farming, leadership development, business learning, and community development.
REGAVIM
Regavim (meaning “clods of earth”) is an alternative boarding school that aims to connect Israeli youth with the land through agricultural education. Regavim students spend their mornings working on farms and their afternoons in a standard classroom setting. Bat Shlomo Vineyards is one of the 30 farms where students plant, tend, sow, and harvest the land – reinvigorating our country of pioneers with an ideological and youthful spirit.