60% of teens in murder town USA also
known as South Bridge Wilmington drop
out of high school that’s more than half
of the teenage population in South
Bridge without a high school education
now think about this what percentage of
those high school dropouts are going to
go on and get great jobs to maybe 4% I
would say not a lot because they lack
the resources necessary to be successful
people’s opinions regarding South Bridge
Wilmington which is about three hours
away from New York are generally
negative and for obvious reasons
Wilmington is never in the news for
something positive
it’s always something negative and
that’s exactly what I am trying to
change I am a teen living in South
Bridge and I’m in my sophomore year at
the Delaware Military Academy with a 4.0
GPA I’m a scholar an athlete an M double
acp youth visionary and the proud
founder of wilmington urban stem
initiative stem stands for science
technology engineering and mathematics
with my nonprofit I am targeting
specifically young girls because I know
there are not nearly enough women in
STEM fields in fact the percentage the
work the percentage of the workforce
that it’s female is only 29 percent I
figured if I could get girls interested
in STEM at a young age I’d be doing my
part to raise the number of women in
STEM fields but I could not do this
alone I needed help from local
organizations in my community so I
partnered with a bunch of organizations
too many to list but I have a couple in
my presentation I worked with ShopRite
and their donation made it possible for
me to fill the book bags I was giving
away to the girls with school supplies
by networking with Jennifer from
inspiring women in STEM a local
organization working towards getting
more women involved in STEM fields I was
able to get each girl who came to my
event a free brand new hidden figures
book if you don’t know what hidden
figures is about it’s about four
brilliant amazing african-american women
who worked at NASA and worki vital parts
of launching John Glenn into space at my
events the girls not only get book bags
free food and listen to inspiring women
some of the women who spoke at my event
were Wilmington treasurer Valda Jones
Potter Ian Wallace Simms and
congresswoman Lisa Blount Rochester I
have these women come and speak at my
events because the girls often don’t get
positive role models especially being
from Wilmington having these positive
role models in real life not someone
they see on Instagram or TV is extremely
important these girls need someone to
look up to someone who they can look at
and say they overcame all these
obstacles they defied the odds and here
they are doing amazing things now these
girls need that they need to know that
they can grow up to be whatever they
want to do more organizations that I
worked with were one of the ones one of
the organizations i records was the
delaware children’s museums a local
organization right on the riverfront
about two minutes from Southbridge that
a lot of the girls don’t know exists
because it’s too expensive and they
can’t go there and it’s two minutes away
from where they live I worked with
Rebecca who works there and she gave me
and my nonprofit 212 free tickets to the
museum that I could give to the girls so
they could go and experience the
wonderful things the museum had to offer
I also worked with the Kenny Family
Foundation and Cassandra who came and
spoke to the girls about healthy eating
because as important as it is to know
about stem and all its benefits the
girls need to know you need to stay
healthy because in today’s society kids
spend way too much time on social media
and not doing something that keeps them
healthy people will complain about how
bad Wilmington is but what are those
people doing to move Wilmington forward
they’ll sit back and wait for someone
else to do it but it needs to start with
them people need to step up you if you
want to make a woman tan Betty you have
to start with yourself you might think
there’s nothing you can do but there’s
always something you can do I have a
quote that I absolutely love because it
shows there’s always something you can
do if you can’t fly then run if you
can’t run
then walk if you can’t walk then crawl
but whatever you do you have to keep
moving forward so I ask you what are you
doing – move your community forward if
you want to make Bloomington wherever
you live a better place you need to
start with yourself
we all have we’re all busy people but no
one’s busier than a high school student
who’s worried about grades and sports
and getting scholarships and how I’m
gonna pay for college and a million
other things but I make time to give
back because I make it important so if
you want to better your community need
to make it important people make time to
go to the gym to get their nails done to
get their hair done make time to better
your community if it takes just one hour
one hour a week to better where you live
I know you have one hour and you have
one hour we all sit back and sit on our
phones for hours at a time you can take
one hour to help someone else I started
with one hour and I turned it into all
this and Here I am on the TEDx stage
talking about my passion starts with one
hour thank you
[Applause]
you
known as South Bridge Wilmington drop
out of high school that’s more than half
of the teenage population in South
Bridge without a high school education
now think about this what percentage of
those high school dropouts are going to
go on and get great jobs to maybe 4% I
would say not a lot because they lack
the resources necessary to be successful
people’s opinions regarding South Bridge
Wilmington which is about three hours
away from New York are generally
negative and for obvious reasons
Wilmington is never in the news for
something positive
it’s always something negative and
that’s exactly what I am trying to
change I am a teen living in South
Bridge and I’m in my sophomore year at
the Delaware Military Academy with a 4.0
GPA I’m a scholar an athlete an M double
acp youth visionary and the proud
founder of wilmington urban stem
initiative stem stands for science
technology engineering and mathematics
with my nonprofit I am targeting
specifically young girls because I know
there are not nearly enough women in
STEM fields in fact the percentage the
work the percentage of the workforce
that it’s female is only 29 percent I
figured if I could get girls interested
in STEM at a young age I’d be doing my
part to raise the number of women in
STEM fields but I could not do this
alone I needed help from local
organizations in my community so I
partnered with a bunch of organizations
too many to list but I have a couple in
my presentation I worked with ShopRite
and their donation made it possible for
me to fill the book bags I was giving
away to the girls with school supplies
by networking with Jennifer from
inspiring women in STEM a local
organization working towards getting
more women involved in STEM fields I was
able to get each girl who came to my
event a free brand new hidden figures
book if you don’t know what hidden
figures is about it’s about four
brilliant amazing african-american women
who worked at NASA and worki vital parts
of launching John Glenn into space at my
events the girls not only get book bags
free food and listen to inspiring women
some of the women who spoke at my event
were Wilmington treasurer Valda Jones
Potter Ian Wallace Simms and
congresswoman Lisa Blount Rochester I
have these women come and speak at my
events because the girls often don’t get
positive role models especially being
from Wilmington having these positive
role models in real life not someone
they see on Instagram or TV is extremely
important these girls need someone to
look up to someone who they can look at
and say they overcame all these
obstacles they defied the odds and here
they are doing amazing things now these
girls need that they need to know that
they can grow up to be whatever they
want to do more organizations that I
worked with were one of the ones one of
the organizations i records was the
delaware children’s museums a local
organization right on the riverfront
about two minutes from Southbridge that
a lot of the girls don’t know exists
because it’s too expensive and they
can’t go there and it’s two minutes away
from where they live I worked with
Rebecca who works there and she gave me
and my nonprofit 212 free tickets to the
museum that I could give to the girls so
they could go and experience the
wonderful things the museum had to offer
I also worked with the Kenny Family
Foundation and Cassandra who came and
spoke to the girls about healthy eating
because as important as it is to know
about stem and all its benefits the
girls need to know you need to stay
healthy because in today’s society kids
spend way too much time on social media
and not doing something that keeps them
healthy people will complain about how
bad Wilmington is but what are those
people doing to move Wilmington forward
they’ll sit back and wait for someone
else to do it but it needs to start with
them people need to step up you if you
want to make a woman tan Betty you have
to start with yourself you might think
there’s nothing you can do but there’s
always something you can do I have a
quote that I absolutely love because it
shows there’s always something you can
do if you can’t fly then run if you
can’t run
then walk if you can’t walk then crawl
but whatever you do you have to keep
moving forward so I ask you what are you
doing – move your community forward if
you want to make Bloomington wherever
you live a better place you need to
start with yourself
we all have we’re all busy people but no
one’s busier than a high school student
who’s worried about grades and sports
and getting scholarships and how I’m
gonna pay for college and a million
other things but I make time to give
back because I make it important so if
you want to better your community need
to make it important people make time to
go to the gym to get their nails done to
get their hair done make time to better
your community if it takes just one hour
one hour a week to better where you live
I know you have one hour and you have
one hour we all sit back and sit on our
phones for hours at a time you can take
one hour to help someone else I started
with one hour and I turned it into all
this and Here I am on the TEDx stage
talking about my passion starts with one
hour thank you
[Applause]
you
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