The opening of our annual convening in St. Louis is just 5 days away! We have registered nearly 150 people and are excited about our agenda of over 30 sessions with members of more than 40 organizations presenting. We are honored to have Missouri State Senator Brian Williams as a keynote speaker, along with Syrita Steib, founder of Operation Restoration; Raquel Pinderhughes, founder of Roots of Success; and Jessica Hicklin and Haley Shoaf, co-founders of UnlockedLabs. We also have a number of sessions led or co-led by people who are justice impacted. View our most recent agenda.
Check out this press release in The St. Louis American about the convening. The St. Louis American is the single largest weekly newspaper in the entire state of Missouri.
Session videos will be made available after the convening. Keep an eye out for a STEM-OPS News Bites issue and/or blog post with the story of the convening and video links as soon as they’re ready! |
|
| The sySTEM Impacted Podcast |
|
|
|
The sySTEM Impacted podcast, led by Chris Etienne (PTI) and Terrell Blount (EDC), shares stories of system-impacted people’s successes and struggles related to accessing STEM education and careers. Etienne and Blount share in these episodes a culture allowing people to recognize the power of their own voices and displaying the humanity in all of us. |
|
|
A teaser for our November podcast episode: - In Episode 4, Perspectives from Justice Impacted Scholars and Professionals, Etienne and Blount dive into the stories of two formerly incarcerated Muslim American men—Majid Mohammed and Adham El-Sherbeini—who discuss their assimilation to American culture in school, the influences that prompted them to embark on their journeys to incarceration and education, and their experiences studying and working in STEM.
While waiting for our new episode, have you listened to our first three episodes? - Episode 1, Trauma Informed Training and Holistic Practices features Kristi Webb and Maiya Monteiro of the Maya Angelou Academy at New Beginnings Youth Development Center, a charter school operated within the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
- Episode 2, STEM and the School-to-Prison Pipeline features Dr. H. Richard Milner, IV, author and distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University, who breaks down how elementary and high school teachers and staff can adjust their curricula, teaching styles, and representation of teachers of color in STEM courses to curb the rates at which young people are entering the prison system.
- Episode 3, Energy and Environment Justice explores energy and environmental justice with Operation Fuel’s Executive Director Brenda Watson, who is elevating awareness as well as challenging the structural causes of home energy affordability.
|
|
A Journey Within This blog post discusses the many benefits of education for people who are justice impacted through the eyes of someone who has lived the experience and found joy in helping others in the same situation. |
|
|
Unlocking Human Potential at the Howard League Conference Christopher Etienne, coordinator of the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) at Princeton University, recently attended the Howard League Conference in Oxford, England, where he led a conversation centered on unlocking bias and perceptions that people have when it comes to providing access and opportunity to people who have been incarcerated. We talked to him about it in this blog post. |
|
|
Operation Restoration Twelve people graduated from Operation Education's Cohort II of the Rapid Reskilling Lab Assistant Program! Congratulations! |
|
Recent graduates from OR’s Cohort II |
|
Prisons to Professional (P2P) - The 2022 Rise Up conference took place virtually on September 8–9. “A conference to liberate higher education during and after prison,” Rise Up is centered on the theme of honoring our past while shaping the future. Click here to learn more, view the agenda, and learn about the presenters. Some attendee quotes from the event include:
|
|
- P2P is grateful for its relationship with Morgan State University’s Morgan CARES, which strives to improve health in communities across Baltimore. P2P team members were able to tour a shared space that Morgan CARES offers local community partners, including classrooms and meeting spaces!
- Congratulations to the nine people who recently graduated from P2P’s inaugural Missouri Transitional Center St. Louis (TCSTL) cohort! From this cohort, six people have gained meaningful and gainful employment and three are moving forward with education.
|
|
Visiting an on-site center sponsored by Morgan Cares |
|
P2P’s inaugural Missouri TCSTL Cohort |
|
|
Princeton Teaching Initiative See our blog post about PTI’s Christopher Etienne’s participation in the Howard League Conference in Oxford, England.
Initiative for Race Research and Justice, Vanderbilt University Special thanks to Dr. Stanley Andrisse for leading a breakout session at the RRJ Jumpstart Conference on August 1. For the past 3 years, the Vanderbilt University Initiative for Race Research and Justice (RRJ) has convened the JumpStart Virtual Conference, a national conference connecting issues of racial justice and education. This year, the theme was “Racial Justice Work in the Midst of Policies and Practices Designed to Maintain Inequity.” The conference featured keynote lectures from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, associate professor of literacy, language, and culture at the University of Illinois Chicago; Dr. Cheryl Matias, professor and director of secondary teacher education at the University of Kentucky; and Dr. D-L Stewart, professor and chair of the higher education department at the University of Denver. |
|
^^ This screen grab shows Dr. Quaylan Allen (speaker, top left), faculty at Chapman University. |
|
^^ This screen grab shows Dr. Abiola Farinde-Wu (speaker- top right), faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. |
|
|
<< This screen grab shows the presentation of Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad (bottom), faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. |
|
|
Education Development Center |
|
Check out the STEM-OPS Events webpage at any time for upcoming events from our core partners and other STEM-OPS colleague institutions. |
|
| Resources Recommended by STEM-OPS Core Partners |
|
|
|
Have you ever wondered what really goes on in U.S. prisons? Karen Gedney, the first female prison doctor in Nevada, takes you behind prison bars with such vividness that you become invested in knowing what is coming next. ARTICLES: VIDEOS: |
|
If you have any comments or questions about this newsletter, please email info@stem-ops.org. |
|
|
