Culturally responsive STEM programming: Aim High awardee Geeking Out Kids of Color

This blog is part of a series covering the work of New York Life Foundation Aim High grantees. Awardees receive support for their outstanding out-of-school time programs serving underserved middle school youth. The Aim High grant request for proposals is open now through February 1, 2024 — read the RFP and start your proposal on SurveyMonkey Apply, and join us for our webinar on January 11, 2024. To see more spotlights on Aim High grantees, check out the Afterschool Awards page. 

In today’s blog, Executive Director Pedro Perez and Program Director Lidia Sanchez discuss how Geeking Out Kids of Color (GOKiC) is empowering Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) youth and redefining what it means to be a STEM leader through culturally responsive curricula and mentorship. In 2022, GOKiC was a recipient of an Aim High grant from the New York Life Foundation. Aim High grants are awarded to afterschool, summer, or expanded learning programs that help middle school students successfully transition to high school. Of the 40 Aim High grants awarded in 2022, 20 focused on supporting social justice and racial equity efforts in out-of-school-time programs.

What is Geeking Out Kids of Color?

GOKiC was founded by Black, Indigenous, and people of color in 2017 in response to a gap in culturally responsive science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programming for BIPOC youth living in King County in Washington State. GOKiC's mission is to expand the possibilities and opportunities for BIPOC youth by creating STEM curriculum, tech education, and providing mentorship to nurture leaders of change. We are a BIPOC-led and serving organization centered on race and gender.

How did the Aim High grant make a difference in your program?

We serve an area called White Center, an unincorporated part of King County, and there aren't many grants that reach youth here. Being able to keep the uniqueness of what GOKiC does through the Aim High grant has been extremely helpful. When we build a curriculum, we build it uniquely based on the youth that we’re serving. A lot of the youth that we serve are either immigrants from Latin America and East Africa or Black students. When we think about what tech education looks like in comparison to programming in affluent neighborhoods, [tech programs] have state-of-the-art, up-to-date equipment and robots and high-quality educators, so our goal is not only to make sure our students are equal but ahead. We’re always having to update our equipment because we want our youth to be leading and on top of the changes in the field.

What benefits do you see in your students by connecting them to BIPOC STEM professionals and mentors?

STEM has always seemed like an out-of-reach concept to me because I did not have that in my scope as a child. What GOKiC is trying to do is make that within reach for BIPOC children. In Seattle is a hub for STEM careers, yet our youth further south don’t have the same access. The STEM programming and the relationships we build with students aren't because we want every child to go into the STEM field if that's not what they want to do. We want to help them discover their own abilities and there is a GOKiC family to hold their hand if they choose to pursue that. It is incredibly eye-opening for our youth to work with someone who speaks their language and looks like they do. This all boils down to the concept of mentorship–having an adult in the field that is relatable to you and who is in your corner.

How does having BIPOC representation in leadership influence the students' perceptions of their own potential and career aspirations?

When our board President Fernando Sanchez, principal engineer manager at Microsoft, came to speak to the students, he introduced himself, "Hi, my name is Fernando, I work for Microsoft, and I’m from Mexico, and Microsoft went to Mexico to find smart folks to bring over here.” And the students were shocked. He flipped the script, saying that as Mexicanos, we are smart enough to be working at Microsoft. We always think that we have to leave Mexico because it is “less than.” When they look at Fernando, he looks like one of their tios/uncles or primos/cousins, because here you have this dark-skinned Mexicano with a beard who looks just like someone from their family, working for Microsoft. After his presentation, students started saying that they wanted to be software engineers, and it became a reality for them. We’ve seen our high school students go from wanting to be doctors or lawyers to changing directions and pursuing computer science in college and are now working at Microsoft. We’ve seen the transition that happens when we connect students to mentors who look like them.

Having served middle school youth, why is it important for youth to have access to the safe spaces and connections that afterschool provides?

Middle school is a confusing place where students still want to be kids from elementary school but don’t know if they’re supposed to be acting like high schoolers, so we recognize that must give our students a more support and utilize social and emotional learning approach, making sure that the curriculum we build reflects what middle schoolers are looking for and what they want to learn. We also push for that support when they transition from eighth grade to ninth grade by recruiting students in middle school to serve as mentors and establishing that deeper-level connection with them so that they have support outside of their usual network of school-day teachers and counselors that is all BIPOC-led.

How does the organization prioritize and incorporate youth voice in program design?

Listen, empower, advocate, and acknowledge youth. What we do in the classroom should be focused on what the youth want to learn. It’s easy to get wrapped up in your own agendas, but take the time to listen to those youth voices within the afterschool space. We obtain feedback through surveys, and afterwards we add in the social justice aspect to the tech education piece.

What did you take away from serving middle school youth?

Eighth to ninth grade is a big transition for youth, and they need additional support, and it is that much more impactful when it comes from people in your own culture, your own ethnicity, and your own language. They talk in ways that you may understand better. It’s about creating programming that meets them in a space where they can learn big concepts that affect their community, their identity, and their heritage, and intertwining that with fun activities like Roblox. Specifically serving middle school youth, it’s about making programming understandable and fun while also giving them the knowledge and tools that they need to succeed now and in the future.

What do you want students to feel when they leave your program?

“Si se puede,”/Yes we can is the first thing that comes to mind when I'm in the classroom with our students. Some of our concepts are hard–coding a game is hard; building robots is hard. I want students to feel safe, happy, and empowered in our spaces until they feel open to different concepts. If our students are safe, supported, and uplifted, then we are doing our job. But at the end of the day, if they are able to say, “Yes, I can do this,” that's sufficient.

What advice do you have for programs right now?

We need more programs like ours; we are not enough. One of our long-term goals is to create GOKiC in a box, and send this kit to afterschool programs across the country. Our goal is to have programs teach a curriculum that is already built, but is flexible enough for them to cater it to the cultures that they are serving. Until then, train your educators to teach STEM so that students can start to build their computational thinking and competencies.