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Musician and tech entrepreneur will.i.am has teamed with Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner to herald a new effort to boost STEAM skills for students in underserved communities, the district has announced. The news was detailed, aptly, at a robotics competition at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights on Wednesday, June 23.

LAUSD and will.i.am’s i.am Angel Foundation will join forces to sharpen students’ STEM skills — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — at 400 new robotics clubs at middle and high schools around the district. About 12,000 students are expected to participate when the school year starts in August, Beutner said.

“Twelve thousand more students will have the opportunity to learn a how to play new team sport – building robots and competing alongside friends,” said Beutner, who is leaving the district when his contract concludes at the end of the month. “STEAM education will provide students with hands-on learning opportunities and the knowledge needed to earn good-paying jobs in the technology industry.”

The Angel Foundation offers after-school tutoring, STEAM courses, robotics clubs and computer coding classes in his home neighborhood of Boyle Heights, as well as East Los Angeles and nearby areas.

Its founder is best known as an actor, singer, songwriter and record producer — and as a founding member of top-selling The Black Eyed Peas musical group. He has also logged successes in the worlds of TV production, communications, technology and fashion. And he has a soft soft for robotics.

“My mission is to put a robotics club in every public school, and we are off to a great start with this new program in Los Angeles,” will.i.am said Wednesday.

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