On Dec. 17, 2020, HVCC’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion celebrated the culmination of Phase I of its award-winning STEM Outreach Workshop Initiative (SOWI ) with a virtual award ceremony.
SOWI consists of three phases, geared toward engaging underrepresented minorities and females in STEM subjects, building skills and an interest in pursuing STEM degrees, and becoming teachers and life-long mentors.
SOWI’s 2020 summer camp was the first phase. Mac-Arthur Louis of the Vicano Group facilitated five coding and robotics workshops featuring Python, a language used by several major businesses. Over 50 participants reflected a diverse array of middle and high school students referred by community collaborators, as well as adults interested in the application of Python in workforce development.
To gauge what had been learned throughout the summer, participants earned points from completing homework and other activities, that enabled them to build a skill set for competing in the first SOWI Robo Coders Tournament. Of the five finalists, the champion who gathered the most points in the inaugural tournament was Abhiroop Sarkar (Abhi).
College President Dr. Rogert Ramsammy, Ainsley Thomas, the college’s chief diversity officer, and Dean Jonathan Ashdown attended the award ceremony to convey their congratulations. As a special treat, an NAO robot donated by Dr. Ashdown was programmed by Coach Louis to mimic a Jazz musician and do a celebratory disco dance! Participants also shared their thoughts about SOWI:
“I liked using logic to solve problems.”
“I like to make things… and SOWI helped me advance myself even further with training in coding.”
“I like the flexibility of doing SOWI online…and look forward to next year.”
“I really enjoyed coding different things. It was really fun for me.”
Phase II of SOWI will continue the robotics theme. Participants from the greater Capital District will form a Robotics team that will meet on Saturdays during the remainder of the school year and participate in competitions. Over the next month, Phase III will establish a SOWI Community Collaboration Committee to vet new workshop proposals to keep the STEM pipeline going for area youth.
If you would like to donate to help students be able to participate in SOWI programming, please visit https://www.hvcc.edu/giving/online.html, and select “ODEI – Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion STEM Outreach fund” under the designation drop-down box.
For more information about SOWI, contact Taunya Hannibal-Williams, ODEI’s community outreach specialist and SOWI coordinator at t.hannibal-willia@hvcc.edu.
#STEM4ALL
Published: Wed, 27 Jan 2021 13:00:24 +0000 by t.hannibalwillia