GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Inside the art room at Dickinson Academy on the city's southeast side, a few more than a dozen children are laughing, smiling, and playing with an educational goal in mind. After eight hours of school work, these children have signed up to learn even more.
This particular meeting of the minds happened to fall in January, which is National Mentoring Month, and mentoring is what this after-school program, put on by STEM Greenhouse, is all about.
"STEM Greenhouse is an organization I founded in 2014 and the purpose is to prepare children of color for careers in science, technology, engineering and math," said Dr. Keli Christopher.
According to U.S. News and World Report, minority student enrollment at Dickinson is 93%, and 95% of its students are considered economically disadvantaged.
"When I was at Dickinson, I wasn't a particularly good math student. But as I look back on it, part of it was that I didn't have any mentors in math that looked like me. I didn't know any women who liked math. I didn't have any people of color, really, in my school that loved math."
Back then, Dr. Christopher didn't even know what an engineer was, let alone that she could or would become one someday. That's one reason she says it's important to surround students of color with STEM professionals of color.
Jhay Alford, better known by his students as Mr. Jhay, is one such mentor. He serves as the director of the STEM Scholars Program at STEM Greenhouse.
"It gives me the energy when kids are involved and kids start debating and kids start comparing scientific facts and theories," he said.
"When the passion comes from science, then I know I did my job. I want kids just as fired up about science and what we're doing in our classroom as they are for TikTok or Snapchat or the things they do in their free time. I want this to be up there with those things. If I can ignite that fire in them, that ignites the fire in me and I feed off the energy."
One of the shining stars in Dickinson's STEM Greenhouse after-school program is Chyna Jackson, a 13-year-old eighth grader. She was recently selected to be one of only eight youth ambassadors to decision-makers at the state level. Mr. Jhay says the entire class stopped what they were doing and cheered for her when they heard about Chyna's honor.
But Chyna isn't the organization's only success story. STEM Greenhouse now serves around 1,000 students per year. According to an internal report, children who participate in STEM Greenhouse programming are 50% more likely to take advanced math or science classes in high school, and 22% more interested in going to college.
STEM Greenhouse leaders and their students attribute part of that success to the representation students of color feel when mentors of color are teaching them.
"I like that the teachers look like me and they can give me extra help with the things that I struggle in, and it's plain fun even though you're still learning," Chyna said.
"Most Black people don't really have teachers that look like them. Most teachers are predominantly white. You want somebody that looks like you. You don't always want to hear information coming from the same type of person over and over again."
Mr. Jhay added context about why representation is so important.
"If I wanted to be a doctor, or I wanted to be a dentist or engineer, and no engineers look like me or have braids or wear their hair in a certain type of style, it's kind of like maybe that's not for me. Maybe that's not something I can do," he said.
"[We want to give kids] a glimpse that you can do this. You can go even further. This is just one step on your journey."
Dr. Christopher and Mr. Jhay are encouraging people to become mentors in their own communities. If you can't make the commitment to be an after-school mentor on a regular basis, Mr. Jhay says you'd be surprised what you can accomplish with just a 10-minute conversation with someone who looks up to you. Dr. Christopher says there are other ways to help STEM Greenhouse beyond mentoring as well.
"We need people to support what we're doing - to fundraise. Even if you are not a person of color, that doesn't mean you can't support children of color in other ways. We feed them. We have to provide teachers. It's an expensive thing, but there are lots of ways for people to get involved," she said.
If you'd like to learn more, visit the organization's website.
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