Not passing on fear about job insecurity to our children

Every day you can turn on the television and see the bleak news of the bad economy and record number of job losses. Our economy has been losing jobs for years, but now that the job losses have moved to the educated workforce everyone has begun to panic. Our children can see that sense of panic and anxiety even if they don't understand fully what is going on. We have to find a way not to let the temporary circumstances of our economy (the economy flows is a cycle of growth and lost) make our children feel uncertain about their future.

Ghandi has a quote, that is one of my favorite quote, "The future depends on what we do it the present. So what can we do to ensure that our children have a bright future. The first thing is not to let our anxieties become their anxieties, skill allow them to be children and not be concerned about adult issues. Spend time with your children, so they can learn that relationships not things are important. Finally encourage your children to use education as a key to building a bright future but do it from a different perspective. Instead of telling them, get good grades, go to college, get a good job, get a house, etc, but tell them to chart their career path based on their passion and aptitude. Please pay attention to the subject areas your children enjoy and excel at and do your best to expose them to activities that can develop that interest. Our organization has plenty of programs for those children that have an interest in math and science.

What this current recession has taught us is that the "traditional" paths to success and security aren't secure anymore. We must empower our children to chart their own path and give them the tools and exposure they need to do so while in grades K-12, so they can have a successful and happy career path inspite of the "economic woes" that may or may not exist when they enter the workforce.

SEM Link 2008-09 Programs Closing Events

The 2008-09 program year is coming to a close and we are in the stage of planning our final two events. This year has been another year of defining who we are as a organization, building new relationships and most importantly exposing more youth to our programs. The final two events for the year are a Science Cafe on HIV co-sponsored by the CDC on Wednesday, April 8 from 6-7 pm at the Southwest Regional Library of the Atlanta Fulton Library System. This is an interactive discussion lead by Dr. Keri Norris of the CDC to discuss a disease affects so many communities in our nation and the world.

The final event for our program year is our 2nd Annual Science, Engineering and Mathematics Career Fair and Exhibition on Saturday, May 2 from 1-4 pm at Georgia State University. This event is free and open to the public and is set up similar to a job fair where we expose K-12 students to careers in these disciplines.

It is very exciting to close another successful program year and we are looking forward to the 2009-10 Program Year

Introduction to SEM Link

In 2005, when I created SEM Link, my vision for the organization was to connect K-12 students and educators to science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate students, graduate students and professionals in order to enhance the science and math educational experiences for K-12 students. I wanted bring some of the strong math and science content to add to the educational experience of students. As the organization has evolved over the years, we have exposed over 200 metro Atlanta youth to various stem career paths, providing science and math fair project mentors and judges and engaged students in hands on activities. We are truly achieving our vision of "unveiling potential through exposure". We need people that have science, math and engineering backgrounds or have an organization to support our organization by volunteering or donating to the organization, so we can increase our impact in the Metro Atlanta community and beyond.