The story of two little girls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.