Today we’d like to introduce you to Minority Exposure to Stem (METS). They and their team shared their story with us below:
Minority Exposure to STEM (METS) is a student-led nonprofit organization that advocates for increased STEM education and literacy for underprivileged and underrepresented youth. METS was launched in May 2021 in Tampa, FL by Dima Ali, Zuri Omari-Muhammad, Noel Temesgen, and Kate Clavell.
When we started, our founders were all juniors at Tampa Bay Technical High School and now continue their educations in various STEM fields at colleges both inside and outside of Florida – the University of South Florida, Emory University, Duke University, and Hillsborough Community College, respectively.
Being all young women of color coming from drastically different backgrounds, we set out with the simple goal of making the STEM field more representative of the uniqueness that we see in our community. The world of science and technology is constantly changing and covers such a diverse range of disciplines that it’s only fitting that the future of STEM is led by a diverse group of minds.
What started as a space for us to explore our own interests within science communication and education has grown into a community of students, teachers, and administrators who are dedicated to empowering the future generation of mathematicians, engineers, and scientists.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to where we are now has been a long and bumpy one. We’ve encountered multiple setbacks, but our passions and hopes for what METS could be were too large to ever consider giving up. Our biggest setback when we first started was that we felt that the services that we were providing weren’t eliciting the response or creating the impact that we wanted or envisioned for METS.
As a result, we developed a really strong system for evaluation and self-reflection in which we actively sought out feedback from our volunteers, the faculty and administrators, and the students that we worked with. We made it a priority to carve out time after each event to go over what went well and where we can improve, assessing the feedback we collected and using it to guide our future endeavors.
This way we ensure that with every event we hold, we are constantly working towards providing services that best meet the needs, wants, and interests of the people we serve.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
METS work to create and amplify supportive learning environments that stimulate innovative thinking and introduces young people to the endless possibilities of the world of science and technology. Our favorite and most popular service is STEM Nights which are huge curriculum fairs in which we take over local elementary schools and hold dozens of interactive booths that feature hands-on experiments and live demonstrations led by our team of student volunteers.
Each activity goes with a correlating educational standard and provides information on a corresponding STEM career. These events have proven to be a huge hit with our most recent STEM Night at Tampa Heights Elementary receiving media coverage from the Hillsborough County Public Schools media team and Fox 13 News Tampa Bay. As we look forward to two upcoming STEM Nights in the 2023-2024 school year, we expect even more students, parents, and community members to attend.
We are currently in the development stage of a brand new initiative to support soon-to-be high school graduates in their post-graduation educational and overall STEM endeavors. We plan to provide one-on-one peer mentoring to high school juniors and seniors to supplement the college and career assistance already offered by faculty and staff in schools all over Tampa Bay.
The countless hours spent creating lesson plans with our team or working with volunteers to organize these STEM Nights for students and their families have taught us what it truly means to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Holistically, METS strives to spark young people’s interest in STEM subjects so that they too can go out and incite change everywhere: from the laboratory to the operating room.
Networking and finding a mentor can have a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Social and networking skills have been crucial to our growth as a cohesive organization.
From recruiting student volunteers to attracting attendees for our STEM Nights, we’ve worked in close collaboration with faculty and administration at the schools we partner with as well as business professionals and even our parents at times to figure out the best steps to take.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @metsfl
