"Owning your story is the bravest thing you will ever do."
-Brene Brown
And we intend to own and tell ours.
​During the 2015 - 2016 school year, all clusters in the Atlanta Public School district identified a signature program that would shape the instruction of students in the years to come. In the spring of 2016 the schools in the South Atlanta Cluster collectively decided to pursue a STEM focus and as a result pursue STEM certification. Stakeholders that included parents, students and community members gathered to discuss what a STEM initiative at South Atlanta needed to provide given the needs of the students and the community. As a result, a STEM vision and mission and school focus was created.
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The vision, “We will be a school that builds future leaders who will one day have a lasting impact in their communities and ultimately change the world” spoke to the students’ desire to not adopt yet another program that had no discernible impact on the communities in which they reside. If STEM would be a focus, it had to be a vehicle to community change by way of leadership.
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The mission, “We work daily to change the mindset of who we are and what we can be” spoke to the students’ acknowledgement that if in fact people of color were underrepresented in STEM spaces, we would first need to change the mindset of our own student body to redefine our understanding of spaces in which we were more than qualified to occupy.
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The focus of Community Advocacy was chosen not only due to the vision but also to leverage the school’s then successful Law Pathway. “Advocating for the Community Through STEM” became our mantra and remains a central focus of our initiative.
Note: Entrepreneurship was later added to include a focus on student ownership of what they may create as a result of STEM education and to create an alignment with 3DE, another school framework and program that could complete the STEM initiative.
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The 2016 - 2017 school year was spent planning with all stakeholders that included students, faculty, parents and community members. In partnership with Goodie Nation, a national organization that provides support for non-profit tech focused social entrepreneurs and diverse founders, we hosted a STEM Teacher Ideation Lab for our cluster. The Ford Motor Company sponsored event gave our cluster leaders and STEM specialists the opportunity to speak to STEM professionals regarding their academic journeys and to collectively brainstorm possibilities about how to lead students of color through their own STEM academic journeys at our respective schools. During this time, it was decided that South Atlanta High School’s STEM initiative would operate as a program model before scaling to a school-wide model. The goals of the program were to:
GOAL #1
Operate as an incubator that can inform a school-wide model.
GOAL #2
Contribute to the correction of the underrepresentation of Black and LatinX persons in STEM and STEM related fields.
GOAL #3
Provide students, who would otherwise not have access, with the quality STEM education necessary for college and career success.
​In researching how we would choose students for this program, we visited various schools who had successful program models and continued to speak to STEM professionals regarding a potential approach. In our research, we recognized that as educators, we function as gatekeepers for students in a variety of ways. We determine the quality of education and related opportunities to which students have access to on a daily basis. This level of power comes with a high level of responsibility because essentially we determine who receives and is denied access. Therefore, we created a unique process to identify and select students for the STEM program. Our process did not rely heavily on current academic performance, behavior and teacher recommendation (like many traditional programs) but instead heavily considered future potential and the presence of non-academic STEM dispositions.
​In the spring of 2017, we conducted selection activities for all rising 9th graders and the result was an inaugural STEM cohort composed of diverse learners, many of whom would not have been given access to a STEM program in a more traditional setting. During the following two years, we added two additional cohorts, continued to use the program as an incubator and refined the process. In the spring of 2020, we made the decision to begin our transition to a school wide model with a program component despite being in the middle of a global pandemic.
​Now, all students are STEM students and therefore we are committed to providing each with a quality STEM education. Students who desire and are more poised for an advanced and accelerated course of study are in our Advocating for the Community (A.C.T.S.) Program. With our inaugural program cohort becoming the first graduating students who were beneficiaries of our STEM initiative in May 2021, we feel confident that we are rewriting the narrative of STEM education in this city and district.
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As we continue to create, review, reflect and refine what STEM education can be for our students, we remain vigilant of how quickly the demands of our world are shifting and therefore remaining agile and ready for change. We are continuously aiming to redefine how we educate students of color to engage in a STEM centric world and workforce. We are attempting to challenge age-old perceptions and definitions that education has placed on students of color for far too long. A quality STEM education, if implemented properly and with fidelity, will provide students with the ability to engage in upward economic mobility and ultimately - freedom.
It is for this reason that STEM has become bigger than a district initiative or catchy buzzword.