Black girls love STEM too, assures Jamese Mangum, a junior at Washington Math, Science, and Technology Public Charter High School. A winner of the 2015 LearnServe Innovation Award, Mangum successfully created and pitched a project that will give teen girls a chance to learn from black women professionals in STEM fields and, in turn, relay the information to younger girls of color.
The LearnServe Fellows Program brings together 60 high school students from 30 public, private and charter schools in D.C., Md. and Va. to bring sustainable social change to their communities, according to a press release from the organization. During this past academic year, students launched their ventures with the help of local leaders and organizations such as The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, Operation Understanding DC and Playworks.
Other top winners include Chimey Sonam, a student at Montgomery Blair High School in Montgomery County, Md. who created The Parallels Project to allow middle school students from different backgrounds to embrace diversity and connect with peers outside their comfort zones and Rohan Suri, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Va. who created kTrace, an app that uses bluetooth technology to identify who an individual has been in contact with when they experience contagious symptoms from diseases like Ebola, measles and the flu. The app then alerts known acquaintances and random strangers who may have been exposed to the disease.
In all, there were 4 winners selected who will receive pro bono professional consultations from Deloitte, ICF International, M&T Bank and Social Driver.