In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Black Women’s Roundtable will host its 2nd Annual National Women of Power Summit, “Amplifying the Voices of Women and Girls in the Digital Age.”
The summit will bring together a diverse group of women leaders and emerging leaders from across the country. On Day One, they will make the rounds of Capitol Hill and meet with members of Congress. Melanie L. Campbell, convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable and president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said:
We’re coming together in the nation’s capitol to leverage our vote. In 2012, black women were the highest vote for President Obama and the margin of victory for many in the U.S. Congress. We want to tell our elected officials what we want, which includes ending the sequestration now and becoming a functional government working in the interest of the people.
On Day Two at the Faith and Social Justice Prayer Breakfast, I will receive the BWR Social Innovation Award.
It is an incredible honor to be recognized before a room full of fierce women. I hope you will be able to join us for a power-packed celebration of difference-makers and tree-shakers.
To register, go here. For more information, call (202) 659-4929.
It’s called the City of Brotherly Love (and Sisterly Affection) but last weekend’s Lady Hacks was for women only.
Philadelphia’s first women-only hackathon attracted 65 hackers. Tristen Hightower, an organizer of the event, said:
The point of this event is to try new things. You’re already successful. You’re here.
And while there, the ladies worked on a wide range of projects, including Hacking the Gender Gap, redesigning the website of Girls Rock Phillyto make it more teen-oriented, and developing a game to motivate girls to get interested in technology.
My team worked on a project that began at TechCamp Philadelphia, namely, how to motivate underrepresented minorities and girls to pursue STEM fields. STEM is short for science, technology, engineering and math.
The problem we addressed was the lack of a central, user-friendly website for teachers, students and parents to find free resources and tools that would expand and enhance the learning process. Right now, STEM information is buried in silos. Our solution, STEMeverywhere, will fix that.
We will curate resources for students, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and community members. The one-stop shop will feature a Teachers’ Lounge where we will aggregate content-specific instructional materials that have been peer-reviewed. We will include a real-time, fully indexed library that will be searchable by keyword.
The Students’ Hangout will promote year-round learning and engagement for our target audience of 13-to-17-year-olds. With one click, students will have access to information about internships and mentorships, learning games, contests and challenges, and online learning opportunities.
STEMeverywhere will produce interactive videos to connect students with STEM professionals who can expose them to the possibilities. We will post engaging user-generated YouTube videos tagged “STEM Rocks” or “STEMRocks.”
There is a STEM crisis in the United States. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. The U.S. ranks 25th in math and 17th in science among the 65 countries participating in PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment.
The STEM crisis is exacerbated by the shifting demographics. Whites make up 73 percent of the STEM workforce. Blacks and Latinos, who represent 28 percent of the U.S. population, make up only seven percent of STEM workers.
Over the holidays, I watched a documentary about American aviation. During World War II, there was a shortage of white male workers. Black workers were excluded from all but menial jobs. So the government, with the help of advertising agencies, gave factory jobs a makeover. And then the light bulb went off: The iconic Rosie the Riveter was a STEM worker!
One of the most popular versions of “Rosie the Riveter” was recorded by the Four Vagabonds.
Popular culture was used to encourage women to pursue “man-size” jobs.
The propaganda campaign worked. White women poured into factories and produced munitions and war supplies. The wartime workforce demographics also opened up opportunities for black women.
Fast forward to today. The shifting demographics and minority underrepresentation in STEM fields threaten our global competitiveness and national security. To borrow a phrase from President Obama’s election night speech, “We have to fix that.” To do so, we should go back to the future and give STEM a makeover.
A report by the Bayer Corporation found that one of the leading causes of minority underrepresentation is the prevalence of stereotypes that say STEM isn’t for minorities. Singer-songwriter will.i.am is determined to fix that. He recently observed:
I am trying to encourage kids to do something that isn’t yet on their mind because it is not in popular culture. Popular culture tells you “music, music, sports, sports.” It neglects the importance of a STEM education.
An innovator, will.i.am is rebranding STEM and making space history. For the first time, a recorded song was transmitted to Earth from another planet. His song, “Reach for the Stars,” was beamed down from the Mars Curiosity rover to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. How cool is that?
Hip hop icon GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan has teamed up with Columbia Teachers College professor Christopher Emdin and the website Rap Genius to use hip hop to teach science. They have created a contest, Science Genius BATTLES (Bringing Attention to Transforming Teaching, Learning and Engagement in Science), that requires students to write science-based raps.
At the launch of the pilot project, GZA said:
I am here not as a teacher, nor expert, nor genius. But I’m here as a science enthusiast who wants to inspire New York City public high school students to get excited about biology, chemistry and physics.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the current approaches to STEM education are not working. According to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only four percent of African American 12th graders were proficient in science. By contrast, 27 percent of white seniors and 36 percent of Asian American seniors performed at or above the proficient level.
GZA and will.i.am are bringing attention to the crisis and connecting STEM to students’ interests. At the same time, they are giving STEM a much-needed makeover.
I would like to wish you a happy and healthy new year.
I plan a fresh start in 2013 with Philly Phresh Start, a project to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) among African American youth. I will apply the lessons learned from my year as a civic innovator to connect STEM to students’ day-to-day realities and interests.
The project will use pop-up hackerspaces, interactive video and social media to empower young people to imagine a better future.
This mural in West Philly, “Reach for Your Star,” captures what Philly Phresh Start is about.
The mural is not too far from Overbrook High School whose graduates include actor Will Smith and Guy Bluford, the first African American astronaut. Both Smith and Bluford reached for their star.
The Philly Phresh Start Project will launch in March 2013. To receive notice of the launch, sign up here. If you would like to get involved with the project, send me an email.
