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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.