Page 23 - Iris Tennessee Teen Judges Book 2022

complex and expensive materials to create technological contraptions. Last year, it was a joy to lead a workshop for the Innovative STEM Programming Webinar for the National Boys and Girls Club organization in front of many STEM professionals across the nation. I taught a STEM lesson on “The Science of Every Day” for DIY STEM to promote Engineering Design in the comfort of one’s home. It is my goal to further contribute STEM to the Boys and Girls Club of America organizations’ platform to serve children that are underrepresented and underserved in STEM education.
ENGINEERING: Improving the education and recruitment of STEM for minority students is the focus of National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). As a member of NSBE, I further participate in “core activities centered on improving the recruitment and retention of black and other minority engineers in both academia and industry”. I meet with fellow NSBE members at the University of Memphis to discuss ideas to grow interest in engineering and further support of those coming into the engineering field. In the fall of 2021, I hosted the “NSBE Resume Workshop” as an extension of my STEM platform and NSBE commitment to leverage placement in the labor force. In this resume workshop, students were encouraged to develop a list of activities that they had participated in to help make their resume stand out. This promoted involvement that motivated talks and plans for the community and at my college to expand on our STEM contribution to society. As STEM Ambassador, I have contributed to the Girls Experiencing Engineering (GEE) camp from 2018 to the present in “Transportation Engineering”. As a former GEE participant, I now help develop students’ interest in Engineering by teaching the basics of engineering while creating projects.
MATHEMATICS: Although mathematics is by nature integrated in all STEM activities that I teach, I further teach mathematics based on laboratory science research that I have participated in. For instance, as a University of Memphis Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (TLSAMP) member, we have a goal to expand STEM participation. I take what I learn in the TLSAMP research lab directly to the classroom.
Namely, as a former National Flight Academy (NFA) Pensacola, Florida camp participant in high school, I was delighted to be a camp student leader to middle schoolers as the camp relocated to the University of Memphis due to the COVID-19 restrictions in Pensacola. I was able to teach National Flight Academy activities in engineering and technology coupled with mathematics. One of the activities that I taught was flight patterns. In this immersion of STEM project, students were involved in art and dramatic play whereas they designed airplane costumes from cardboard boxes where they dressed and was taught flight patterns. This type of STEM is actually referred to as STEAM with the ‘A’ inserted which refers to ‘art’ as this is the aim of most of these organizations like Memphis Shelby County Schools and NSBE.
VOLUNTEER, LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: I am fully involved in many activities on campus, throughout the Mid-South and the state of Tennessee. During the pandemic I was a volunteer for the New Hope for You Organization where I fed 1,000 people by providing food surplus. I have been a participant in the New Memphis “Leadership Development” zoom sessions in fall 2021 to help develop communication and outreach strategy, so that I can have a more effective presence when serving the community. From this, I became better prepared to serve as fall 2021’s Student Government Association Senator for Herff College of Engineering at the University of Memphis. This leadership position allowed me to make decisions for the Engineering program on the policy and procedural level so that we can contribute to making rules and regulations in engineering to build on to our existing network of learners to develop and become more successful in our craft. My leadership experience on the college level actually continued at the University of Memphis’ First Year Council, as I was influential in getting legislation passed that contributed to the successful experiences of college students. As Diversity of Inclusion Chair, I helped pass bills where SGA students would attend three meetings for underrepresented organizations.