The Bambu Lab School Ambassador Program is turning students across North America into hands-on educators, not just makers. As classrooms fill back up this September, the company has revealed the first results of its year-long initiative, which puts 3D printers directly into the hands of young people who use them to teach their peers, their teachers and their wider communities.

Since launching in May 2026, the program has grown to fifty ambassadors chosen from nearly 400 applicants, spanning eighth graders through to PhD candidates. They are spread across 11 U.S. states and three Canadian cities, and each one has been using 3D printing, along with ongoing support from Bambu Lab, to run workshops, classes, demonstrations and other STEM activities in their local areas.

Fifty Ambassadors, Thirty Thousand People Reached

Over the summer months alone, ambassadors logged 41 separate events that reached more than 30,000 participants. More than half of those events were education-focused, while the rest were split between community engagement activities and product demonstrations. For a program that only launched a few months earlier, the scale of that reach is significant, and it points to an appetite for hands-on STEM learning that goes well beyond a single classroom.

For many of the students involved, the motivation is straightforward. 3D printing lets an idea move from a screen to something a person can actually hold, and that jump from concept to object tends to stick with young learners in a way that theory alone does not.

From Georgia to Vancouver: Students Teaching Students

Rohan Amin, a 10th grader at Lakeside High School in Georgia, said his own path into engineering shaped why he wanted to join. “I wanted to become a Bambu Lab School Ambassador because 3D printing has become a big part of my own journey with engineering,” Amin said. “I started getting more involved with CAD, robotics, and 3D printing, and I really enjoyed being able to take an idea I had in my head, design it on a computer, and then actually hold it in my hands. That experience made me realize how powerful 3D printing can be for students.”

Amin said he hopes to pass that same opportunity on to other kids rather than have them wait until college or a first job to encounter the technology. “I believe 3D printing is going to be a huge part of the future, and I don’t think students should have to wait until college or a job to start learning about it,” he said. “If I can help even one student discover that they want to become an engineer because of something they created with a 3D printer, that would make this worth it to me.”

In Vancouver, eighth grader Neo Chan has taken the technology in a different direction entirely. Through a project called Medi Pals, Chan and his family design miniature 3D-printed medical device models that attach to stuffed animals, helping younger children process medical treatments through play. The project has already delivered more than 9,000 kits to hospitals and clinics across Canada. “3D printing is the tool that turns ideas into real objects that can solve problems,” Chan said. “Being a Bambu Lab School Ambassador allows me to share how 3D printing can be used not just to make objects, but to solve real problems.”

How the Program Actually Works

Each ambassador receives a Bambu Lab printer, a supply of filament and a set of program materials, then gets paired with a regional partner for ongoing support throughout the year. As they run events and log activity, ambassadors can progress through the program’s tiers, working toward annual honours that include a founder-signed recommendation letter and a printer of their choice.

Mila Zhang, Program Lead for the Bambu Lab School Ambassador Program, said the students have effectively become STEM educators and community organisers in their own right. “Across North America, these students are stepping up as STEM educators and community leaders,” Zhang said. “They’re organizing workshops, teaching classes, running demonstrations, bringing hands-on STEM to their peers, their teachers, and their neighborhoods. Watching them lead these amazing initiatives is the most rewarding part of this program.”

What Comes Next

The 2026 School Ambassador Program runs through May 2027, giving the current group of fifty roughly nine more months to build on the events already logged this summer. Given the pace of the first few months, that timeline leaves plenty of room for the total reach to climb well past 30,000 by the time the program wraps.

Bambu Lab has become one of the more visible names in consumer desktop 3D printing over recent years, and this initiative reads as an attempt to build goodwill and grassroots familiarity with the technology among a younger audience, well before those students become buyers themselves. Students interested in a future round are encouraged to follow Bambu Lab‘s official social media channels for updates on how the program develops and whether new ambassador spots open up.

Whether the program continues to scale at this rate will depend partly on how many schools and community groups pick up on what these fifty students have started. For now, the early numbers suggest a genuine appetite among young people not just to use a 3D printer, but to teach someone else how to use one too.