This story by Sheronda Rivers, Chalkbeat Tennessee, was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Rivers, a mechanical engineer turned teacher, was featured in First Person, Chalkbeat's personal essay section with contributions from educators, students, and parents.
In the column published last week, Rivers says that over the past eight years, she has not regretted changing careers.
African Americans make up just 9% of the STEM workforce. Let’s change that. https://t.co/VEKMYqto9K pic.twitter.com/uNHkRO7Len
— Chalkbeat (@Chalkbeat) January 10, 2022
Initially Rivers shied away from science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-based projects, but last summer she took part in a learning loss camp.
"Seeing the excitement and joy of my third graders as they participated in the challenges brought satisfaction to my soul," Rivers wrote. "Support from my elementary school has helped, too. This year, our school appointed a teacher as our STEM coordinator. He encourages and supports our efforts to incorporate STEM into our curriculum. Whatever we need — be it supplies, materials, or even ideas — he makes it happen. All we have to focus on is the actual activity (and to watch our students having fun while they learn). As a result, we are doing more STEM projects schoolwide, even in our after-school tutoring program."
Rivers added that although the Nation’s Report Card for Technology and Engineering Literacy reports that 63% of eighth-graders said family members taught them about building things, fixing things, or understanding how things work, as of 2021, the STEM workforce was only 9% African American.
"It’s up to educators like me to help change that," she said. "To start: I’m committed to providing students with STEM time that they look forward to," Rivers added. Read the full commentary at Chalkbeat.
