Science, Engineering and Mathematics Link Inc

Educational Check In

2011-01-05T11:47:00.001-05:00

The kid are back in school from a long holiday break. Do you know how your children are doing in school? This time of year is a great time for you to check in with your child(ren) and their teachers to see where they are as far in their grades and what they are learning in all subjects, but especially math and science. If they are doing well, it is a great time to encourage them to continue to great job. Find fun ways over the holidays and every day to keep the excited, engaged and learning math and science. Whether it is finding online games, visiting your local science museums or engaging in math and science related events in your community. If they are not doing well, it is plenty of time for them to recover and do well the rest of the year. Find out from them the areas in which they are struggling and make time for them to review the concepts with you. In addition, find educational support for them to ensure they are able to get the concepts whether it is teaching them study skills, finding tutorial support with online homework help or tutorial support, or finding hands on activities to help them grasp the concepts. Whatever, it is don't let your child continue to struggle in math and science when it is plenty of time to recover and do well.

In addition, to ensuring that your child is doing well with coursework, it is important that you prepare them for standardized test. Testing season is around the corner, it is important that you get involved in your child's standardized test preparation because unfortunately the educational climate is one where we are teaching to the test instead of encouraging lifelong learning. So if you want your child to learn the concepts beyond the test, you must be involved in their test preparation. The school can provide you with old test or practice test and some states even have the content for standardized test on the department of education's website. Not only ensure that your child understand the concepts on the test, but practice with them in testing conditions. Many children don't do well on standardized test not because they don't know the material, because they haven't mastered finishing questions in a certain time frame.

Our children won't have the ability to pursue STEM careers if they aren't academically prepared to do so. So let's do what we can to ensure that our children are achieving and excelling academically in math and science. We can't rely on the schools alone to educate our children. Learning must take place inside and outside of the classroom.

Making STEM a Part of Your Holiday Break

2010-12-22T14:38:00.003-05:00

It is the winter holiday break and most of you have a minimum of two weeks to think about what to do with your kids. Breaks from school are a great opportunity to provide outside of the classroom learning experiences for your children. So don't just let your children sit around the house, watching TV and playing video games, but engage them in doing and talking about science.

Earlier this week, there was a lunar eclipse. If you didn't get a chance to see it,there are plenty of articles on the web. Have a discussion not only about the eclipse but astronomy as well as some of the cool things that NASA is doing in space. NASA has some great activities on their website to discuss astronomy and space travel. As you prepare your holiday meal, you can discuss the advances that STEM played a part in the advances in food science and technology. Take a look at all your kitchen gadgets as well as talk about the organic versus non organic food that you will use to prepare your meal. If the weather permits in your area, go on a hike and discuss what you see outside or visit your local science museum. If it is just too cold or rainy to go outside, play one of the many fun math and science games on the web. The things is that holidays are time for fun with family, so why not make some of that fun a learning opportunity in math and science.

Engaging K-12 Students in Scientific Research As a Part of Career Exploration

2010-12-09T14:48:00.001-05:00

One of our programs is the Experimental Design Program, which provides math and science fair project support to K-12 students and educators. This program teaches students how to design and conduct experiments for math and science fairs. They utilize research, laboratory and scientific literacy skills gained through individual and group learning opportunities as well as mentoring. This program improves the quantity and quality of math and science fair projects for students by providing schools with undergraduate students, graduate students and professional mentors with science technology, engineering and math backgrounds.

Engaging students in scientific research during their secondary education is a wonderful opportunity for STEM career exploration. When engaging the students in research they get an opportunity to get full exposure to what most STEM professionals that have a traditional career path, engage in research. When working on a research project, they are answering questions, learning about scientific concepts and principles, reading the work of other STEM professionals, learning laboratory and research techniques. They also learn valuable scientific literacy skills of reading, writing and talking science. If they enjoy research while they are a K-12 student, they will hopefully make steps to pursue a STEM career. If they don't enjoy research, they will learn valuable skills that they can transfer to any career path they chose. The great thing about K-12 student exploring career at any early age is that they can back better decisions and steps towards pursue their desired career path

Why is STEM such a hot topic right now?

2010-12-08T00:32:00.003-05:00

In 2005, when SEM Link was founded there wasn't much talk about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM);nor was there such a focus on math and science education. The focus in education was the basics the three R's- reading, riting (writing) and rithmetic (arithmetic) and test scores. But now the tides have turned and everyone is talking about STEM and math and science education. Although I am not sure why, I have noticed several changes in how STEM and STEM education is viewed and the resources that have been poured into by corporations, government agencies and nonprofits.

As the world economy is becoming more global, the United States is realizing that if we want to remain a global superpower some things have to change. Some of the countries that are emerging as leaders in our global economy have strong math and science education and a strong STEM sector. Therefore part of this buzz about math and science is realizing that the innovation of society is dependent of STEM. If we want to have a strong STEM sector, it starts with the quality of the math and science education we provide to our youth.

Secondly, the leadership of the country changed. Yes, President Obama is a strong supporter of math and science education. He has made one of the focuses of his administration and has made several speeches about its importance. But in the past few years, corporations and government agencies are realizing that the current STEM workforce is preparing to retire soon and there isn't anyone in the pipeline to replace them. Therefore, corporations and government agencies have been pouring resources into K-16 education to ensure there is a future pipeline for the STEM workforce. What they also have realized is that the current STEM workforce isn't a reflection of our diverse society. Therefore there are resources targeted towards encouraging historically underrepresented populations to pursue STEM careers.

Finally, there are efforts to make pursuing STEM careers cool for children. I read a press release today about a campaign to promote Rock Stars of Science. I would have never put rock stars and science together. In addition, many celebrities such as Mos Def and Mary J. Blige have been involved in campaign to encourage youth to pursue STEM careers.
I'm very excited that STEM careers are being pushed because I truly believe if you want to look at the strength of a nation and its economy, you can look at the strength of the STEM sector. I just want to be sure that we do all we can to "unveil potential through exposure" and create the pipeline for the future STEM workforce.

End of the Year Educational Check In

2010-11-29T12:48:00.003-05:00

Is almost December and the school year is progressing fast. Do you know how your children are doing in school? The holidays are a great time for you to check in with your child(ren) and their teachers to see where they are as far in their grades and what they are learning in all subjects, but especially math and science. If they are doing well, it is a great time to encourage them to continue to great job. Find fun ways over the holidays and every day to keep the excited, engaged and learning math and science. Whether it is finding online games, visiting your local science museums or engaging in math and science related events in your community. If they are not doing well, it is plenty of time for them to recover and do well the rest of the year. Find out from them the areas in which they are struggling and make time for them to review the concepts with you. In addition, find educational support for them to ensure they are able to get the concepts whether it is teaching them study skills, finding tutorial support with online homework help or tutorial support, or finding hands on activities to help them grasp the concepts. Whatever, it is don't let your child continue to struggle in math and science when it is plenty of time to recover and do well.

In addition, to ensuring that your child is doing well with coursework, it is important that you prepare them for standardized test. Testing season is around the corner, it is important that you get involved in your child's standardized test preparation because unfortunately the educational climate is one where we are teaching to the test instead of encouraging lifelong learning. So if you want your child to learn the concepts beyond the test, you must be involved in their test preparation. The school can provide you with old test or practice test and some states even have the content for standardized test on the department of education's website. Not only ensure that your child understand the concepts on the test, but practice with them in testing conditions. Many children don't do well on standardized test not because they don't know the material, because they haven't mastered finishing questions in a certain time frame.

Our children won't have the ability to pursue STEM careers if they aren't academically prepared to do so. So let's do what we can to ensure that our children are achieving and excelling academically in math and science. We can't rely on the schools alone to educate our children. Learning must take place inside and outside of the classroom.

STEM Education: Connect Academics to Careers

2010-11-18T11:37:00.004-05:00

Over the past few years, there has been a focus on math and science education and STEM. Since President Obama has been in office, it seems like almost everyone is jumping on the "how important math and science education is and/or we need our kids to help us create our future STEM workforce" bandwagon. It seems like more resources are being put into enhancing math and science education programs. However, with all this attention on math and science, people are really not paying attention to the hows and whys we have gotten to this point in education and in our economy.

If you pay attention to economies of the world's wealthiest countries; they have a strong educational system where there kids excel academically in all or most disciplines. The reason why education is linked to a strong economy because it is with education that you are able to have workforce that has the skills for the jobs in your economy. When the United States had a strong economy and was the global leader, we had a great educational system. However, now the current state of our educational system is that students aren't graduating with the skills for the jobs that are currently available in our economy. There are various reasons for this, however my main theory behind this is not enough kids or parents think about their future as it relates to connecting their education with their future careers.

I remember when was growing up, I remember always knowing that I was going to get good grades so I can go to college and get a good job. But even my peers, who didn't have any aspirations to go to college, had some plan in mind for a career, job or business after high school graduation. However, today's kids and parents are missing that connection to their education and their place in the future workforce and it takes place in all socioeconomic levels. So why people are asking where are all the jobs going? The question they should be asking is I am preparing myself and my children to become a part of jobs that are available in the current and future economy?

The great thing about STEM is that this is a sector that never disappears from any economy. STEM professional have been around since the beginning of time coming up with solutions to make our lives easier, solve the major problems of the time period and create innovation. There are jobs being added to the STEM sector daily and unfortunately many of them go unfilled. The reason why they are going unfilled is because we aren't preparing our children to pursue STEM careers. The great thing about education is that is is not only a tool to train and equip students with skills, but it opens one's eyes to see the possibilities. If we are going to have a future STEM workforce, we have to not only give our kids the skills to academically achieve in math and science, but allow them to see the possibility of having a career in those fields.

When and where are our kids learning science?

2010-11-13T15:19:00.005-05:00

Over the past few years, I have been realizing that not all kids are receiving a quality science education like I did when I was in school. I have memories of conducting science experiments both at home and in school as early as elementary school. However, I am realizing that kids today don't have the same opportunities that I did which seems like yesterday, when I was a child.

I have been spending time in schools and realizing that kids aren't engaged in enough hands on science or science that is relevant to them that makes them interested in science. I was having a conversation with a 5th grader and he was talking about what he learned in science class that day. What they learned bored me to death, they were talking about a scientist that is dead and technology that is obsolete. I know that science history is an important part of science, but kids should be learning something that is relevant and current and about scientists that are alive today. But thing that I was grateful was that at least this student was learning science.

In most state curriculum the core subjects are language arts, math, social studies and science. However,there are studies that show that elementary students don't always get an adequate amount of science as a part of their curriculum. There are various reasons for this, the main reason is that not enough resources are put into science education because science is rarely on the standardized test that have become a critical part of education. Another reason is not all elementary teachers feel comfortable enough to teach their students science. With elementary school being the foundation for learning in all subject areas, if there is no strong foundation for science how will kids excel when they go to middle and high school. This doesn't create an environment for our kids to excel in science, let alone pursue careers in these fields.

What we are a community have to do is hold the educational systems accountable for ensuring that science has an equal importance as the subjects that are on standardized test. When students academically achieve in science not only do they learn great skill set, but we create a pipeline for the future STEM workforce.

Whoo Hoo It is the 2010 National Chemistry Week

2010-10-20T01:25:00.005-04:00

This week, October 17-23,2010, is National Chemistry Week,which as science educator is one of my favorite times of the year, along with National Engineers Week in February. Now these two STEM themed weeks, may be my favorite because I have a degree in chemical engineering. However, I realize that these weeks bring attention to two career paths that aren't pursued not because kids are intellectually capable but aren't exposed to these career paths enough. I also think people don't realize how much chemistry is connected to their everyday lives. Almost everything we do and most of the technological advances that improve our quality of life or entertain us are based on chemistry. One of my favorite entrepreneurs Madame CJ Walker,became a millionaire from a real-world application of chemistry, making hair care products.

National Chemistry Week (NCW) is a community-based annual event that unites American Chemical Society (ACS) local sections, businesses, schools, and individuals in communicating the importance of chemistry to our quality of life ( for more information check out this website http://bit.ly/d1WGTd). Although this event is a program of the American Chemical Society, there are many scientific professional societies and STEM educational organizations and schools that host national chemistry week events. Every year since its inception, SEM Link has celebrated National Chemistry Week by engaging K-12 students in hands on activities in chemistry and career exploration in these fields. We were able to do this through partnerships with our local section of American Chemical Society and volunteers that were chemical professionals or graduate or undergraduate students.

The 2010 National Chemistry week is exciting because we are hosting celebrations on both coasts. In Metropolitan Atlanta, we are partnering with Georgia Institute of Technology to visit local middle schools to engage kids in hands on chemistry activities and provide role models for these students. We are excited to provide these students an opportunity to meet and interact with undergraduate and graduate students that can serve as role models for those kids that are interested in science. In Oakland, we are hosting a National Chemistry Week Celebration with our San Francisco Bay Area community partner the ASA Community Science Center. This event is extra special because it is a satellite event of the USA Science & Engineering Festival. The festival, which is in its inaugural year, is a national celebration of Science engineering that takes place October 10-23, 2010. At the Oakland event, which is free and open to the public, we are going to expose kids to chemistry through hands on activities.

National Chemistry Week is another opportunity for us to do what we do as an organization "unveil potential through exposure"

Using Stereotypes to Connect With Our Children and Encourage Them To Achieve in Math and Science

2010-08-28T10:19:00.004-04:00

This week I attended a training on Cultural Competency; which is a nutshell is being aware of the diversity of student populations that you serve. This training is mainly given in urban areas because they serve a population of students with a diverse backgrounds. Most individuals in education do it with good intentions because they really want to make a difference in the lives of children, however at times they end up doing more harm than good because they don't understand how to work with children of diverse backgrounds. One of the topics we discussed during this training was stereotypes that are given to various ethnic groups and genders. The trainer stated that at times stereotypes that are simply describe the typical behavior or characteristics of a group, not any of those that are demeaning and degrading, can be used to help you connect with children of that group. Since I am African American and woman, I will use stereotypes with those groups to show how you can use those stereotypes to introduce kids to and help them connect with STEM.

One of the stereotypes for African Americans is that we are fast, good at sports and performing arts. Those stereotypes are true for members of our community because they have been several successful African American athletes and performing artists. However, the reality of the situation is that no matter how good you are in sports or performing arts, a vast minority of the students that have talents in those fields are able to make a decent living or become wealthy from these careers. Therefore we have to allow our students to pursue those interests, but also steer them to pursue other interest towards careers that they can go to college and graduate school to become successful in that career path. In order to help students connect science and math with sports, there are several principles and disciplines of math and science that you can introduce your students to and make a connection between their interests outside of STEM. You can talk about speed, velocity, buoyancy and other principles of physics when describing a variety of sports such as track, football, baseball and basketball. You can also discuss material science and chemistry when discussing how the uniforms, the equipment used and in some cases the field on which in the sports are made. Finally you can discuss biology, nutrition and anatomy and physiology when you discuss how athletes train and prepare their body to excel in sports. While discussing these topics in relation to sports and performing arts, you can not only have great lesson in content but discuss STEM careers that are related to these performing artists and sports such as computer and electrical engineers, material scientists, biologists, sports medicine, physical therapy, etc.

There are so many stereotypes about women, but one of the main ones that sticks in my head is that we are emotional and talk a lot. Although as I woman I hate to admit it, but I can be emotional and chatty at times. However, understanding emotions is part of understanding human behavior and can be great discussion to introducing kids to neuroscience. Neuroscience is so important because it studies, discovers and explains how the brain works and the human brain controls everything about our body and how we operate as humans as a whole and individuals.

One of the things that I love about STEM is that it is the basis for and is connected to everything in our society. Unfortunately, we don't have enough discussions with our children about those connections. Even with my STEM background there are some part of STEM that don't interest me. However, when I can see the connection between STEM and things that I use everyday or that I can relate to, it keeps me reading and interested in STEM. For example, someone very close to me is fighting cancer. Currently nanotechnology is being used in the treatment of cancer and is doing a great job to help people including this person that is close to me have a successful cancer treatment. However, I remember hearing about nanotechnology about 10 years ago, while I was in college. A person in my network got his PhD in chemical engineering and his expertise was in nanotechnology. At the time, he was working for Kodak and everytime he talked about nanotechnology it went over my head and I wasn't interested. There are several programs that are teaching kids about computer science and program through the development of mobile phone applications. I am pretty sure that some of these students are learning about their passion and expertise for computer science through the real world application of such as a mobile phone. When we "unveil potential through exposure" for students to academically achieve in math and science and explore STEM careers, we must make a connection between STEM and their everyday lives.

The importance of relationship building in math and science education

2010-08-17T20:17:00.007-04:00

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"-Helen Keller. When I came across this quote today in my Twitter timeline, I thought this is a powerful statement. This quote is so applicable to many aspects of life. What this quote made me think about is how important relationships are to achieving our goals. Everyone has things they want to accomplish in life. But no matter how driven you are, you can't do it alone. Since our focus as an organization is promoting student achievement and career exploration in math and science for K-12 students; I want to talk about the important of relationship building in math and science education.

Academic achievement in math and science is determined by what students are exposed to and their performance inside of the classroom. Nowadays, we have put so much responsibility on the schools to educate our children with little accountability other than test scores. If you look at test scores, you will see that our children aren't achieving in math and science. Yes, we can say many things about the schools, but part of the problem is the lack of parental involvement in most schools. If you look at the test scores of schools that are performing well on standardized tests and/or are well known for a great curriculum; those schools have strong parental involvement. The first relationship that needs to be established in order for children to achieve academically in the relationship between parents and teachers. The first contact between teacher and parent should not be when a student has done something wrong. Parents should attend open house, have regular phone or email contact with their child(ren) teachers. I have friends that are parents and educators and they tell me when there is a good parent/teacher interaction, it fosters a great environment for children to succeed. The parents are aware of what is going on in the classroom, the teacher feel support from the parent and the child(ren) knows that they can't get away with under performing because both the parent and teacher are holding them accountable.

The next relationship that parents should build is relationships with their local school board. This relationship is important because the school board is where decisions are made concerning your child's education- the curriculum, the budget, etc. Unfortunately many parents can barely make it to PTA meetings let alone school board meetings. But I have seen schools get additional resources just because the parents were very vocal at school board meetings. Therefore I encourage you to attend school board meetings and if you just can't fit them into your schedule build a relationships with the school board member that serves your district. It can really make a difference in the resources that are available at your child's school.

The next relationship that is important for enhancing the math and science educational experience for youth is relationships between the schools and the community. With state budgets being cut every day, schools have less and less resources available to educate our children. Although, schools aren't the only place where learning should take place, it is the primary place for learning. In order to enhance the resources at schools that are available to educate our children it important that individuals, nonprofits, colleges and universities and corporations partners with schools. The resources can be as simple as volunteering some time to provide classroom, support or tutoring or a big as making a financial contribution. Nothing is too great or small if it will assist in creating a great learning environment for our children.

The final relationship that needs to be built is between nonprofits and individuals, businesses, colleges and universities. Nonprofits exist to meet a need in the community, most of which can't be meet by a government agency. Most nonprofits have limited resources and need people who believe in their mission to support them note just in word or spirit, but in deed. Each individual, business and college and university should find a nonprofit whose mission they believe in and not only support them by volunteering and/or making a financial contribution, but telling people in their network about the organization and them to support them as well.

If we want to "unveil potential through exposure" and ensure that students are academically prepared to pursue STEM careers, we all have to work together to ensure our children succeed.

How Children Are Nurtured into Pursuing STEM careers

2010-08-11T19:32:00.004-04:00

This weekend, I was writing a grant that focused on math and science education initiatives for K-3 students, parents and educators. The funder for this grant was focusing on the primary grades because they wanted children to get a good foundation for academic achievement in math and science. I thought it was a great idea to get kids achieving in math and science at such an early age because it gives them a chance to become academically prepared to pursue STEM careers. Many children that have an interest in math and science don't do so because they aren't academically prepared to major in STEM disciplines in college.

As I was writing this grant, I called my aunt who is former elementary school teacher. We were discussing my personal theory on student learning and achievement in STEM, how school systems operation and a myriad of other topics related to elementary education. I use my aunt as a resource from time to time because I had the privilege of growing up with her in my home until I was in the 3rd or 4th grade and I know that having her in my home had a huge impact on my educational foundation. During our conversation, we were talking about my inquisitiveness, love for learning and reading and other things about my elementary school experience. I asked her did my inquisitive nature as a child was why I was drawn to math and science. I thought so, but she wasn't quite sure. She believed that I may have succeeded in any discipline that I chose because of my love of reading and learning.

Since that conversation I have been thinking what causes children to have an interest in math and science and eventually pursue those fields. We all know that in math and science you are constantly asking and answering questions and solving problems; so children that are interest in math and science does have to be inquisitive. However, I also believe that children have a naturally inclination to certain subject areas, hobbies and interests. So I think it is important for parents and educators to work together to find out what those are for each child and expose and encourage them in that.

One of my favorite educators, Marian Wright Edelman said "Parents have become so convinced educators know what is best for children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts". I firmly believe in this quote, because I recall a story of my mother telling me that my kindergarten teacher didn't think that I was going to do well because I didn't go to pre-K. What she didn't realize is that I had all of my formative learning experiences with my mother and aunt; because my learning was outside of the classroom I performed better than many of my peers. So if we want to ensure that our children have a strong educational foundation, feel confident in their natural talents, abilities and gifts, we must provide outside of classroom learning experiences for them.

I am going to shift the focus on how to create a nurture your children that have an strong interest or ability in math or science because that is why our mission as an organization. What I have realized that in many elementary schools, students don't get a great experiences and exposure to math and science for several reasons. Some of it is due to lack of professional development with elementary teachers. Many elementary teachers don't have a strong background in math and science nor an interest in these subjects. Math doesn't suffer as much as science because math skills are tested on most standardized tests. However, not all school districts test children on what they are learning in science. There are some classrooms where children only get to do an hour of science each week. Since elementary school is where kids get their educational foundation, if they aren't exposed to science then, the chances of them having an interest in science are slim to none.

The key to ensuring that we create an environment that encourage children to achieve and have an interest in math and science is to create as many outside of classroom learning experiences as we can for our children. The internet is a great educational tool for kids, there are websites where you can find homework help, kids can play educational games, you can learn about current research in math and science and you can find experiments to conduct at home. The next outside of classroom experiences that you should take advantage of is visiting the science museums, aquariums, planetariums and other informal educational institutions in your area. Another resource is to take advantage of programs that are offered in your community that provide students with an opportunity to engage in hands on math and science activities or explore STEM careers; most of these programs are at colleges or universities or community organizations. But you as a parent must provide the continuum of learning for your child that extends beyond the school walls into your home. Although organizations such as SEM Link will do all we can to promote student achievement and career exploration in math and science, you as parents and guardians have to take responsibility for "unveiling potential through exposure" for your children.

Are African Americans Really Underrepresented in STEM Fields, Underreported or Both?

2010-08-03T23:03:00.005-04:00

This weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of nominating a friend who is a great scientist for an award, where if selected to receive the award, she will be honored for the strides she has made in her career and the difference she is making in her community. As we were discussing her career,I was proud of the impact that she had made in her field and how her career has turned out. She is well respected in her field and making a great contributions to it. She is also giving back to her community and encouraging minority graduate, undergraduate and K-12 students to pursue careers in her discipline by proving research, professional development and career exploration opportunities for them.

In education, you always hear how African American are underrepresented in STEM disciplines in several venues. However, when I think about my friend and reflect upon my network, I realize that half of my network are STEM professionals or have STEM backgrounds. I could just have this unique experience because I am an African American woman with a STEM background. However, I wondered if African Americans are really underrepresented in STEM fields or are our stories underreported. There are arguments for both and it could be a combination of the two that is the reality.

Yes,it is true people my network can tell the stories of being the only black person in the lab or plant. However, I hear those same stories from many of my friends that have chosen to work in corporate America that don't have STEM backgrounds. Based on the 2000 US census, African Americans represent 12.1% of the population, with most of African Americans living in the southern states and urban areas. With us representing such a small portion of the population, does that translate to us automatically a small number of the workforce in any career path we choose. I wonder if anyone has done research if the number of African Americans that pursue STEM careers is proportional to the population? If you chose to work in a rural area or the Midwest, does that increase your chances of being as some people would say "the fly in the buttermilk". Or if you live and work in a city like Atlanta, would you work in an environment where you have plenty of African American counterparts?

I can definitely say that the story of African Americans contribution to the STEM fields is underreported. The knowledge in getting better,but I remember while in school most of the African American scientists and inventors they taught us about were deceased. I wasn't until I began reading on my own that I learned that throughout the history of this nation, even before we were officially a nation African Americans were making a great contribution to the STEM fields. The contributions never stopped. But how often do you hear or a story on the news about a STEM professional and the contribution they are making to their field. I personally think it is a shame that LeBron James, Lil Wayne and other athletes and entertainers are household names, but you don't know about a Dr. Mark Dean, Dr. G. Dale Wesson, Dr. James Grainger, Dr. LaToya Myles, Dr. Jean-Marie Dimandja, Ms. Niara M. Adero, Dr. Leon Dyers Jr, Ms. Kimberly M. White, Mr. John R. Moore, III, Dr. Natasha Browner Dr. Undra Graves-Guyton and many other African American scientists,technology, engineering and mathematics professionals that are doing an exceptional job in their respective fields and some even doing work that is making our society better with groundbreaking research.

I don't know that answer to my question. However, I do know that we can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. So if we want the story to be told, we must tell it ourselves. So if you are a STEM professionals make sure that your story in told outside of the scientific community and your professional networks. If you know a STEM professional make sure you tell and/or listen to their story. Local media outlets are always looking for great stories to be told, especially some of the small local independent publications. You can also tell their story through social media. Also talk to people in your network about what you do, your path to get where you are and where you want to go next; especially to youth. It is my desire that every child, but especially African American children since they have been identified as underrepresented in STEM fields, realize that they are capable of pursuing STEM careers. But they will never know if the stories of people who look like them aren't told or if they never meet people who look like them in those fields. That is what "unveiling potential through exposure" is all about; given children a vision of the what is possible for them and creating an environment for them to do so.

A New Exciting Beginning for SEM Link

2010-07-31T03:21:00.005-04:00

In January 2010, SEM Link began its journey to become a national nonprofit organization by expanding our programs to the San Francisco Bay Area. Since it has been March since we last posted on our blog, you can see that it has been a busy but exciting time of transition for us to lay the foundation for becoming a national nonprofit. With today being the final day of the 2009-10 fiscal year, we thought it would be appropriate to give a summary of how we spend the final months of the 2009-10 fiscal year that we are about to close and what is to come in the new 2010-11 fiscal year.

The main reason, San Francisco Bay Area was chosen as the city that we would provide programs and services in addition to Metropolitan Atlanta, because establishing a presence in the West Coast would truly establish us as a national organization by offering programs on both coasts. Over the past few months, we have experienced the successes and challenges of this transition. Some of our challenges have been the same ones that other nonprofits are facing with decreasing financial support from individuals, corporations and grantors. The other challenge was while our Executive Director and Founder was in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was hard to determine who in the organization (staff, board of director, volunteer) in Atlanta would step up and do some of the things that she did when while she was living in Atlanta. It was also a challenge to determine what programs and services would be offered in each city and how our program structure would be affected as we transition beyond just serving Metropolitan Atlanta K-12 students, parents and educators.

However, we have had several successes with the transition. We were able to secure new corporate sponsors for our 3rd Annual Science, Engineering and Career Fair and Exhibition in Atlanta. We were able to establish a Bay Area community partnership with the ASA Community Science Center in Oakland. We have increased our presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Group as well as discussing a partnership with an online community for high school students www.TrackAhead.Com. In this past few months more people all over the country and the world have learned about who we are and what we do as an organization and that is exciting.

So what should you expect in the 2010-11 fiscal year, that will start on August 1st? The first major project before all of our programs start in September is to update our website to reflect the national nonprofit organization that we are now. We will offer programs in Metropolitan Atlanta, San Francisco Bay Area and possibly the DC Metropolitan Area as well as offer more activities on our website and through social media for K-12 students. You will see our web presence increase with articles about current trends in STEM research, policy and education as well as more articles for our Executive Director. We will establish partnerships with other nonprofits, corporations including small and medium sized businesses, college and universities, government agencies, and media outlets to either collaborate on programs or obtain resources to help us achieve our mission. Focus on getting individuals that support our organization and believe in our mission to show their support with financial contributions. As a nonprofit organization, we can't achieve our vision of "unveiling potential through exposure" if we don't have resources and the relationships to do so. In order to do our part in contributing to the creation of the pipeline of the future STEM workforce, we must build a community that supports our organization with their time, professional expertise and finances.

Rewards for Scientific Research: Why our Experimental Design Program Exists

2010-03-18T18:54:00.006-04:00

On facebook of all places, I came across the story of a high school student, a young female that had won $100,000 for her research in computer science from the Intel Science Search. From this contest over 30 high school students won some monetary prize for engaging in research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (to see the article visit the http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35902666/ns/technology_and_science-science/). I was throughly impressed by these young minds and the various topics of there research. It seems like these students love for science and math was fostered at an early age by their parents, educators and mentors. I am confident that these students are well on their way to become a part of the future STEM workforce.

As I read this story, I reflected upon several things and had several questions about these kids. Most of the kids weren't photographed for this story, so I wonder how many of these students were African American or Hispanic or would be labeled "at risk" youth. Did all of these kids come from families where they had strong parental support and an atmosphere at home where academic achievement was not only expected but promoted. How many of these engaged in hands on math and science activities at school, at home or in the community? How many of these kids went to math and science summer camps? How were this kids about to over the peer pressure that math and science isn't cool. How many of these kids were able to meet and interact with STEM professionals. What facilities and other resources did they have access to in order to conduct their research? How did they learn about this contest?

The Experimental Design Program is our program that provides math and science fair project support for K-12 students and educators. This is one of the program activities that we started day one of our existence. My vision is that more K-12 students independent of school district, parental support or racial identify can have the resources available to them to conduct experiments for math and science projects. I want any students that has a project and a desire to complete it to be able to come to us to get the support to be competitive in not only those math and science fair that are supported by their district, but for contest such as these. What encourages me about these type of contest and this story is that student can learn at an early age that there is just as much financial and other rewards for being a STEM professional as being an athlete or entertainer.

So our goal is truly to continue to increase the quality and quantity of math and science fair projects by providing students with the resources necessary to conduct experiments that are competitive. We have to "unveil potential through exposure" on math and science fair project at a time.

Future Women STEM Professionals

2010-03-11T02:15:00.003-05:00

Although it is women's history month, I want to take some time to reflect upon the future history makers, our young girls. On Tuesday morning, I was having a conversation with a program manager at the WGBH foundation in Boston. She manages several programs on the station that focus on getting young girls interested in stem careers. Their programs were segmented into age appropriate (elementary, middle and high) content and was a mixture of curriculum and interactive media. The interactive media consisted of games, videos of girls their age engaged in hands on math and science activities as well as women who were stem professionals. I was very excited to see all of these resources to let young ladies not only learn about STEM careers, but to see their peers engage in hands on math and science. I am curious about how many young girls have visited their website to see a picture of girls and women not only excelling in math and science, but having a blast doing science.

But I was hit with the reality that not enough girls are seeing these resources on the website as I spend some time with some Bay Area elementary school girls. These girls had no clue what engineers did, let alone thought of the possibility that they could be an engineer or another STEM professional. The good news is I spent a time with them and told them that I was a chemical engineer (at least by training) and their eyes lit up and the questions became to come. So we talked about what chemical engineers do, what they make and evidence of the work of chemical engineers in their every day lives. We had the same conversation about civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineers as well. I am not sure if these young girls will be able to remember the distinctions between the engineering disciplines. However , they did leave learning two lessons, they could be an engineer one day because they just meet a female engineer. The second lesson was the engineers design things that we use in our everyday lives.

I must admit, that I never meet a female engineer while I was in elementary, middle or high school. I actually didn't meet my first female chemical engineer until my freshman year in college. But what I can appreciate about my teachers, is that I was a girl that enjoyed and excelled in math and science and my teachers and family encouraged that in me. If we want to ensure that our young girls become women in science, we must start there letting them know that achieving academically in math and science is okay and encouraging them when they do. The second step is exposing them to as many resources such as these that these organizations produce to let them see other girls and women in science.

As SEM Link looks to organizations that we can partner with, I am so glad that we are establishing relationships with organizations that are focusing on getting young girls academic achieving in math and science and exploring STEM careers. A slogan I once heard, Science is Woman's Work, that is what I want young girls to believe. You are brilliant and talented and can be anything you want to be when you grow up, including a STEM professional.

Celebrating Women's History Month

2010-03-03T14:04:00.003-05:00

This month is women's history month and I am very excited. As women, we don't always take the time to get recognized for our achievements because we just do what we feel is needed to be done in order to meet the needs and desires for ourselves and of those around us. I just want to take a few moments to salute the many women STEM professionals. I will start by saluting those wonderful STEM professionals on our boards, Niara Adero, Keli Holmes, Dr. LaToya Myles and Kimberly White, who are making their contribution to the workforce and doing an exceptional job in their respective fields. I want to salute our program assistant Ms. Angela Hardin, who is creating her own path as a STEM professional.

What I have been noticing this women's history month is that there is more focus on celebrating the contribution that women have made to the STEM disciplines. Even government agencies are celebrating the women that have made contributions in science. Unfortunately, we don't know enough about the stories of women past and present that are having great careers and making a great contribution to society. So it is my quest to learn more of the stories of these great women scientists, engineers and mathematicians, past and present. Not only do I want to honor their contribution, but provide an example for young ladies that are currently in school of women who footsteps they can follow. For STEM careers are truly a woman's work and i want to ensure that women are a part of the future STEM workforce. For those of you who are women STEM professionals be sure to "unveil potential through exposure" by speaking to young ladies about what you do. We truly need to debunk the myth that women can't be great STEM professional; history tells us otherwise. So make some time this month to learn the history and contribution that women have made in science.

Our world, our environment our climate

2010-02-24T00:58:00.005-05:00

These past two weeks, I have been focused on a new topic of interest that I would love to expose our students to, environmental science and justice and climate science. It started when one of our advisory board members, who happens to be an environmental scientist, gave me information about funding from a federal agency to support climate literacy educational projects. In addition, to preparing a letter of intent for this grant, I attended a 2 day conference on climate literacy. Both of these disciplines, environmental and climate science, not many people want to explore mainly because how many of us have an environmental scientist in our network; but it is a topic that is so relevant to our everyday lives.

A few years ago, I started paying attention to environmental science and justice based on some cases in the news (mainly on NPR) about neighborhoods, mostly in disadvantage communities in which its residents were getting sick due to toxic dumping by corporations in their neighborhood. In these stories, the communities had issues with their drinking water, air quality and/or their houses where built on land that wasn't properly cleaned prior to building residences on it. Unfortunately, most of these incidents were happening in communities of people of color and/or lower socioeconomic status. It made me wonder about the policy that allowed this to happen as well as if this was happening in these communities because most of the communities don't have enough scientific literacy to understand what is happening to them until it is too late.

Environmental and climate science are so intertwined. In climate science there is this debate if things such as global warming, ocean acidification etc are a result of human pollution or the natural evolution of the planet. Climate science in a nutshell is observing how patterns in climate over a period of time affect our planet. A simple change in weather patterns can affect so much of our lives. It isn't as simple as if we will have more hurricanes or rain or if it will be a brutal winter. Climate science issues can truly affect our food and water supply.

Environmental science is such a broad topic but in a nutshell it covers how we protect and preserve our planet. Yes, there is the big push for going green by reducing our waste, water consumption and paper use etc, driving hybrid vehicles, trying to figure out ways to reduce our use of fossil fuels and non clean energy. We are counting our carbon footprints. We are utilizing more recycled paper or trying to go paperless. Put what is also covering is holding corporations accountable for the damage that they do to the planet. There are companies that have polluted our water supply, air and land and not only are they getting fined, but they are responsible for the cost of cleaning up their mess and in some cases, the medical treatment for those who suffer medical issue such as cancer, asthma etc.

But what I've learned most about these two sciences, is that it truly is where science and policy intersect. We can't have effective policy to protect our planet without scientists and engineers nor can scientists and engineers do enough research without policy that not only requires research but funds the research. This is going to be problem not only for the scientists of today, but as part of an issue that the future STEM workforce both those who stay in research and/or chose to pursue a career in scientific policy to continue to solve.

The Need for Nonprofits to Diversify Revenue Streams

2010-02-13T00:17:00.002-05:00

In the 5 years, since I have founded SEM Link, there has always been the challenge of obtaining the resources that are needed to achieve our mission. As a non profit organization, although our goal isn't to make a profit, it costs money to run our programs and operate our organization. The constant task that is set before me as an executive director and for me to engage my board in assisting me with is ensuring that we have enough funds in the account and other resources for our needs as an organization. I must sadly admit, that unfortunately most times we don't have enough funds and other resources to achieve all of our programming goals or operations projects.

There are several reasons for this and it has nothing to do with the economy. The main reason that we don't have enough funds is due to apathy in the community. This apathy is based on several misconceptions of how nonprofits get their funding and what each individuals, community organization, corporation, professional society and small business owner can do to provide the resources necessary for non profits like ours to achieve all of our programming goals.

One of the ways that I have changed my approach to ensuring that we have enough resources to achieve our goals as a organization is to look at what we need beyond just funds. So the past two years, I have took the bigger picture approach to fundraising by developing a resource development year. Each year, when I set our annual budget, I determine what resources are needed to achieve the programming goals. In the revenue I look at the actual funds that are needed to achieve programs and operations and set the budget based on that, for that is my ideal situation. Then I look at the items in our budget that can be replaced by in kind service or good donation by an individual or business. Then I look at the number of volunteers needed for our programs. Then I set goals to obtain those resources for myself and SEM Link's board and we pound the pavement to get what we need.

However, I know that the most important resource that any non profit organization is financial contributions that individuals and corporations make to the organization. You see the reason that many people don't give including some non profit board members is that they assume that because you are a non profit organization you can get your fundings from grants. However, typically non profits organizations only get receive funding from about 25% of the grant proposals they submit annual. Why does this take place. Mainly because funders have limited resources and can't support every organization that submits a request for funding. Even if you have a great proposal or program, you can not receive proposal simply because your project didn't fit their funding proposals or your organization is less known that other organizations that may have submitted proposals.

So what does an non profit need to do in order to survive, we must develop and implement a diversified revenue stream. A diversified revenue stream means that your organization has multiple methods for obtaining funds for its organization. This include earned income strategies where nonprofits do things to earn revenue for themselves, this can be as complex as selling a good or service or signing up for programs such as goodsearch that allow non profits to earn money when its supporters do everyday things like search or shop online. The next part of a diversified revenue stream is ensuring 100% participation from your board in their required annual contribution to the organization. Whenever you apply for grant or seek corporate funding they want to know how is your board giving. The board given is an important aspect of this diversified stream in how can we ask others to give, if the one entity that is committed to the organization, the board of directors doesn't give to the organization.

The next components of the diversified revenue stream are a corporate giving, individual giving and annual giving fund. The corporate giving plan sets up an infrastructure for corporation to exhibit corporate social responsibility. It lets corporations understand the benefits of giving to your organization and how they will be recognize for their gift. It usually is a structure that has multiple levels so that corporations can give to either the level of their ability or to the level they want to be recognized in the community. The second part of this is an individual donor campaign, which encourages and provides an venue for individuals to make a financial contribution to your organization. SEM Link's individual donor campaign is "Donate Your Lunch Money" which stresses to individuals that even a small amount of money like your lunch money can make a difference in helping an organization achieve its mission. An annual donor campaign allows individual or corporations to make a pledge to make an annual contribution to an organization. It provide an organization security that ever year, they will receive a certain amount of funds from certain individuals or corporations.

So I say all of this to say, that we can no longer afford to be apathetic. Non profits don't achieve their mission with funds from grants alone. It is up to the community (individuals, corporations, small business owners and professional societies) to do their part in providing the resources to help non profit organizations. So I encourage you to help SEM Link "unveil potential through exposure" by donating your lunch money, become a corporate partner, volunteering or becoming an annual giver.

Creating a Partnership with Elected Officials to Promote Student Achievement and Career Exploration in Math and Science

2010-02-11T02:00:00.003-05:00

As non profit organization, we are constantly looking for ways to obtain resources and support for our programs and services; for without resources we can't achieve our mission. People always see grants, volunteers and corporations, but have we explored the resources and connections that we can get form our elected officials.

I know that me personally,although I am the first person to vote in an election and sign a petition, I don't have much interaction with my elected officials on the local, state and federal level. However, as I am beginning efforts to make SEM Link a national organization, I am getting suggestions that I can't do that without building relationships with elected officials on the city, county, state and even federal level. What resources can these elected officials provide to our organization? The first thing that I can think about is name recognition, even if the elected official doesn't give you a dollar, it validates your organization's presence in the community having the endorsement and support of the elected official. The second resources is connections in the community, it takes a lot of money and influence to become an elected official, if he or she believes in your mission that politician can connect you to all the money, power and influence that helped them get elected to not only get the resources that are needed, but to get your name out in the community as well as build your brand. Finally, the new relationship with the staff of elected officials can get you access to discretionary funds, information about upcoming grants and in some cases a voice to affect policy in the area in which you serve.

As I think about what we can do to become a national organization, that is able to "unveil potential through exposure", I have to look at building relationships with the elected officials in the areas we serve.

Celebration of Current African American STEM history makers.

2010-02-02T16:34:00.004-05:00

I truly admire our EPA administrator, Ms. Lisa P. Jackson even though I hadn't heard of her until she became current job. What I like about her is that she is a chemical engineer just like me that has utilized her training as an engineer to make a difference in the world. She proves my theory that if you get your training as a scientist or engineer, you will learn skills that are transferable and will allow you to be successful in any career path.

I am a fan of Ms. Jackson's facebook page and she was honored as the The Grio's Top 100 history makers (http://www.thegrio.com/black-history/thegrios-100/). As I reviewed this article, I noticed that there were several African-American STEM professionals on this list and I become excited. One of the things I noticed is that whenever there is talk about famous STEM professionals, most of them are dead. I know that there are African Americans that are alive that are making their contribution to the field. So thank you grio.com for sharing their stories, you should check it out.

Finally, be sure to share this story with the children that you know, especially African American children. I truly believe students that are typically underrepresented in these career paths aren't pursuing this fields not because they don't have the ability, but because they don't see people like them who can serve as role models and mentors. So I encourage you this month and every month to ensure that children get an opportunity to see people like themselves, even if it is in a magazine or a website like this pursuing a diversity of careers. It is my vision that all children believe the words of the hook, which I may be paraphrasing, to one of my favorite rapper NAS's song where he has children singing "I know I can, be what I want to be, if I work hard at it, I can do anything"

Celebration of African American STEM Professionals for African American Heritage Month

2010-02-01T23:53:00.002-05:00

Today is African American Heritage Month better known as Black History Month. It is a month that is designated to celebrate the contributions of African Americans to society. One area of contribution that African Americans isn't always recognized for is the area of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. African Americans, past, present and future have made a great contribution to society through inventions, research and innovations in the STEM disciplines.

A mentor of mine says that in order to study the history of math and science you have to go back to its origins. The foundations of many of the principles and theories in math and science can be traced back to ancient African civilizations. For example chemistry, has origins in Kemet, which is was the land of the dark people. Mathematics principles such as in basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry can be traced to ancient African civilizations. As well as principles in medicine, pharmacy, horticulture and engineers.

In American History, African Americans have been innovators and leaders in STEM disciplines. African Americans invented everyday items such as the ironing board, washing machine, traffic light, refrigerator and many more. We continue to be innovators in the STEM disciplines, so let's not only celebrate stem professionals past and present, but tell our children their stories so we can have future STEM professionals.

The intersection of science and policy

2010-01-27T01:25:00.000-05:00

In Tuesday's online section of energy and environment, there was a report in 2009, the use of wind power as a source of renewable energy went up 39% percent. But the increase of use of renewable energy sources as a part of how we generate power, isn't simply left to science alone, but is due to some government intervention as well. At times, the innovations in science and technology are kinda like the chicken and the egg theory. Which came first, the innovation in science or the government regulation and/or funding in the area of innovation?

In the past few years, with the high oil prices, the problems that diplomatic problems with the Middle East and the rest of the world and pollution caused by generation of power has fueled a debate on how can we achieve energy independence and use more renewable energy sources. Even if the diplomatic relations between the oil producing companies and the rest of the world are always peaceful, fossil fuel are a limited supply and will one day run out. So they debate begin, how to we create a cost effective way of generating power for our homes, business and cars that will allow us to be responsible stewards of the planet.

The technology for use to generate wind power as a renewable energy source has been around for years. There have been wind turbines and wind turbines around for several years. But why the jump of the use of wind energy in 2009; more federal regulation on the use of renewable energy and money for the federal stimulus bill to support this initiative. The growth of wind power, will be based on the level of governmental regulation. The more regulation concerning electricity and the use of renewable energy resources in power generation; the more innovation and practical use we will see.

I'm just curious what other scientific discoveries are lead by government regulation and vice versa. In the big scheme of things, my major concern is that we continue to have innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and funding to support scientific research.

So

Scientific literacy and the world around us

2010-01-26T23:23:00.002-05:00

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson defines scientific literacy as how you see and view the world. When you think about it that is exactly what reading and writing science (scientific literacy) is. Some people confuse it for the ability to derive the newton's first law of thermodynamics or any chemical or mathematical question. But science and math is much simpler than that; it is part of who we are and what we do on a daily basis. It is such an integral part of our world, you can't understand the world and how it functions without understanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

For example, let's take cooking something that we do everyday, you have to understand basic math such as fractions to ensure that you are using the proper amount of ingredients to get the taste and flavor you desire. When turning on your lights, you must understand the simple concept of circuits, electric engineering and physics. When you drive your car, you are understanding the concepts of material science, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering. When you use your computer or your cell phone, you must understand concepts of electrical and computer engineering and material science.

You see if you pay attention to what is around you; science, technology, engineering and mathematics is the basics on your every day life. When you are able to recognize that you are scientifically literate.

Celebrating the Legacy of Dr. Martin L. King Jr and Leaving your own legacy

2010-01-16T11:13:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and this weekend is the celebration of his life and legacy. Dr. King was truly a great man and left a lasting impact on this world, through his teachings and what he accomplished to make this country a better place for us all. Although, we still have strides to make to improve racial relations and equality for all in this country; it is so much better than it would be if Dr. King, other civil rights leaders of the time and those who joined them in that great cause. Those individuals worked hard to make the change they vision of what this world could be and their vision has come to pass.

One can learn so many things from the life and legacy of Dr. King. This great man, died over 40 years ago and not only are we still celebrating his life and impact on the world, but teaching his principles to the current and future generations. The main lesson I take away from Dr. King is that if you want to be a great person, you can't just live your life, you must leave a legacy. In order to leave a legacy, you have to live your life working for a towards making life better for more than just yourself and those in your network. When I moved to Atlanta and visited the King center I learned that Dr. King and his family were part of the privileged African Americans that had access to education and wealth. Not to say that they didn't have it hard, but they had it better than most African Americans in the south during their time. But he had a desire to make life better for more than just his family, but for his community and the world; and he accomplished that and every day the world is becoming a better place.

The second lesson that I take from Dr. King's life and legacy is when you are passionate about a cause, that passion ignites others to join you in your cause. If you think about it most visions that make an impact in the world are too large for one person to accomplish on his own. But that person has to be a great communicator and have great passion, to ignite others toward his cause and work toward making the vision a reality. Dr. King inspired so many people to make a difference in the world as he saw it needed to be changed, from the leaders he trained to assist him with the direct organization of the movement to the countless people all over the country that joined him in the cause. We wouldn't even be talking about the March on Washington, if only Dr. King was present. We wouldn't even be taking about Dr. King if he didn't have people to believe and buy in to his vision and work towards the cause.

I just want to take some time to thank Dr. King for thinking bigger than himself to make a difference in this world. Thank you Dr. King for the life you lived and the legacy you left for those who have come behind you. His life truly inspired me to think bigger than myself and establish SEM Link 5 years ago. But just like Dr. King, my vision to promote academic achievement and career exploration in math and science for K-12 is too big for me to make a reality all by myself. So I want to thank all the board members past and present, the staff, the volunteers, corporate and community partners for joining me in making the vision of "unveiling potential through exposure" a reality. Let us continue the work that we started so that SEM Link can leave a legacy and make its impact in math and science education. We are on our way to creating the members of the future STEM workforce.

President Obama's STEM initiative aligns with SEM Link's Vision of Mentoring

2010-01-12T18:47:00.005-05:00

When I received the link to this article on my Facebook page about this initiative that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Department of Education and Learn and Serve America is pushing as a MLK Jr Holiday service project, I thought, my friends and colleagues in DC must have told President Obama about SEM Link( for more information visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/12/mlk-technology-challenge). This project encourages technology professionals to partner with schools to improve their technology infrastructure and increase their use of technology.

With this being the beginning of the New year and National Mentoring Month, it is important that we think of ways we can mentor youth. You see the thing about mentoring there is no right or wrong way to mentor as your proteges learn something during their time with you. Our organization was founded and we selected the name for the organization as SEM Link for the same premise in which this project is based ; we can enhance the educational experiences for youth when we connect them with STEM professionals, undergraduate and graduate students. The great thing about connecting the STEM community to the K-12 students and educators is that it truly combines the best of both worlds for the students to prepare them for our future. The educators teach the students the basics educational foundation and implement the principles of student learning. The STEM community brings the strong content knowledge in these subject areas and opens the students eyes to the possibilities of who they can be, what more they can do right now and what they can do when they grow up.

So STEM community, be a part of the link that our organization is building between schools and the community by getting involved. If have time to spare be a doer and find an ongoing service opportunity like tutoring, math or science fair project mentoring. If your time is limited volunteer for a one time event like judging a math or serving as an exhibitor for our career fair. If you don't have time, but you have some extra cash be a donor by making a financial contribution to our organization. Visit our website at www.semsuccess.org to find out what you can get involved and link yourself to K-12 students and educators and help us "unveil potential through exposure".

January is National Mentoring Month

2010-01-09T18:13:00.003-05:00

January is National Mentoring Month. It is the time when we highlight and celebrate the work of organizations that are involved in mentoring youth (for more information visit www.mentoring.org). There are many nonprofit organizations that are doing wonderful things to make a difference in the lives of children. I want take this time to honor those organization. I want to take this time to thank and honor SEM Link program assistant, Ms. Angela M. Hardin and volunteers that are involved directly in our programs that serve at the schools and interact directly with the students exposing them to math and science.

The origin of the term mentor comes from Greek mythology, when Mentor the friend of Odysseus, was left in charge of Odysseus's son Telemachus when he went off to the Trojan War. The first recorded modern usage of the term was in the "Les Aventures de Telemaque", by the French writer François Fénelon in 1699 in which the lead character was Mentor. Mentoring is when more experienced, in most times older person, serves as a teacher, friend, counselor and example to a younger person as the person advance through life and/or a project.

Mentors play an important role in one's personal and professional development. If we are honest with ourselves, most adults would not be where they are today if weren't for a few good mentors that we were fortunate enough to have in our lives. A good mentors does two major things for you; teaches you thinks that you and introduces you to people you need to know to be successful and puts you in an environment where you can develop your natural gifts and talents. Mentors invest in their proteges simply because they believe that you are worth the investment and want to see you become all you can and accomplish all you can.

Mentoring can take place in an informal or formal setting. There are mentoring programs that set youth up with mentors like Big Brothers or Big Sisters. Or informal mentoring that takes place, when a student is introduced to people that provide an example of who they want to become and accomplish in life. Although SEM Link is not an organization that has a formal mentoring program, our vision statement- "unveiling potential through exposure" is the essence of what the results of good mentoring should be. Through our programs, we have exposed students to undergraduate and graduate students and professionals with stem backgrounds that have not only have engaged in hands on math and science activities, helped them with their homework and exposed them to what scientist do; but gave them a glimpse of who they could be and what they could accomplish. Our volunteers have let students know that they are so worth the investment of their time in helping them academic achieve and explore careers in math and science.

As an organization, we will continue to provide mentoring to our youth. Not enough youth feel that they can academically achieve or pursue careers in math and science. At times, we may not get to have opportunities for a long term mentoring relationship with our students like other organizations. But we do a great job of mentoring our youth by giving them a glimpse of what they can do and who they can be; a student that academic achieves in math and science and a part of the future STEM workforce.

Making 2010 SEM Link's best year ever

2009-12-30T12:00:00.003-05:00

The close of one year and the start of another one is the time for reflection for many people. We determine and make lists of the goals and plans we have for the new year with the intentions of completing them all in the upcoming year. I know I do that annually and most years I accomplish those things and some that weren't on the list, but I also fall short on completing some of them. So as 2010 approaches I want to share some of the things that we as an organization will focus on and the things I want to ask you to do in 2010.

Since our inception in 2005, SEM Link has exposed over 1000 Metro Atlanta youth to hands on activities and career exploration in math and science. We are very proud of our work, but in order to increase our impact as an organization we can't just focus on Metropolitan Atlanta. We have some initiatives that are going to focus on expanding our programs nationally and possibly internationally. In addition, we are going to look for ways to incorporate instructional technology and multimedia in our programming. In addition, we are working on building relationships with other organizations that have complementary mission to increase the impact we have on the students we serve. In addition, we are working on increase our corporate partnership and community relations so that we can have the resources that we need to achieve our mission. In addition, we want to expand our online community through our social media outlets such as this blog and our facebook page.

In order for all these goals and plans for 2010 and beyond to happen, we need everyone who supports and believes in SEM Link mission to put our organization in their goal and plans for 2010. Determine what you are going to do to support the organization or increase your level of support. Will you promote the organization by encouraging others to visit our website to find out more, follow our blog and became a fan of our Facebook page? Will you start making or increase your financial contribution to our "Donate Your Lunch Money" Individual Donor Campaign? If you are a business owner will you become a corporate partner? If work for a small, medium or large corporation, will you encourage your company to become a corporate partner and/or encourage your colleagues to donate or volunteer their time. It takes a village to educate a child and SEM Link needs to make that village larger in 2010. We have to make strides to create the pipeline for the future STEM workforce. Happy New Year. Make 2010 your best year ever. We are certainly expecting 2010 to be SEM Link's best year ever.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics on Television

2009-12-12T13:35:00.003-05:00

My schedule doesn't always permit me to watch television. However, I do have a few shows that I enjoy when I want to wind down that I watch on hulu.com or on the website of the network that show airs on. As I think about the shows that I do like to catch up on the internet, most of them involve some real world application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. I think that in what I feel is the decline of the quality of TV shows, we have an large amount of shows that showcase real world applications of STEM disciplines.

Two of my favorite are Better of Ted on ABC and Bones on Fox. Better of Ted is a comedy that features a food company that is constantly engaged in food science research doing some cutting edge research in genetic engineering. Bones is a show about a forensic anthropologist with her team of scientists that solve murders. There are the medical dramas that showcase breaking technology in biomedical research and medical treatment such as House, Private Practice, Trauma, Grey's Anatomy and Hawthorne. I was amazed a few weeks ago on Grey's Anatomy, when two doctors spend months creating a surgical instrument to treat child's medical condition because no instrument was available for them to perform a surgery to save this child's life. Then they are the CSI's, NCIS, the Closer and Criminal Minds which uses science and technology to solve crimes. One of the shows that has the most probably underrepresented STEM discipline although it connects all disciplines is NUMBERS on CBS in which a mathematics, who has his PHD in mathematics, who uses several mathematics theories and models to help the FBI solve crimes.

Although some of these shows aren't age appropriate for children. Those who are you should watch them with your children. Those that aren't let them see the commercial and discuss the careers and their impact on society with your children. We can't create the future STEM workforce, if our kids don't see STEM professionals they won't know these career exist. So since kids are watching TV anyway, use it as a career exploration tool.

The Interdisciplinary Nature of Science

2009-12-02T01:14:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the celebration of World AIDS's Day. I attended a wonderful and informative symposium at a local college and university. I was reminded about some facts that I already knew about the disease as well as learned some knew facts. I can tell you that we've come a long way since the disease was first discovered in 1981. One of the interesting things about this symposium is that it was an interdisciplinary symposium about the disease. It had a mixed of biomedical researchers, scientists, medical doctors, epidemiologists, behavioral scientists and film makers giving presentations about the detection, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

This symposium made me think of the future of science and engineering. Once upon a time, scientists and engineers were isolated in their research lab or plant and only talked to other scientist, their funders and occasionally when things in the lab went well a patent attorney. However, in the information age, scientist and engineers can no longer live in the isolation of their lab or plant. Not only do they have to talk to other scientists or engineers that may not be in their discipline; they are going to have to interact and collaborate with non scientist in order to have a successful career. In this symposium, I recognize that it is the scientists and engineers that lead the way in innovation. However, especially in the disease research and product development scientist and non scientist have to work together to improve our society and to prevent and treat diseases. As far as HIV/AIDS is concerned all the breakthrough in the lab concerning prevention, detection and treatment would have not gone beyond the lab if it wasn't for public health professionals, filmmakers, journalist, politicians and businessmen didn't get involved in getting the word out to the general public. I have a friend who works for corporation that produces consumers good and her job is to serve as an intermediate between research and development and marketing. Her company has the foresight to know that they can't produce quality good unless these two sides of the business collaborate.

So as we create the future STEM workforce, we must let them know that the workforce isn't just a collaboration between other scientists and engineers; but a collaboration between professional of all disciplines. So as they chart their path to pursue a STEM career, be sure to keep people in their network that aren't STEM professional. For that person may be the key to their ability to impact the world.

World AIDS Day on Tuesday December 1st

2009-11-29T14:23:00.003-05:00

This Tuesday, December 1st is World AIDS Day (for more information visit the official website http://www.worldaidsday.org). I reflect upon first hearing about this disease when I was a child and when the thought that it was just a disease that just affected homosexual males. But when I think about the progression that science and engineering has had on the detection, prevention and treatment of this disease, I am amazed what great work biomedical researchers have made with this disease.

As far and detection and treatment, science has taught us that this disease has the potential to affect us all and is transmitted through several ways and how we can protect ourselves from getting the disease. I also remember when you first had to test for this disease only by blood and it took several days to get the test results. Now you can get tested for this disease with a rapid test from a mouth swab. We have truly come a long way.

Although, we have not yet to find a cure, we have made great strides in the treatment of this disease. I remember when getting HIV was a death sentence because there was no way to prevent it from progressing to full blown AIDS. Once you got full blown AIDS you were dead within a few years. However, breakthroughs in biomedical and pharmaceutical research have created drugs that not only prevent individual with HIV from getting full blown AIDS, but both those individuals with HIV and AIDS are living long healthy lives. Although Magic Johnson is a great example of this, I am sure that if you go to the world aids day website, you can find examples of everyday people who are living long lives with these disease.

But we have more research to conduct to improve treatment and find cures for this disease and other diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Cancer, Stroke, etc. I want to ensure that we have a future pipeline for biomedical research, so use this day to encourage K-12 and undergraduates to pursue careers in these fields. Let them know what a difference that science makes in our everyday lives because I am sure that even if no one in your family or network has been affected by this disease; they have been affected by another disease.

Thankful for the Opportunity to Make a Difference In the Lives of Youth

2009-11-26T10:53:00.002-05:00

As I reflect upon all that I am thankful; SEM Link is one of those things I'm so thankful for. When I graduated from FAMU almost a decade ago, I knew that my career had to be bigger than what a career as a chemical engineer would allow me to contribute to this world. I wanted to have a career that was meaningful and make an impact on the lives of others. Of course I want to make a good living for myself, put I wanted to have a passion and purpose for earning income that was bigger than how much money I could make. Maybe it was because I was so blessed to have so many people who had no reason to do sol make an impact on my life and I thought that it was important for me to do the same for those coming behind me. I'm so happy with the career choices that I made and I wouldn't change my path for anything.

In the almost 6 years, since I have started to devote my time and talents to improving the math and science educational experiences for youth by creating and developing SEM Link I've been blessed beyond measure. Who would have thought that my desire to make a difference in the lives of children would allow me an opportunity to grow both personally and professional. It has also allowed other professionals, undergraduate and graduate students to grow personally and professionally. It has provided an unique opportunity for STEM professionals and students to volunteer in the area of their passion and expertise. But most importantly, I'm excited about us achieving our vision in the community of "unveiling potential through exposure". When we engage students in the activities hands on activities through our programs, we are truly enhancing their educational experience. I know that not all of the students that we touch through our programs will end up being a part of the future STEM workforce, but at least there are being exposed to STEM careers. They all may not get A's in math and science, but at least there are walking away understanding on more concept in math or science. I'm glad that we can provide that for our youth.

I'm also thankful to the SEM Link volunteers, board members, staff, corporate partners and individual donors. For without you, I wouldn't be able to make a difference in the lives of youth.

How Science, Engineering and Technology Enhance the Enjoyment of Our Holiday Season

2009-11-22T12:25:00.002-05:00

I love the holidays, not that I don't have the opportunity to connect with family and friends throughout the year, but there is something special about having the freedom for even if it is Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day or New Year's Eve, only enjoying good times and good food with your loved ones. As a science educator, I am always looking for ways to teach people that math and science is connected to our everyday lives, so as I am making my own preparations for the holidays, I am thinking how various innovations in science and technology improved our ability to enjoy the holidays.

1. Transportation- Over the centuries we have had advancements through engineering, physics and material science that have made it easier to see our loved ones. Could you imagine having to walk across the country to see your relatives, going in horse and buggy or traveling the creeks and streams by boats to see your relatives. With the advancement in technology the automobile replaced walking and the horse and buggy. So know we can get in our hopefully fuel efficient vehicles on the Interstate System that civil engineers and architects created. If you prefer not to drive like me, thank to innovations in aviation we can get almost anywhere within the world through a direct flight within 24 hours.

2. Food Science, Genetic Engineering, Agriculture and Organic Chemistry, etc- Could you imagine the very first Thanksgiving where they grew and raised everything that they ate for that feast. Although, it would probably be a lot healthier for us if we were able to grow and raise our own food. So many innovations in all the disciplines of science and engineering has allowed us the opportunity and convenience to make our list, get in the car and buy what we need to make our holiday meals or in my case the dish that we will take to the meal from the local grocery store.

3. Electrical and Mechanical Engineering- I can't even imagine what they used to cook the first Thanksgiving meal. But today we have an host of appliances, small and large to prepare our feast. From the food processor to chop our veggies, the stoves that we will use, the deep fryer and roaster we will use to cook our turkeys and the fridge that will hold the cold items and the leftovers.

4. Computer Engineering- The invention of the internet has truly improved our society from the emails and e-cards that we can see to those we love that we won't be able to spend the holidays with. To using the internet to find directions to our destinations or purchase our holiday travel and/or gifts (Be sure to use www.Goodshop.com to purchase those items and make sure that SEM LInk is your designated charity). Or to find that new recipe that you want to try out or to find the missing ingredient from the recipe that someone shared with you.

As we prepare for this holiday season, I want everyone to be thankful for how science, engineering and technology has improve our quality of life and the celebration of this holiday season. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

Getting Kids Interested in Hands on Math and Science Activities

2009-11-16T01:12:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a fellow science educator that works in the San Francisco Bay Area. We were having a conversation about the lack of interest of students to engage in hands on science activities, let alone the ability to spend the time to conduct an experiment and put in the work to successfully complete a math or science fair project. There are various theories on why kids don't find math or science fun which include:
1. Lack of opportunities to engage in hands on math and science activities in the classroom
2. Lack of opportunities to be exposed to hands on math and science activities at home and in the community
3. With the age of technology, most kids are utilizing computers and other electronic devices for entertainment and learning, that it is hard to get kids to play outside let alone engage in hands on math or science activities
There are probably more than these three reasons, but no matter what the reasons are, we have to find solutions to this problem.

We are in a age where the United States is falling behind in science, engineering and technology. Other countries are leading the way in advancing in technology, biomedical research, manufacturing, environmental research and etc. The globalization of the world or in the words of Thomas Friedman, making it "flat" has flatten our economy in the math and science related sectors. The only way that we can make it better is making a targeted effort to ensure that we have a future science, technology and engineering workforce for the next generations to come. So how do we do that, getting K-12 students interested in hands on science activities. Since this is a technology age, we must introduce them to website where they can play math and science educational games, read online articles about innovation in science and technology and use www.goodsearch.com to find any information about math and science. But most importantly, get them engaged in hands on math and science activities by taking them to your local science museum, aquarium, state or national park or doing some math and science experiments at home. The start to ensuring that we have a future STEM workforce is ensuring that some of our kids think that science and math are cool and fun. Then the next step is exposing them to the career options in those fields.

The Global Connection Between People

2009-11-01T21:04:00.004-05:00

Today, I had a wonderful conversation with two natives of Moline Bay, Papua New Guinea. They educated me on the wonderful customs and traditions of the people here and we discussed the differences and similarities in our cultures. I am really enjoying this culture of people for there are in a beautiful place and have beautiful spirits.

As I think about preparing our future generation to become scientists, engineers and mathematicians, we always think about the technical skills that students need to learn; but we ignore teaching them basic communication skills. In a world where the internet and improvement in transportation and telecommunications have made the world more flat, we have to ability to connect with individuals all over the world. However, in our society we don’t embrace differences of have enough dialogue with people who have different opinions from us, let alone with people of different cultures. However, technology is connecting us all inspite of what part of the world we live in so we must have the ability to reach out and get to know someone of another culture. Although scientists and engineers aren’t known for their communication skills, in order to advance science the future scientist and engineers are going to need good communications skills. As I think about the major challenges that face our society today, climate change, the environment, pollution, HIV/AIDS, cancer, all of them are global issues. There are major breakthroughs in biomedical research and climate change in other parts of the world and with limited research dollars, it is no need for scientist in the United States to reinvent the wheel. Collaborations between scientific disciplines and nations is necessary for our survival and continued progress as a world.

So while we are teaching our kids to excel and achieve academically. Let's teach them how to excel in their communication and collaboration skills, so they can not only achieve in doing science, but communicating science to there colleagues around the world.

Protecting and Perserving the Wonderful Planet Called Earth

2009-10-21T21:42:00.004-04:00

This weekend, I started a much needed vacation and one of the things I love to do on vacation is connect with nature. This weekend, I took a scenic drive with a friend up the San Francisco Bay Area, from the South Bay to the East Bay. During this drive, we saw all the wonderful scenery from mountains to beaches, rivers and bays and vegetation such as plants, fruit and vegetables. But was so awesome was the sense of peace and tranquility that we got from taking that drive. It was more fun that I had in awhile and didn't cost too much money, but the $3.50 a gallon gas in Northern California, but the scenary was priceless.

Currently, I am in Australia in the tropical Rain Forrest in a rental house, that is powered by solar energy and gets most of its water from rainwater. In this Rainforest, you can here the creators in the natural habitat from birds to insects. In addition, you see the calming water of the sea which is about a 10 minute walk away.

As I am enjoying this time in nature, I think about who will be the next generation of scientists and engineers to ensure that the beautiful scene that I am currently enjoying are still here for generations to come to enjoy. Who will the next environmental scientists, environmental biologists, geologists, botanists, entomologists and other scientists that make sure that we preserve and protect our planet? In a culture where most of us live, work and play in urban jungles, how do we expose our children let alone get them interested in these disciplines. But we can start by exposing our children to more of this wonderful planet. If they can see it, they can learn to appreciate it and possibly want to pursue a career preserving and protecting our planet.

Celebrating Chemisty: National Chemistry Week

2009-10-19T18:20:00.002-04:00

As a chemical engineer and a person who gets very excited about chemistry, I'm very excited that this week is National Chemistry Week. This week which is sponsored by the American Chemical Society celebrate the contributions that the field of chemistry and chemical professionals have contributed to society. It also gets kids excited and exposed to chemistry; for more information you can visit the American Chemistry's website at www.acs.org.

Chemistry has an impact on our everyday lives more than we realize. It encompasses such field as food science, which creates ways for us to produce and preserve our food. It encompasses biochemistry which is responsible for many of our advances in medicine and medical research. It encompasses material science which allows us to know which materials are best for us to make durable goods that we consume daily. It contains atmospheric and environmental chemistry which allows us to know more about our learn if we are being good stewards of our planet and if not, how do we correct the damage that we made.

Chemistry is the science of life because it connects all of the sciences and engineering disciplines. So celebrate this chemistry week and how the field of chemistry has improved your quality of life.

Math and Science Fair Project Season is Here

2009-10-08T01:01:00.002-04:00

Whoo hoo, math and science fair project season is here. I know that most schools math and science fairs aren't until late November/early December, but if you want to produce a quality project the time has come for you to begin the work. You must start weeks in advance because it takes a lot of time to produce a quality math and science fair projects; therefore you don't want to wait until the last minute and neglect your homework the weeks right before the math or science fair.

Completing a project for the math or science fair is a wonderful opportunity for students to explore their interest in math or science and learn skills that are transferable to other subject areas. It is one of the rare opportunities that a student will have to chose the topic they want to learn more about. A quality math or science fair project involves the student utilizing the scientific method to answer a question in their area of interest i.e. Does anti-bacterial soap kills germs? During the process the student should develop their science literacy, data collection and analysis and oral and written presentation skills. In becoming an expert on their topic they will learn how to conduct scholarly research, set up an experiment, collect data and utilize experimental results and background data to form conclusions. When math and science fair arrives they will have become an expert on their topic and will wow their peers and teachers with their quality work as well as get an A on their project.

So I encourage those of you that have children by blood or those who have claimed you as a another mother or father, encourage them to not wait to get started on their math or science fair project. For more tips on math and science fair projects, download our "Experimental Design Handbook at the http://www.semsuccess.org/semlinkincexperimentaldesignhandbook.pdf

Current and Future Noble Prize Winners in Physiology and Medicine

2009-10-05T09:47:00.003-04:00

This morning, I came across the following article through Facebook on CNN
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/, that three U.S. researchers were awarded the Noble Prize for their work on how chromosome are protected against degradation. I was excited for two major reasons, one it is very excited to see that the United States is being innovative and be recognized for their research. Due to lack of support for research, we have been lagging behind Europe for many years.It gives me hope again that the United States will be able to compete globally in research and other scientific innovation. Secondly, two of the three researchers were women; so it is a great example to our girls that want to pursue research careers. Yes, you can be a scientist or engineer and do well enough to be recognize for your work with prestigious awards if you work hard and become an expert in your field.

News like this is exciting to me and I am always encouraged to share it with children the impact that science, engineering and mathematics has on our society. The Nobel Prize is a 1.4 million dollar award; which means that these scientists work has huge impacts on our society. So many children can't connect science, engineering and mathematics to every day life. They just see it as boring or hard subjects that they have to do in class. But science and technology improves our quality of life and solves the various problems in society. Secondly, by highlighting scientists and engineers that are rewarded and recognized for their work, it teaches students that you don't have to be an entertainer or a business person to be recognized or famous. You pursuit of a STEM career and doing well, will allow you many opportunities to be recognized by your peers and society. There are world famous scientists and engineers such as these Nobel Prize winners and others who have made improvements in our society through their work.

Improving the Science Education Infastructure Nationwide

2009-09-25T06:13:00.002-04:00

Over the past few weeks, I have been really thinking about the bigger picture concerning science education. Although SEM Link has done great work over the years in science education and impacting Metro Atlanta youth, we have to think about how can we increase our impact beyond the kids that we can physically touch.

I have been conducting research and having conversations with educators and parents across the country. What I've found is that there are many school districts, even in large Metropolitan areas, don't have the infrastructure to provide quality science education for its students, especially in elementary school where students get their fundamentals in all subject areas. How can our students achieve academically in science or even pursue those careers if there is not quality instruction going on? They won't be adequately prepared for post-secondary education to major in the science, engineering and mathematics field, let alone garner enough interest to pursue those fields.

We can't place all the blame on the school districts, for it can't be the responsibility of the school system alone to educate our children. I realized that schools work best when they have community partners that provide additional resources to the schools to help them educate their students. It is especially critical now, when many school districts are seeing their budgets drastically reduced due to many of our states having extreme budget deficits due to the recession. There are even districts that have to lay off teachers, so you know they are in bad shape if that have to do that.

There are many community organizations that are getting funding for various educational resources to help teachers. However, although they are developing them somehow not all of the resources are getting to the teachers. I'm not quite sure what the reason for disconnect, but these resources need to get to the teachers. In addition, many organization have grant funding available for teachers to obtain resources but what good teacher has time to write a grant. What teachers are available to attend professional conferences.

We have to do something about the science infrastructure for the survival of our society; for this problem is bigger than test scores. It is the current K-12 students that are our future workforce. What I have noticed about the recession is that we are transitioning from a economy that is heavy on skilled labor to one that requires an educated workforce. Therefore it is important for our children to be educated for their survival as individuals and our survival as a society. It is important for us to have the future science, engineering and mathematics in our society because those fields are what create innovation for improvement of society as a whole. Who will be available to solve the issues that we have with climate change? Who will create the next generation of technological innovations that help improve the quality of our lives? Who will be available to be the next generation of public health professionals and biomedical researchers to cure and treat the disease that plague our society?

Who Can Help and How We Can Help the Generation Behind Us

2009-09-21T02:30:00.002-04:00

Over the past few weeks, I've been meaning to blog, but no subject would come to me when I was in a time and a space to blog. Maybe if I can figure out how to blog on my cell phone or get one of those netbook laptops that can fit into my pocket, I can stop and blog at the grocery store, in the doctor's office or when I am sitting in rush hour traffic. These past few days, I have been in conversation with many students at various educational levels as well as researching non profits in various Metropolitan areas around the nation. The conversations I have had with students this week were teachable moments for both me and them because events occurred in their lives, that made them reach out to me or forced me to reach out to them to get them back on the right path. As I was researching non profits, mostly those who serve "inner city" or "at risk" youth, I realized the lack of diversity in their staff. The question that came to my mind was who is most qualified to help the next generation and what is the best way to help them.

One of the things that I loved about growing up in Miami was the diversity. I grew up with classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends that were from various parts of the country and the world. That experience made me who I am today, because being exposed to the various cultures and people who were different from my background allowed me to be the person I am today and be so willing and open to try new things and meet new people. Although, I know that several of my teachers had an impact on my educational experiences, I realize that the two teachers that shaped the decision of choosing my major in college, chemical engineering, because in high school two teachers who allowed me to see the possibilities in me to achieve in math and science as a female student. Mrs. Shy, my 10th grade chemistry teacher an African American woman and Mrs. Schpiliberg, my 11th and 12th grade teacher an Columbian-American Women. These women not only provided a environment for me to develop my academic skills in these subjects, but gave me the confidence and encouragement to know that girls can do science and math and I did it so well by receiving no less than a B in both their classes.

As I look at these non profits that are doing great work to help our youth, I wonder how can they truly help these kids learn more, do more and accomplish more if they never see enough people that look like them accomplishing more. I believe that it takes a village to raise a child and that village has to be diverse,it can't exclude people of your own tribe. In order for us to accomplish what we think we can in life, we have to see people who look like us to help us achieve more. When in school, although I had a lot of great mentors, it wasn't until I meet an African American female chemical engineer, that allowed me to explore all the challenges and rewards of being a chemical engineer.

Tomorrow, we start our work with the Cool Girls after-school program and it isn't any coincidence that I am sending volunteers to work with these girls that look like them to engage them in hands on activities in math and science. Although, I will also send people of difference races and nationalities because children who needs to be exposed to people with different backgrounds, religions and cultures than themselves.

So let me rephrase that old African proverb to say" It takes a diverse village to raise a child" and how can we help them be open to share who we are with them and where we have been. But most importantly provide them with the confidence and skills set to be able to not only make all their dreams come true, but be able to be a part of a child's village that comes behind them.

What labor are you willing to do to make a difference in your community

2009-09-07T02:43:00.002-04:00

As we celebrate this labor day holiday, we as a society individuals think about what we will do to take advantage of our three day weekend. We make plans to hang out, get some rest, catch up on some projects around the house and eat some good food. Then after we go back to work, get back in the hustle and bustle of our lives; focusing on what we need or want to do for ourselves and our immediate network.

As I look at the number of donors and volunteers the organization has, the level of engagement of SEM Link's board and the number of sponsors, i do a lot of reflection and inspection. So many people are supposedly too "busy" or "broke" to make an consistent adjustment in their schedules to make a difference in their community. I believe that is why most people love to volunteer for adopt a road programs and Hosea Feed the Hungry or Habitat, because it requires a one time commitment instead of a long term investment in the organization.

So what would make you willing to make a long term investment in a non profit organization? What will cause you to decide, I'm going to make a decision based on the economic principle of opportunity costs because I realize that we all have to make choices based on our limited resources and time to give some of your time and/or money to a non profit organization. Will you say that I make a commitment to make a monthly or annual contribution to an non profit organization. Instead of eating that $10 daily lunch, you will take your lunch or by a $5 lunch and donate your savings to our "Donate Your Lunch Money". Would you go into work a little earlier or go to the gym before work, so you can still get your work out on, but volunteer for our after-school programs. Would you be willing to talk and encourage people in your network to make the same choices that you make to devote their time and talent to a non profit.

Thinking Beyond Yourself

2009-08-23T20:53:00.002-04:00

As I reflect upon the conversations and Facebook updates of people in my network; everyone says how busy they are. I don't doubt that your PDA is full of the obligations to your employer, things on your to do list, places to be and people to see. We are constantly "busy" building and maintaining our networks, getting on the grind to make that money and enjoy life. There is nothing wrong with those things because it is what we must do to accomplish our goals and enjoy life.

My question that I pose is what are you doing to accomplish anything beyond what satisfies your need to enjoy life and accomplish your personal and professional goals? Is anything that you are doing going to make a difference in anyone's life beyond your network and leave a lasting impact in your community and the world. Instead of dropping $100 on an evening with friends, have you every thought about donating that $100 to a local non profit? Have you and your friends every thought about putting some time to volunteer in your PDA, whether it be in direct services to a non profit or donating your expertise to help them complete a project? As a business owner have you every thought about putting in your company's marketing and advertising budget to make a financial contribution to a non profit organization? Most non profits will acknowledge company's that make a contribution on its website and other promotional positions; so it is a good use of your advertising dollars.

In society, we have become so selfish and thinking about our own needs that at times we need to reflect and see what our we doing to make a differences in the lives of others and leave a lasting legacy.

Why Volunteers and Corporate Partnership Are So Important

2009-08-21T17:19:00.002-04:00

As the Executive Director and Founder of the organization, I realize that I set the vision for the organization as well as determine the direction that SEM Link will go. I am very clear about what direction I would like the organization to go, how the programs will run and what goals I have for the immediate future and long term. I also believe that it is the responsibility of myself and the boards to ensure that we stay true to our mission and vision as an organization. However, in order to achieve our mission and grow as an organization, we have to be open to engaging others in a dialogue about the best way to do this.

Within the past 24 hours, I was engaged in great conversations with a volunteer and a corporate partner about how we should solicit resources and implement our programs. What I realized by being open to the ideas from these individuals, we will be able to do things better and in ways that I would have never imagined. Although some of their ideas took us to far away from our niche as an organization or was beyond the resources that we have available to us right now. Individuals and organizations that believe in the mission of the organization and want to devote their time and mission to help us achieve it are so invaluable. They provide fresh ideas and eyes to allow us to continue to find innovative ways to implement our programs and obtain resources for them. I'm very thankful to these individuals for their fresh perspective and energy, which allow us to "unveil potential through exposure".

SEM Link: Improving the Quality of Math and Science Fairs One Project at a Time

2009-08-18T19:42:00.003-04:00

Our Experimental Design Program teaches students how to design and conduct experiments for math and science fair projects utilizing research, laboratory and scientific literacy skills gained through individual and group learning opportunities as well as mentoring. This program improves the quantity and quality of math and science fair projects for students by providing schools with undergraduate students, graduate students and professional mentors with science, engineering and math (SEM) backgrounds to provide support for math and science fairs. It was a program that I started in the 2005-06 Program year, after spending time working in K-12 schools and getting tired of seeing reports on poster boards at science fairs. I wanted to teach students how to conduct a project on their academic level thinking like a research scientist; how I am going to answer a question in an area of my interest. So I created the Experimental Design Program Handbook for students which is currently on our website and started working with the inaugural students in this program.

The Experimental Design Individual Mentoring Program was born in October 2005, with 6 students at Sylvan Hills Middle School in the Atlanta Public School System. At the time of the school science fair, I had 5 science fair projects. I was so proud of all the hard work these students had put into developing their projects.They met diligently with their mentors weekly and put in the work between the meetings. They expressed frustration when their experiment didn't go right the first time and they had to do it over. But their hard work paid off because 3 of these students won the school fair and became eligible to compete in the district fair. Those students diligently worked to improve their projects from feedback from the science fair judges and ideas they had thought about while engaging in the trail and error of research. Once again, their hard work paid off and two of the projects won awards at the district fair. One of the two students that won awards at the district fair, was eligible to compete at the state fair. I was so proud of that inaugural class of the mentoring program, I'm not sure if that they chose to be scientist but they definitely got a chance to be exposed to what scientist do.

We are now accepting applications for its 2009-10 Experimental Design Individual Mentoring Program. This program provides a small monetary award to purchase supplies to conduct an experiment and a mentor for successful completion of a math or science fair project. SEM Link will support the student to his or her highest level of competition. Students who are eligible to apply for this program must be in grades 3-10, have a project title or subject area, a sponsoring math or science teacher and parental consent. The online application for this program, which consists of the student application and a teacher recommendation, must be completed by Friday, September 25, 2009.

The Individual Mentoring Program is one of the three programs in SEM Link’s Experimental Design Program. The other two other components of the Experimental Design Program provide support to public, private and charter schools. The Experimental Design Group Mentoring Program allows K-12 educators to request support for their classes to receive math and science fair project mentors. The Math and Science Fair Judging Program allows individual schools and school districts request judges for math and science fair projects. Both programs require schools to make their request online to SEM Link at least four weeks prior to their event. For more information about the Experimental Design Program and to find the online applications for each program visit http://www.semsuccess.org/SO_Expdesign.html.

The Experimental Design Program can not be a success without the support of the community. Anyone with a SEM background that is interested in serving as a project mentor or judge should sign up to volunteer now by visiting http://www.semsuccess.org/volunteer.html. Anyone who believes in what we are doing int his program should "Donate Your Lunch Money, to we can help more students by visiting our Individual Donor page at http://www.semsuccess.org/donation.html.

Random Connections Brings About Creativity and New Partnerships

2009-08-15T20:49:00.003-04:00

In the 2009-10 fiscal year, the major action item in which most of our activities revolve around is promoting the SEM Link brand. SEM Link is a wonderful organization, that has a sound organizational structure and quality programs; but not enough people know who we are and what we do. As Executive Director, I am always telling people about SEM Link, who we are and what we do. However, because we have been taking promoting the organization up a notch, I find myself talking about the organization in places that I normally wouldn't. As I result, I have gained some additional resources for the organization as well as told more people about our great organization and the great work we do to "unveil potential through exposure".

While I was enjoying a wonderful jazz concert last weekend; I made two connections that will help out with provide support with our marketing and fundraising efforts. I didn't have my business card with me because I was going to have a good time, I wasn't going to this event as SEM Link's Executive Director. But since the connections were made, I took the advice of the best networker I know, Ms. ChiChi Okezie of Simple Networking LLC took advantage of the technology by getting their email addresses and emailing them at the event. I'm glad I followed Ms. Okezie's advance because I am already developing relationship that are bringing resources to the organization and promoting the brand.

In the past few days, I have meet a jewelry maker and a exercise physiologist who is in training to be a registered dietitian. I recruited them to become volunteers for our programs to teach the girls in the after-school program of our community partner Cool Girls concepts related to real world applications of science. I'm not going to give away my lesson plan until I get it copyrighted, but I can tell you that these connections made me think of a more creative way to engage students in hands on science activities. No child will learn about material science, earth science, anatomy and physiology and biology in a more "out of the box" way than these young ladies.

So I am sharing this story because this push to promote the SEM Link brand, tells me that I must always be ready and open for the resources that will come as a result and make sure that my cell phone is charged so I can take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves.

The Importance of Honoring The Commitments You Make to a Nonprofit Organization

2009-08-14T14:31:00.003-04:00

This afternoon, I had to make an executive decision to cancel an event, which was a truly sad moment for me and the first time that I have had to cancel an event in my entire professional career and definitely in the history of SEM Link. This week, when we sent an email to reconfirm our speaker for the event, they were no longer available and couldn't find a replacement speaker. With the event being a little over a month away, i thought it was a better use of my time and resources, to focus on other programs and operations projects. This fiscal year, we have implemented a brand new marketing and communications plan that includes starting a heavy marketing campaign for our events no later than a month out. Although, I am sad, I know that it was the right thing to do in the bigger picture of what we are trying to do as an organization.

I tell this story to stress how important it is for individuals and corporations to honor the commitments they make to non profit organizations. We all are busy people with many commitments and responsibilities and it is hard to manage it all. Nonprofit organizations achieve their mission with limited resources and are so reliant on the community to provide resources to achieve their mission in the community. Therefore, when you don't honor your commitment to volunteer, make a financial contribution or donate in-kind good, it is not like canceling a lunch or dinner with a friend or colleague. It can truly be detrimental for the nonprofit because the resource that you committed to the organization, could be only option for the non profit to achieve its mission and to do that particular task or project. I encourage you as you evaluate your priorities and review your calendar, make sure that the commitments that you have made to the nonprofit that you have committed your time, talent and resources to, don't fall through cracks and get put on the backburner.

What are your results of your relationships?

2009-08-11T23:21:00.005-04:00

This evening as I am winding down from a wonderful day, I was journaling with such a attitude of gratitude for all the friends and colleagues, old and new that have either giving me the confidence or by direct support by giving of their time and talent to help me accomplish the goals that I have both personally and professional. In addition to being grateful for my relationships with three of my mentees that are close to my heart and make me beam with pride with not only the great people I've seen them grow and develop into but them making strides toward achieving their goals. One who just graduated from high school in May 2nd in his class and preparing to go to college at my alma mater FAMU on this Saturday. One who graduated from Spelman College in May, who is on her way to graduate school to pursue what will probably be considered a non traditional career path in public health via computational chemistry. The final one who graduated from Spelman in May as well, who I'm very proud of the fact that she is constantly doing things to pour into the lives of the generation that is coming behind her. As well as her wisdom being able to realize that delay is not denial and at times working a plan B will help you get where you want to go in life as well. I would like to say that I've helped these young people accomplish their goals and grow as a person, just like my mentors have done for me.

As the beginning of the school year just started for many school districts and SEM Link programs start next month. What are you doing to make the goals of a person or organization come to pass? What relationships are you going to develop and maintain with individuals or organizations that will allow you to make a difference in the lives of others. I have a favorite quote that states the "Leaders Get Result Through People". As I paraphrase this quote in the context of mentoring and making a difference, my new quote is " What Results Will You Get Through Your Relationships". What results do you want to see from your relationship with SEM Link Will you see the results of sharing your expertise and passion with a child by volunteering for our programs? Will you see the results of sharing your time and expertise to help with our operations? Will you see the results of how you can help us achieve our programming goals for this program year by making a financial contribution to our "Donate Your Lunch Money" individual donor campaign? Will you the results of how your business, government agencies or professional society will produce by becoming one of our Corporate Partners? Visit our website and find out more information about what relationship you will develop and maintain with SEM Link in the 2009-10. Do just search our website, but make use of the online application that we made it an easy process for you to sign up to start your relationship with SEM Link in a way that is authentic to who you are and the resources that are available to you. The staff and board of SEM Link are looking forward to you become a part of the SEM Link family.

Donating Your Lunch Money to SEM Link to Provide Resources to Help Us Achieve Our Mission

2009-08-10T18:33:00.004-04:00

Any non profit organization that wants to be sustainable has to have a diversified revenue stream; SEM Link is no different. The diversity in revenue streams is necessary because in age where resources are limited grantors don't have enough resources to fund every organization that applies for funding. In addition your organization may have a great grant proposal, but your organization project may not line up with the mission of the funding organization.

Two years ago, my advisory board member Dr. LaToya Myles and I were talking about the organization's revenue that came from individuals donors. Research of philanthropic giving shows that approximately 60-80% of the funds that non-profits receive that provide the resources necessary to achieve their mission comes from financial contributions made by individuals. Therefore it was imperative for us to formalize our individual donor campaign as a part of our diverse revenue stream. We needed to provide an opportunity for any individual that was interested in supporting the organization to make a financial contribution. However, we realized that many people don't give to non profit organization's because they feel that the little bit of money they have to give isn't enough to help out a non profit. We wanted people to know that a small amount of money such as your daily lunch money (approximately $5) can truly make a difference in supporting the mission of a nonprofit organization such as SEM Link. Hence, our "Donate Your Lunch Money" Individual Donor Campaign was born.

So I invite you now to donate your lunch money to SEM Link this year. Any financial contribution you make to the organization is tax deductible. We accept donations on a year-round basis and have an easy process to donate your lunch money to SEM Link! by visiting the donate page on our website http://www.semsuccess.org/donation.html. Thank you for helping us "unveil potential through exposure".

SEM Link Redesigned Website Defining Our Who We are and What We Do

2009-08-09T23:39:00.002-04:00

Science, Engineering and Mathematics Link Inc. redesigned Website, www.semsuccess.org, on launched tonight. The new Web site was designed by Ms. Radhika Gadiyaram of Two Penny Creations in Detroit, Michigan. This interactive Website not only clearly communicates SEM Link’s niche as an organization in math and science education but also its messages for each of its target markets (K-12 students, parents and educators, volunteers, individual donors, and corporate partners).

A new and exciting feature of the Website is the online applications for Experimental Design and Math and Science Career Academy Programs. Individuals and corporations that are interested in volunteering for programs or operations or making a financial contribution to the organization can do that through an online application. The use of online applications, developed by Mrs. Chandra McCrary of MJS Plus Automation, shows that the organization is going green by reducing its paper waste while also increasing operational efficiency by automatically creating a database of program participants, volunteers, donors, and corporate partners. The new homepage has a message from the Executive Director and Founder, as well as links to the organization’s Facebook group, blog, and www.GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo) where individuals can raise money for SEM Link’s programs by searching the Internet or shopping online.

Students can use the Educational and Professional Development pages to find tools to develop their basic skills in math and science as well as learn critical study strategies and test preparation skills to promote academic achievement. The career exploration page will introduce students to a science, engineering and mathematics professionals and careers. These two pages allow us to promote student achievement and career exploration in math and science for the students we can't touch with our programs.

Our new website is definitely a great marketing tool to promote the SEM Link Brand and attract new resources and relationships for our organization.

Great Intentions, Wrong Methods

2009-08-08T16:15:00.004-04:00

As a non profit organization, we truly appreciate the support of our volunteers. Without our volunteers we wouldn't be able to achieve our mission because it is the volunteers that implement our programs and assist with various tasks related to operations. However, as a volunteer there are certain things you have to be careful about when you represent the organization to make sure that you properly represent the organization and don't put the organization in harms way.

A few days ago, I was googling SEM Link, which I periodically to do see if I our efforts to increase our webpresence is working. I came across a volunteer who had posted pictures and videos from one of our events on their website. I was horrified at this huge liability this person put our organization in. However, I realized that this person probability didn't even realize the huge liability and risk they were putting SEM Link in by posting picture of minors on their site. They probably didn't even think they had to ask permission to take pictures or videos of this event, let alone obtain permission from SEM Link before they posted it on the website.

So as volunteers to be sure that you are always representing the organization be sure you do the following things.
1. Always be sure that you know the mission and vision of the organization you are serving; people will ask you why you volunteer and knowing this information about the organization promote the organization and encourages others to be involved as well.
2. Before you take pictures of your own, please ask the organization representative if you can take pictures. If they don't allow you to please be ask permission to obtain the photos that will be taken of the event. This will allow the organization to go through the proper channels to release permission to your organization to utilize their photos.
3. If are a business owner or community organization that is serious about serving your community, please consider becoming one of the organizations corporate partners and financially support the organization.

SEM Link Appreciating the Unsung Hero of Volunteers- The Skilled Volunteer

2009-08-06T18:20:00.003-04:00

In most non profit organization's volunteers are a critical component to the organization being able to achieve it mission. When we think about the volunteers, we always think about those who are in direct services or directly involved in the programs. However, there is another group of volunteers that does a lot of the behind the scences work for programs and operations called the skilled volunteers.

A skilled volunteer is an individual that donates their time and expertise to the organization. These volunteers usually help with projects that deal with operations or indirect service related to programs. These are usually the people who assist with organization fundraising, coordinate special events, web design, graphic artist, marketing projects, public relations, etc. These volunteers are so invaluable because they usually provide a service that the non profit organization could not afford to have without this professional believing enough in the mission of the organization to use their expertise to help the organization achieve its mission. They also save the staff and huge amount of time by provide a person in which tasks that are critical to programs or operations can be delegated to an individual who has the skill set to complete it; sometimes they have a better expertise than the organization's staff.

So I just want to spend a few minutes, saying thank you to some of the skilled volunteers that support SEM Link. First of all, I would like to thank Mrs. Mardell Artis and her Community Consulting Team (CCT) that spent months developing a marketing and communications plans for the Science Cafes and our Annual Career Fair and Exhibition. We are implementing that plan in the 2009-10 fiscal year and beyond. I would like to thank Mrs. Radhika Gadiyaram of Two Penny Creations of Detriot, MI who has donated her time and expertise to redesign and maintain our website. I would like to thank Ms. Wanda Clouston of Eiram Creative, who donates her time to meet our graphic design needs. I would also like to thank our newest skilled volunteer Ms. Tanya Montgomery who is donating her time and expertise to help us with public relations efforts.

I truly appreciate every volunteer that has makes time in their busy schedule to serve and help us "unveil potentional through exposure". I realize there are many non profits that you could have donated your time to and I am so honored you have chosing SEM Link.

Great Community Partnerships

2009-08-04T21:19:00.003-04:00

In the 2009-10 Academic Year Science, Engineering and Mathematics Link Inc (SEM Link) and Cool Girls will continue their community partnership which was first established in the 2008-09 Program year. Through its Math and Science Career Academy, (MSCA) SEM Link will provide hands on activities in math and science for the Cool Girls Cool Club after-school program. In the Cool Scholars portion of the program students will engage in activities designed to enhance the classroom learning experience. Some of the sites will participate in four week modules that engage students in hands on math and science activities that teaching concepts in math and science. Other sites will engage in weekly academic enrichment activities which focus on developing basic math and science skills through a tutorial program. These activities will begin in mid-September 2009 and end in April 2010.

One of the reasons both organizations continued this partnership because it was a win-win for us both because it allowed us both to achieve our missions; that is what great partnerships are all about. SEM Link was able to achieve its mission of promoting student achievement and career exploration in math and science by having a group of engaged young minds having fun learning math and science concepts through hands on activities. Our staff and volunteers loved working with these elementary and middle school girls. Cool Girls was able to achieve its mission for the Cool Girls Club which is to have an after school program comprised of academic support and life skills development. Cool Scholars provides academic support to girls in all core subject areas; SEM Link covered the subject areas of math and science.

I am so looking forward to engaging the Cool Scholars, in our Math and Science Career Academy and "unveiling potential through exposure". Each year, we find one or two young ladies that are interested in pursuing STEM career and many realize that math and science can be fun to learning. Thank you Cool Girls for a wonderful partnership.

Ensuring A Child's Academic Achievement in Math and Science for the 2009-10 Academic Year and Beyond

2009-08-03T00:51:00.002-04:00

A component of SEM Link's mission is promote student achievement in math and science; therefore as the start of school is approaching I thought is was appropriate to talk about how student can do well in these subjects. I believe that any child has the ability to achieve academically in math and science, however at times their are many barriers to one's success.

One of the major barriers is a child's perception of math and science and their ability to achieve. Math and science are subjects that many students say is "hard" and once you determine in your mind that someone is hard, you automatically put a negative association with that thing. So the first step in changing students mindset about math and science is for them to believe they are capable of achieving well in math and science. It isn't hard, but you must work hard to excel in this subjects; so don't be afraid of hard work.

The next thing is to realize that in math and science, concepts usually build upon one another or are connected. Therefore it is important that students take good notes in class, read their textbook and devote plenty of study time at home to these subjects. Also if you are stuck on a concept don't be afraid to get help from a classmate, a teacher or a tutor. There is nothing wrong with asking for help because getting a little help will ensure that you achieve academically in challenging subjects. Everyone needs a little help from time to time.

Finally, if you interested in math and science find extra activities to develop your skills and explore your interests. There are plenty of websites where you can find hands on activities to practice your skills. You can do a math or science fair project, where you get an opportunity to study a topic in math or science that you are interested in. Join the math or science club or participate in math or science competitions such as quiz bowls and outreach programs at your local colleges or university or community organization. Their is so much to learn about math and science that you can't possibly learn it all in your classroom.

The first day of the 2009-10 Program Year is here- Whoo hoo

2009-08-01T00:56:00.002-04:00

I am very excited because today is the start of the new program year. This is the year that we are going to create an SEM Link community of our that consists of our community partners, corporate sponsors, donors, supporters, volunteers and most importantly the students that we serve.

I just want to update you on a few new things that are coming up on the horizon in the month of August. We will launch our new interactive website that explains who we are and what we do, makes it easier for individuals to donate and volunteer, makes it easier for parents and students to gain access to our services. We also showcase our niche in the promotion of academic achievement and career exploration in Math and Science with our new resources and career exploration pages.

I know that is a recession, but everyone has a little lunch money they can spare. So if you haven't done so already make the 2009-10 the year you donate some of your lunch money to support SEM Link. You can donate through paypal our email address is donate@semsuccess.org. When our website launches you can easily donate them.

As far as programs, we are truly excited we will continue to serve as a Community Partner for Cool Girls. Through our Math and Science Career Academy we will provide hands on activities and academic support in math and science for the Cool Scholars portion of the Cool Club after-school program. Also as a part of the Math and Science Career Academy, we will expand our Science Cafe' to include a monthly science cafe our first cafe will take place on September 17th and the topic will be Alternative Energy Sources.

We are expanding our Experimental Design Program, we will continue to accept applications for our Experimental Design Mentoring Program and provide judges for math and science fair. However now math and science teachers can request a mentor to provide support for their entire classrooms.

In addition, we are expanded our web presence and communication with our stakeholders. We will send out a monthly e-newsletter as well as press releases to media outlets. Today is day one of "unveiling potential through exposure". I'm excited and ready and look forward to your support.

Building the SEM Link Team

2009-07-28T11:13:00.002-04:00

I am a huge football fan and I'm awaiting for the season to start. As the 2009-10 fiscal year is approaching on August 1, I am thinking about all the goals we have set for the 2009-10 program year and how we will successfully accomplish it all. In thinking about football and the successful franchises, what makes them successful is everyone affiliated with the team not only knows their roles, but works hard to achieve common goals. The team is more than the coaches and players that you see on the fields, it includes the executives that run the operations, obtain resources and market the team, the physicians and other medical staff that ensure the players stay healthy.

My point in all of this is just because myself and my assistant Angela are the face of the organization and are the most visible we alone can't be responsible for nor have the ability for achieving all our goals as a organization just like those players on the field can't be responsible. We need all the other members of the team (the front office support and the medical staff), both boards, volunteers, individual donors, corporate partners and friends of the organization to do their part in making the organization a successful and sustainable organization that is able to touch the lives of children and create future scientist, engineers and mathematicians by "unveiling potential through exposure". So in the next 4 days before the next fiscal year starts, reflect about how you will play your part to make the organization a success and then get busy with doing it. Are you going to increase your financial contribution to the organization and encourage others in your network to do so, are you going to make more time in your schedule to volunteer are you doing to encourage your company and business owners in your network to become a corporate partner are you going to encourage people in your network to attend events. Come on team, let's get ready for the season and make it a winning one.

Making the Most of the Web to Promote Our Mission and Obtain Resources for SEM Link

2009-07-25T07:37:00.002-04:00

One of the reasons that the world has become global is because the internet has removed the geographical divide that did not allow us to connect with one another. No matter what part of the world you live in, you can connect with people in other parts of your city, your state, your country and the world. But have we really made the best use of the internet to achieve both our personal and professional goals. I'll admit that I haven't truly tapped into all the web can provide for me as a social entrepreneur to promote the mission of SEM Link and obtain the resources that we need to achieve our mission.

An advisory board member and I were discussing ways that we can increase our web presence as an organization. Our first steps were to reevaluate our website, which is our number one web tool for promoting the mission of the organization and obtaining resource, it is defining who we are as an organization and obtaining the resources that you need. In reevaluating our website, we discovered that it wasn't the best representation of our organization; therefore we have been on a website development project. Our new website will launch next month and I'm so excited because we have created a interactive website that not only describe who we are and what we do, but has a special tailored message for all of our target markets (K-12 students, parents and educators, volunteers, individual donors, corporate partners) as well as shows what our niche is as an organization in math and science education. The other part of our website was creating a facebook group for the organization. We have been posting pictures and events on this group and the size of our group is growing everyday. But we really do need to kick it up a notch and maximize how we utilize this free marketing and advertising tool to build an online community for the organization. Finally, this blog how to I get myself to blog on a more consistent and regular basis and increase the number of followers that we have.

So these next few months I am going to be on a mission to make the most of the use of the internet to promote the organization and obtain resources for the organization. My goal is to utilizing social networking and other online tools to increase the number of people that know who we are and what we do. Using a tool that a friend told me about www.prlog.com, which is a free online resource for distributing press releases online. Writing more articles on online magazines both in the educational field and outside of it. Promoting SEM Link more on the social networking groups that I am on through facebook.

I know that these last two blogs haven't necessarily been directly related to the mission of SEM Link. However, SEM Link is a business even though it is a non profit organization. Therefore I run it like business and divide my efforts to creating and developing quality programs that help us achieve our business; but we can't do that if we don't handle our business and do what we need to do to allow the SEM Link to become a sustainable organization "promotes student achievement and career in math and science for K-12 students" for years to come.

Creating A New Image and Defining a Brand for New Opportunities

2009-07-07T21:39:00.002-04:00

At some point in order to get ensure its sustainability and growth as an organization, every business has to create a new image and define its brand. This goes for non profit organizations as well because your image and brand determines if you will obtain the resources needed to achieve your mission. SEM Link is currently in the process of creating a new image and defining our brand, doing that doesn't change who you are and what you do as an organization, but how you communicate the message of who you are and what you do.

We are creating a new image, by first creating a website that clearly communicates to all of our different audiences each having a crafting message based on their role or potential role within the organization. Secondly, we are showing that we are a green and an operational efficient organization by making all of our application and donation process online and automated. The use of automated online application not only reduces the waste from paper, but creates an automatic database for us to keep records of our clients, donors and volunteers.

Finally, the whole purpose and goal of creating a new image and defining our brand is to create new opportunities for SEM Link and the students that we serve. When you clearly communicate who you are and what you do, it provides new opportunities to attract donors, volunteers and partnerships. Which will ultimate lead to more resources to create new opportunities to impact more children and "unveil potential through exposure".

The importance of being a part of a child's village

2009-05-31T11:30:00.002-04:00

This past few weeks, I have attended several college and high school graduation ceremonies. There was one in particular that made me realize how important it is for adults to be involved in children's lives that aren't your own. I was at a graduation and unfortunately because not everyone followed the proper etiquette and decorum for a graduation ceremony; several parents didn't get to see their child graduate because they were escorted out of the ceremony by the police for their inappropriate behavior. In addition, those of us who observed the etiquette and decorum for the ceremony, didn't fully get to enjoy the celebration of the huge milestone in the child's live we were there to celebrate because of those individuals.

This incident made me realize that although many of us where blessed to have wonderful parents that instilled in us for the lack of a better term good home training, so we don't act a fool in public; not everyone was blessed with that. So I know that I normally talk about preparing children for stem careers; but we can't always do that if we don't do some basic mentoring to the individual. We don't invest in a child's live because we assume that their parent's are doing something wrong, because just like every parent does when raising a child they are doing the best they know how. It is about exposing children to different experiences, different behaviors and mindsets and teaching them different skills sets that will give them an opportunity to be all they can be in life and do all that they want to do. That is truly "unveiling potential through exposure" at its most basic level.

Partnerships that create synergy and a win-win situation

2009-05-22T01:15:00.003-04:00

Our career fair that took place on May 1st was the end of our 2008-09 program year and our 2009-10 program year begins again after Labor Day. During this time of transition as I reflect on the old and prepare for the new, I am always thinking about what went well, what needs to be improved and what we need to not do anymore. I'm always constantly trying to make sure that those thoughts are centered around the mission, vision and goals of the organization.

No organization can achieve its mission without partnerships; we are living in an interdependent world with limited resources. Partnerships allow us to share resources, so that we all can accomplish our organizational goals. However, how do we chose partnerships that are mutually beneficial and ensure that all parties involved stay authentic to who they are as an organization? Some of the lessons learned in the principles of leadership can be applied to selecting partners. Stephen Convey, has teaches the concepts of win-win and synergy; which I believe are great concepts and things that should be considered in selecting partners. Everyone organization has something to bring to the table that collaboration with another organization can help both organization's advance.

So as I look to the next few months, years and beyond for SEM Link to ensure our continued growth and sustainability, I'm going to have to put just as much effort into selecting our partners as I do in planning quality programs. As the saying goes, all that glitters isn't gold, not every organization is a good fit for a partnership. The exact criteria for what organizations are a best fit, that is something that my board and I, lead by our Strategic Partnership chair will have to determine. The most important thing for me to make sure if that I have the courage to stay committed to building partnerships that create synergy and are win-win for all parties involved and not be afraid to walk away from opportunities that don't. For me it is not important who we partner with, but that our partnership allow us to stay authentic to who we are and what we do as an organization, which is "unveil potential through exposure". We have to be associated with the "right" fit, not necessarily the "right" name.

Operating on a Shoestring Budget

2009-05-10T13:39:00.003-04:00

In preparing for our board meeting on Saturday and reviewing this year organizational finances, I realized that we only raised 49% of the funds needed for our organization's programs and operations. I realized that we are probably not the only non profit organization that did not raised 100% of the funds it needed for the year. However, when we don't raise all of the funds needed for operations and programs, some difficult choices have to be made about what programs will be cut and what operational needs we will do without.

As SEM Link's founder, my priority is to ensure that we provide quality programs each year. Therefore at times, I am willing to absorb some of the operational costs in order to ensure that as much as the money we get from grants, individual and corporate contributions goes towards programs. In addition, some of the professionals that volunteer for our programs were able to bring their own resources for the volunteer activities, which save money on our supply budget. However, we weren't able to help as many students that we wanted to through our Experimental Design Program and Math and Science Career Academy. It truly breaks my heart because I truly desire to impact as many students as I can, but I just have to be thankful that we were able to reach the students that we did reach through our 2008-09 programs.

Just like we all have to make adjustments to our personal budget, SEM Link has to make adjustments and prioritize our organizational budget. However, I truly believe that we can do a better job of generating revenue for the organization; even if we can't raise 100% we can do better than 49%. So internally, the board and staff of the organization is going to increase what we personally contribute to the organization and encourage more individuals and corporations in our network to make financial contribution to the organization. We will find ways to increase the financial contributions from our volunteers and the general public. The main reason that our individual donor campaign is called "Donate Your Lunch Money" because we want individuals to realize that even a small amount of money like what you spend on lunch daily, weekly or monthly can truly help our organization operates in programs. We have also restructured our corporate sponsorship plan so organizations including small businesses and professional societies, just like individuals can recognize that a small contribution to our organization can help as well. In addition, because we are in the days when less and less grant funds are available, we are finding other sources funding for our organization. Therefore we are listed as a charity on websites like www.Goodsearch.com, where you can contribute to the organization by doing things you do on a regular basis such as conducting online searches or online shopping.

Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to ensure that a nonprofit organization has the resources needed to achieve its mission in the community it serves. That is one of the reasons that we renamed our fundraising plan to our resource development plan. We realize that although we do need finances to achieve our mission, that an in kind donation of supplies can help or an professional donating their expertise to the organization that saves us from having to pay for the service will help. So whether you donate your lunch money to help us, a small business owner that becomes our corporate sponsor or begin using www.Goodsearch.com to help us raise funds, you are a part of our village that helps us "increase potential through exposure" and we appreciate your support.

The story of two little girls

2009-05-03T13:18:00.003-04:00

On yesterday we had our 2nd Annual Science, Engineering and Mathematics Career Fair and Exhibition at Georgia State University. Each year, I am always amazed to see the parents and K-12 students that are interested or at least want to be exposed to STEM Careers. This year children as young as 4 and as old as 15 meet forensic scientists, chemists, biologists, biomedical researchers, engineers and public health professionals. Each year, there are always some students that capture my attention while they are enjoying their experience at the career fair. There were two young girls 7 and 8, that I watched enthusiastically bounce from table to table during the fair. Both of these young ladies have the potential of being future scientists, engineers or mathematicians that are women of color. Like several of our exhibitors and board members are.

The 7 year old bounced from table to table asking questions of each exhibitor, taking their goodies and was an active participant in the hands on activities that some of the exhibitors provided. This inquisitive 7 year old took her time going from table to table seeing what each had to teach her about STEM fields. The young lady had so much enthusiasm and energy, I don't think her parents could keep up with her they just watched from a distance to ensure that she was still in the ballroom. When I asked her what she learned and enjoyed from the fair, she had something to say about what she learned from each of the tables she visited. Being 7 she definitely enjoyed the tables that engaged her in hands on a demonstrations of science; but even for the table that she quite didn't get a grasp of the career path, she said with a smile " he gave me some candy".

The second little girl, who was 8 years old, walked in to the room and said "I'm in heaven". This little girl who in elementary school already has a passion and enthusiasm for science. I asked her why she thought she was in heaven and she stated she had the opportunity to meet so many scientists and engineers in one room. Her mother mentioned to me that the she works at a local university and has been trying to nurture her daughter's passion for science as much as she could through various activities. I watched this young lady as she went from table to table. As she was leaving the fair, I asked her did she still feel like she had been to heaven by attending the fair. She said yes and being the future scientist that she is, shared that the table she enjoyed the most was the Georgia Tech Women in Chemistry table, where she got an opportunity to do several chemistry and physics experiments.

If our fair doesn't touch any more than these two young ladies, we would have done our job as an organization. Although, I believe that when we get the data from our evaluator from the surveys that the attendees and exhibitors completed, we will find out that more than these two families were happy that they attended our career fair. Which is why we are already looking forward to next year's fair and the Experimental Design and Math and Science Career Academy activities we have planned for the 2009-10 Academic Year.

We are so very appreciative to the graduate students and professionals that took the time out of their busy schedule to showcase their careers to students. Most importantly we are also thankful to our event sponsors, Centers for Disease Control Career Paths to Public Health Program, Eiram Creative, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the American Chemical Society who provide the resources for this event to take place. In addition, we are thankful to the individuals that support our mission and programs through their contributions to our "Donate Your Money" Individual Donor Campaign and Malcolm Pirnie our corporate sponsor for the 2008-09 program year. I would also like to thank SEM Link's Board of Directors and Advisory Board for their support of the organization. Last by not least, I would like to thank our Programs Assistant, Ms. Angela Hardin and volunteers Shenia Patterson and Derrick Standifer for all their help with the logistics the fair take place before and during the event; I couldn't have pulled it off with out your help. You all help us achieve our vision in the "unveiling potential through exposure"

Our career fair is meeting a need in the community

2009-04-30T19:57:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited because in 2 days, we will expose Metro Atlanta youth to the breadth and depth of careers in science, engineering and mathematics at our 2nd Annual Science, Engineering and Mathematics Career Fair and Exhibition. We have over 30 professionals that will be showcasing about 10 or 15 different career paths. Graduate students and professionals from GBI, CDC, Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia Tech and many more are giving a few hours out of there busy schedule to expose K-12 students to career paths that achieve by doing well in high school, going to college and possible graduate school.

As excited as I am about the professionals, I'm looking forward to the attendees that will be coming to the fair. Today as my program assistant and another college student she recruited to volunteer, both graduating seniors with science degreers, for the event were preparing for the fair we had a conversation about the event. Both of the students said what a great idea they thought the career fair was and how it was good that SEM Link was having this event. They expressed that they wished an event like this took place in their community when they were in elementary, middle or high school because it would have been great to meet people pursuing stem career before they came to college. Their sentiments and those of STEM professionals in my network is why I created SEM Link. Based on the response we are getting for the career fair, there are parents, educators and other people that work with K-12 students that feel the same way. As of today over 50 parents, church and youth groups have RSVP'd youth for the fair. We really believe that we will have a great turnout for the event because most of the attendees for the event, don't RSVP.

I know that this event is going to be successful and give us another opportunity to serve Metro Atlanta youth by "unveiling potential through exposure".

Defining Who Scientists, Engineers and Mathematicians

2009-04-19T11:58:00.002-04:00

On yesterday, I was at an urban film festival that closed with a series of short films that were a part of a project called "The Black Masculinity Project". As I reflect upon the film and the discussion that took place afterward about how do we define black masculinity and who controls how the image of black males are portrayed in the media. How does this impact how society views black men?

Although, how the media portrays different ethnic groups in society is a never ending discussion and something that we can't control; i will focus on what I can control defining who scientists, engineers and mathematicians are to our children. Many children don't pursue STEM careers because they don't see those careers as something that they can pursue nor have they meet someone who looks like them in those fields. Through media and television, many kids see STEM professionals as geeky, nerdy, weird people and mostly white males. Even if they see or hear about African American scientists, engineers or mathematics, they hear about those that are no longer with us such as Dr. George Washington Carver, Dr. Percy Julian, Garrett Morgan or those that are still alive like Dr. Neil Tyson, a brilliant astrophysicist, who has several Ivy League Degrees. Although,I believe that Dr. Tyson is a brilliant scientist, how many of our kids are interested in astrophysics. Dr. Carver, Dr. Julian and Garrett Morgan were brilliant scientist and engineers, but we still have scientists and engineers that are still alive that are making contributions to society. But how do we introduce them to innovative engineers like Dr. Lonnie Johnson, who invented not only the supersoaker, but is still creating innovative products to enhance our quality of life. We need to introduce them to the scientists and engineers that are working for academic institutions, corporations and government agencies, that aren't geeky, aren't white males and if you didn't ask them, you wouldn't know that they were scientist and engineers.

We define who scientist, engineers and mathematics are by introducing as many STEM professionals to K-12 students as possible. But most importantly, by telling them that if you are good math and science and want to pursue a career in the fields. You create the new definition of who next generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians will be.

Teaching our kids that bumps in the road doesn't mean that is the road you should travel

2009-04-14T15:22:00.002-04:00

Last night, I got a frantic voice mail from one of my mentees. They were having an issue with a college, which was a pretty major issue, but wasn't one that couldn't be resolved; however the student felt that it couldn't and wouldn't be. As I was talking to him and providing solutions to him to resolve this issue, I wondered, how many people don't pursue STEM careers because of bumps in the road in there pursuit of that career path. For those of us who have STEM degrees or career paths, we have experience bumps in the road while getting our degrees and on our jobs may you say maybe I should be an English major or give my boss my two weeks notice. But the key to us staying on the path is we didn't see that set back or bump as a sign that we should not get our degree and graduate or keep our job, but as sign that we may need to ask for help or do something differently than what we were currently doing to achieve our desired results.

So as we as STEM professionals, reflect on the bumps in our career path and how we were able to overcome the obstacles, problems and times where we felt that life would be easier if I wasn't a stem major or professional. Let's teach those behind us the lessons that we have learned from experience and/or our mentors. Just like when we are walking or driving down a street that has cracks and/or potholes and we either trip or feel the wear and tear on our car, but we keep walking or driving on the road. We tell the students behind us, just because you may fail a test, mess up an experiment or feel like on your internship you aren't producing at the level your mentor expects, doesn't mean that you aren't meant to be a stem major and professional. It means that you need to try a little harder, do something different or seek help from someone that is a few stages ahead of you in the game.

The technology that connect us

2009-04-07T21:37:00.003-04:00

I hope that I am not dating myself, but when I was in high school, the internet was just being introduced to the world and we were still figuring out how to use this new technology. I remember a few years ago, an adopted younger brother on mine, asked me "way back when you were in high school did you use the internet?". Yes, I used the internet and technology, but not to the extent that is used today and I am still learning all the different ways to incorporate technology into my life and business.

I consider myself a person that takes advantage of technology, I email using my computer and my PDA( the post office has definitely lost a lot of revenue because of email) and pay 90% of my bills online. I'm on facebook, linked in and just getting us to the blog thing. I am still overwhelmed by how this technology, a history lesson for you that was developed by an African-American male engineer, has truly changed how the world operates. I have a facebook friend who hasn't been in the United States in weeks, but yet we know how he is doing, back in the day you would have had to wait until he mailed you a postcard or got back in the country. There are newspapers and magazines that are going out of business because instead of buying a newspaper or magazine, we get our news online. Internet radio and podcasts expands our options for radio programming, i know everyday I listen to NPR from a NY radio station. Not to mention if you need to know anything at all you can simply look it up on www.GoodSearch.com (state that the charity you are supporting SEM Link) and find the answers to your questions. I'm wondering when team of engineers and computer scientists developed the internet or world wide web (www.) did they envision how it would connect us and create a global community.

As the executive director of an organization whose vision in the community is to "unveil potential through exposure", have I and my colleagues really exposed ourselves to all the technology that can connect us to the global community. Have I used all the possible methods of social networking to connect with those individuals that believe in our mission and may be willing to support us? Have I investigated all the possible methods of incorporating technology in our program curriculum? Have I investigated using technology to promote academic achievement and career exploration in math and science to K-12 students all over the world, not the ones we can gain access to here in Atlanta? How many technology professionals, computer scientists and engineers are in our volunteer pool; because we can't expose our kids to careers in those fields if they aren't a part of the SEM Link network?

There are so many questions to answers and many of them I have to get from the internet, my program assistant, board of directors, advisory board, younger cousins and others in my network. I just want to ensure that my vision for promoting student achievement and career exploration in math and science isn't too small.

The Mentoring Cycle

2009-04-06T15:06:00.002-04:00

This morning, I received a text message from one of my mentors and had a phone conversation with another. I'm blessed to have several mentors, but these two particular men where instrumental in helping me become who I am as a professional, a person with a engineering degree that has devoted her career creating educational programs to help train and develop future scientists and engineers. In training future scientist and engineers, I developed a presentation on using mentoring to achieve your career goals and the presentation was based on my relationship with these two men and my strong desire and believe that if you should pour into others what has poured into you.
As I being mentored by these two men and several other mentors, I currently have a few mentees a received a text message from one and a phone call from another. In both conversations, I realized that the relationship these students have built with me over the years, have help shaped their career choices, just like my relationships with my mentors have shaped mine. I am very pleased to say that both of these students are pursuing stem careers and about 90% of the mentees I have picked up are doing so as well.

Dr. Dimandja, a world renowed scientist at Spelman, has a quote in which he says, "you are never too old to be mentored nor too young to mentor". That is the mentoring cycle as people a few steps ahead of you are teaching you what you need to know, connecting you with people you need to know and supporting you along the process; you are doing the same thing for those a few steps behind you.

Creating a Future STEM Pipeline through Exposure and Mentoring

2009-04-05T10:37:00.004-04:00

These past few days, I spend time at a conference whose purpose was to expose high school and college students to biomedical and health professions. While at this conference I meet many bright young students that had an advantage over their peers, they were in an environment where they were learning about and meeting professionals in career paths of their interest.
As I was having conversations with some of my peers and colleagues who are stem professionals or have stem backgrounds and most of us realized that we had little or no exposure to people that were doing things that we were working in the fields we were interested in nor what a scientists, engineering, technology professional or mathematician really did. Although none of us regret our chosen career path, we realize that we may have made different decisions and how beneficial meeting and interacting with someone in our desired career path would have been.

Each day, we have an opportunity to meet and interact with K-12 students and college students. As you are having conversations with them about the things they are interested in, why don't you spend a few minutes talking about what you do and how you ended up doing it. Who knows, you may be having a conversation with a child that has an interest in pursuing a stem career. Or you may get a transform a child's mindset from pursuing a career in sports or entertainment to one that they can pursue by going to college and graduate school. When you meet those students, go ahead and give them your business card and tell them to feel free to contact you.

For those students who take you up on your offer to contact you after your initial conversation. Make time in your schedule to interact with them, listen to them and share your life experience. Many students need mentors, but aren't sure how to ask a person to be a mentor to them. So let the relationship form naturally over time and be a consistent older person in their life, that is vested in helping them grow , develop and succeed over time. If you thinking about it, we all are were we are today, because people who didn't have to invested and poured into our lives by being our mentors; so we owe it to those coming behind us to do the same thing for them.

The importance of worker bees for the survival of non profits

2009-03-29T09:32:00.002-04:00

On yesterday, I was having a wonderful breakfast meeting with a talented and brilliant professional just a few years my senior. As we were discussing the status of SEM Link and other non profits, we decided that in order for non profits to survive and achieve its mission, it is important that staff have worker bees to do the work that will help them achieve their mission. Ever non profit organization has support from two groups of people, doer and donors, both are equally important. The donors provide the resources that the organization needs for its program and operations. But it is the worker bees that do the work for the organization such as serving on the board, being an active and committed volunteers to provide program and administrative support. As you are determining how to serve your community and what organizations you will devote your time and talents to, please do some serious evaluation of your motives for making a commitment to the organization. Not profits can't afford people to serve so they can add a section to their resume or be a conversation topic for people in your network. For our survival, non profits needs donors and doers (worker bees). No matter what your commitment to the organization besure that if you decide to be a donor, honor your pledge commitments and be sure to mail that check as well as encourage people in your network that have the resources to be donors to make a contribution as well. If you are a doer (worker bee), it is important that every task that you sign up to complete that you follow through and complete it. Don't use life or a busy schedule as an excuse not to complete the task because we all have life issues and have busy schedules. When you make a commitment, follow through on it because more than likely the non profit can't complete the task with out your support. So that you can increase the amount of worker bees on the organization team, encourage people in your network to volunteer to help the organization achieve it mission.

The achievement of any organization's mission is based on its support team of volunteers and board members that are committed to doing whatever they can to help the organization achieve its mission.

Using your talents and expertise to make a difference in the lives of a child

2009-03-19T20:59:00.002-04:00

In the past few days, I have been in conversation with a few wonderful individuals that are volunteering their time and expertise to help SEM Link achieve our mission. What was so wonderful was these individual were not our typical volunteers, which are science, engineering and mathematics professionals. These individuals were graphic designers, web developers and a team of MBA's that are marketing experts. Although these professional don't have the expertise to provide direct assistance with our programs, these individuals are just as valuable in helping us achieving our mission.

As a non profit organization, we can't just worry about the programs, but we have to be concerned with the operations of our organization. It is these takes that allow us to be able to support our programs, which is the bread of butter of who we are as organizations. These graphic designer, web developer and the team of MBA's help us promote our programs to the community as well as to other individuals and corporations that will be willing to make a financial contribution to the organization or donate their time and expertise to the organization.

So I encourage you if you are a person that is interested in volunteering, think about the behind the scenes things you can do to help an organization achieve its mission.

Not passing on fear about job insecurity to our children

2009-03-14T11:38:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-13T18:51:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-13T16:30:00.003-04:00

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.