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Feminists Around the World: Cynthia Chapple · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome stuff. I
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: never told you a protection of iHeart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome to another feminist around the world. And y'all,
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  Speaker 2: it is still Black History Month here in the US,
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  Speaker 2: no matter if the Google calendar has decided to bend
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  Speaker 2: the need to the new administration and its foolishness, it
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  Speaker 2: is still Black History Month and we acknowledge it because
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  Speaker 2: it is. And with that, let's talk about some amazing
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  Speaker 2: people in the STEM field and how they are working
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  Speaker 2: to bring more marginalized people into the industry. Specifically, let's
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  Speaker 2: talk about Cynthia Chapel and her organization Black Girls Do STEM.
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  Speaker 2: And if you have well, I guess this is only
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  Speaker 2: the second episode in February of twenty twenty five, but
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  Speaker 2: that step right there. Yeah, we're focusing a lot on
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  Speaker 2: people in the US who are contributing to making history
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  Speaker 2: within the black community, and we think it's really important
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  Speaker 2: during a time where they are trying to eradicate that,
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  Speaker 2: so stick with us. Chapel has talked about her love
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  Speaker 2: of learning in an interview with Innovation City, which is
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  Speaker 2: like a YouTube and podcast I believe, so you should
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  Speaker 2: go take a listen. She talks about her passion and
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  Speaker 2: wanting to know more and always asking questions about how
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  Speaker 2: things worked, and how that was so important that to
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  Speaker 2: her that she wanted for children like her it's like
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  Speaker 2: similar situations, specifically young girls, to be able to do
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  Speaker 2: that as well. She had understood how often society hindered
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  Speaker 2: young girls, especially black girls, from doing so. So this
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  Speaker 2: is something that's really pushed her in her work and
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  Speaker 2: her passion, and because of that passion, she created Black
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  Speaker 2: Girls Do Stem bg DS so that those initials are
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  Speaker 2: used throughout a lot of interviews, and then that's also
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  Speaker 2: her site bgds dot com. I believe so with a
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  Speaker 2: back ground and chemistry and experience in the field, she
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  Speaker 2: understands the difficulty in the field for young black girls.
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  Speaker 2: In an interview with Voyage stl or Voyage Saint Louis,
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  Speaker 2: she talks about her childhood and education. So here's a quote.
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  Speaker 2: I grew up on the South Side of Chicago as
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  Speaker 2: one of eight children. Chocolate is my favorite thing to
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  Speaker 2: eat all the time, for no reason at all. I
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  Speaker 2: attended Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis for my undergraduate degrees
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  Speaker 2: in forensic and Investigative science and chemistry. I subsequently returned
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  Speaker 2: to school and received a master's of Science and chemistry
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  Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen. I worked for a state crime lab
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  Speaker 2: and also very different industries, and my most recent employer
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  Speaker 2: in the manufacturing industry and electrical codings market as senior
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  Speaker 2: research and development chemist. So she's done a lot in
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  Speaker 2: this field. And in that same interview for Voyage, she
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  Speaker 2: goes on to talk about her experiences in STEM. The
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  Speaker 2: challenges I have faced have been around access to the
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  Speaker 2: STEM program as a young black girl growing up on
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  Speaker 2: the South Side of Chicago, or undergraduate student working several
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  Speaker 2: jobs while going to school, juggling class and work, or
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  Speaker 2: the graduate student tutoring to make ends meet all the
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  Speaker 2: way to the professional who continuously felt isolated and singles
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  Speaker 2: out in a space void of other minorities and often
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  Speaker 2: other women. And in another interview she did with Saint
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  Speaker 2: Louis American, she talks about having mentors herself that helped
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  Speaker 2: her pursue her passions. She says, as a high school student,
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  Speaker 2: I had a mentor who was an aeronautical engineer who
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  Speaker 2: worked for NASA. She was young, gifted, and black, and
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  Speaker 2: I was so impressed with her. I knew I would
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  Speaker 2: be a scientist. I was always interested in biology, but
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  Speaker 2: also loved math. So I decided on chemistry because it
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  Speaker 2: was less reading, more math, and still very useful in
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  Speaker 2: creating and improving the world. Filly, you two would have
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  Speaker 2: been friends. Annie with the math. Yeah, you had someone
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  Speaker 2: like her in your life. Y'all could have encouraged each
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  Speaker 2: other to love math and grow on in it.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been nice.
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  Speaker 2: This is why this is important and with having such
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  Speaker 2: a great mentor. She talks about how her organization came about.
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  Speaker 2: So here's some information from an article for Nicky Central
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  Speaker 2: westendguide dot com. While working full time, Chapel became involved
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  Speaker 2: in community outreach programs that increased ginger equity in STEM.
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  Speaker 2: As a researcher, she discovered that black girls in the
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  Speaker 2: Saint Louis public school systems were not participating in math
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  Speaker 2: and science programs. To target that audience, in twenty fifteen,
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  Speaker 2: she started an online social awareness campaign highlighting the contribution
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  Speaker 2: of black women in STEM. In twenty eighteen, Chapel reached
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  Speaker 2: out to the community centers to gauge interest in hosting
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  Speaker 2: pop up STEM workshops for six to eighth grade black girls.
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  Speaker 2: She got the word out and was thrilled when girls
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  Speaker 2: started showing up. The idea quickly took on a life
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  Speaker 2: of its own, and by the end of that year
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  Speaker 2: she had seven community centers eager to participate. I was
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  Speaker 2: literally bringing supplies out of the trunk of my car,
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  Speaker 2: trying to make a great experience for the girls, she says.
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  Speaker 2: So I love this. I love when programs come out
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  Speaker 2: of just love and passion. Yeah, it's so beautiful. And
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  Speaker 2: with the help of some partners, in twenty nineteen, she
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  Speaker 2: was able to do the first Girls Do STEM Spring
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  Speaker 2: Break pilot camp with eighty girls participating, and I believe
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  Speaker 2: since then like hundreds of girls have participated. Here's some
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  Speaker 2: more information from their site, bgdstem dot com. Our goal
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  Speaker 2: is to create a cradle sue career pathway to strengthen
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  Speaker 2: and diversify the pipeline of skilled workers entering today's dynamic
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  Speaker 2: labor market. Black Girls Do STEM specifically targets Black girls
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  Speaker 2: who've been traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. We work to
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  Speaker 2: advance twenty first century skills necessary to complete rigorous academic
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  Speaker 2: programs and obtain family wage employment by creating a culturally
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  Speaker 2: affirming learning space. We give room for cognitive and mental resilience.
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  Speaker 2: Our programs provide a seven year continuous pathway for black girls,
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  Speaker 2: beginning in sixth grade to the twelfth. We also support
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  Speaker 2: them into university and workforce entry. We love mentoring, Barga
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  Speaker 2: love it, I love them, and some more. From the
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  Speaker 2: site from Chapel herself. My purpose of creating Black Girls
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  Speaker 2: Do Stem is to change the face of STEM industry.
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  Speaker 2: As both black and a woman, I have felt culturally
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  Speaker 2: isolated in STEM workplaces. I can say I often walk
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  Speaker 2: into spaces as either the only black woman or only minority.
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  Speaker 2: I see very few people who look like me leading
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  Speaker 2: within STEM industry. I am left to ask myself why. Then,
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  Speaker 2: as I reflected on my college years and upbringing, I
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  Speaker 2: am faced with the harsh reality that the lack of
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  Speaker 2: exposure and encouragement may be the reasoning for my often
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  Speaker 2: solo appearance in STEM industry. By launching Black Girls Do Stem,
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  Speaker 2: I strive to provide a middle school age black girls
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to learn, create, and build confidence in their abilities
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  Speaker 2: to become STEM professionals. In doing this, we will be
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  Speaker 2: closing the gap between black women's scientists and engineers and
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the STEM world, opening black girl's eyes
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  Speaker 2: to the possibilities in them while they are still curious
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  Speaker 2: and excited to learn new things, giving black girls the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to be on the forefront of the next scientific discovery.
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  Speaker 2: I believe black girls can, black girls will do STEM.
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  Speaker 1: I love that, Yeah, so much.
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  Speaker 2: I love that. And the program offers so much more
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  Speaker 2: from programs for middle school, high schoolers and college students,
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  Speaker 2: and again from their size. This is their three main goals.
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  Speaker 2: Improving self confidence, they say, we have found black girls
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  Speaker 2: who undergo our program show significant improvements in social and
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  Speaker 2: personal growth, including overall self confidence, as well as confidence
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  Speaker 2: in their ability to learn new STEM techniques, reasoning and
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  Speaker 2: critical thinking skills. Increasing engagement. Black girls who undergo our
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  Speaker 2: program have an increased overall engagement with STEM, reporting greater
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  Speaker 2: access to STEM career understanding and learning. And then their third,
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  Speaker 2: sparking STEM career interest. Black girls who undergo our program
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  Speaker 2: report an overall increase in STEM interest with significant opportunities
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  Speaker 2: for career exploration, leading to an improvement in overall occupational awareness.
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  Speaker 2: So obviously, there's so much more to who she is,
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  Speaker 2: and there are programs that they have created, but We
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  Speaker 2: just wanted to highlight something that is so amazing and
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  Speaker 2: that's something that we want to see more and more
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  Speaker 2: of and why programs like these are so important.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, you know you know I love it. I
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  Speaker 1: love it well listeners. As always, If you have any
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  Speaker 1: suggestions or any thoughts, you can contact us in many
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  Speaker 1: ways that you can email us at Hello at stuff
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  Speaker 1: Oneenever Told You dot com. You can find us on
• 8:37
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• 8:41
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• 8:43
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• 8:45
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  Speaker 1: as always too our super producer Christina, executive producer Maya,
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  Speaker 1: and architector Joey.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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