NEW BEDFORD — “When I go on stage and talk to young people, one of the biggest reactions I get is when I tell them, yo, you can be a food scientist. Did you know? Angel Diaz, co-founder of New Bedford-based youth organization STEAM the Streets, has a wide range of careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics that make up the STEAM acronym. He talked about giving presentations to local students about the possibilities.
“Then I am. There are eight food scientists. And what kind of people are they?! No way. Yes my man! please!”
In founding an education-based youth organization in 2016, Diaz and co-founder and professional videographer Ben Gilberg (both from New Bedford) wanted to create a high-income business that many local students didn’t know about. found a way to give back to their city by offering a career in It seeks to raise awareness of the infinite possibilities of the future. Nevertheless, their vision and the needs their group seeks to address are bigger than whaling cities. The two say STEAM the Streets is having a special moment with the recent launch of her mobile app. This extends the reach of their message to almost limitless. This has largely spread through local programming and partnerships with the city. A school with a brand of outreach aimed at youth that incorporates hip-hop.
The idea for the app, which debuted in October, began to take shape in 2017 before the COVID pandemic offered an opportunity to bring the idea to life, Gillberg said.
“I’m personally a video producer and content creator, dating back to the New Bedford High days, and that naturally became part of what we did with STEAM the Streets,” Gilbarg said of the group’s The video now includes career profiles highlighting various STEAM-based pathways. , we needed a way to scale our content and approach, because we realized that reaching a few schools would be great, but this is a national problem that we’re trying to get there. to deal with where there aren’t enough people to fill all these jobs in.”
App: how it works
The STEAM the Streets app, now free to download on Apple iOS (iPhone) and Android platforms, features expertly produced video segments (or “Episode”). Get there; as well as a news feed of articles and other resources.
But it’s more than a guided video player and media scroller. When signing in for the first time, new users are presented with a series of unrelated images two at a time, each time asked to select an image of interest. “And if you don’t fully know what each one is, that’s okay, it’s just which images resonate with you,” Diaz explains in the app’s video walkthrough.
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Based on the user’s choice, the app determines three potential career paths to explore, each with a two-part video lesson. The first part consists of interviews with experts in the field, then users are quizzed on what they have learned, earn points on the app, and a second video of Diaz speaking and rapping on her unlock the Roles have details such as revenue potential and steps to enter the field. Users can see their progress compared to others in the app via leaderboards. At the end of the “season,” Diaz explains in the introductory video, the top her score holders will be entered to win prizes.
“After the two videos are finished, when you go into that area, you’ll see a roadmap with the major milestones to complete,” Diaz explains. Level your resources to experiment with activities and act on your inspiration. As you complete each STEAM challenge, new challenges will be unlocked. ”
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Gilbarg and Diaz believe the app is still in its infancy, but its approach to design and execution has been in the hands of years of experience since the launch of STEAM the Streets over six years ago. It is said to have been proven based on , Gillberg co-founded Third Iron Limited, a New Bedford-based youth empowerment organization, in 1998, and Diaz has been involved in youth outreach programs since she was a teenager.
“We try to put a ‘just right’ mark where they like it. oh i can accept this This isn’t something that popped into my head, but it doesn’t overwhelm where I like them. this doesn’t help me. “It’s the music, it’s the flair, it’s the graphics, it’s the language that’s used,” said Diaz, who is also known as “DJ Angeli” when playing hip-hop. We know that we have the style of energy we need.”
According to a STEAM the Streets press release, there will be a shortage of an estimated 4 million jobs in the STEAM sector by 2023. That ever-growing number is exponentially greater than when Diaz and Gilberg were growing up, but the outreach is unprecedented. Proportionate to the opportunities available, both men said.
Diaz, who teaches at the tuition-free, all-girls Our Sisters School in New Bedford, says this is especially true for historically underserved populations and is a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous) specialty. It says that’s why the emphasis is on featuring homes, and people of color) backgrounds in the app.
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“I’m telling people I’ve failed the public school system, and a lot of it is because I didn’t have the right information to motivate me to make a different decision.” I think,” Diaz said, referring to his Puerto. Lika’s legacy. “And I’m tired of black and brown communities being left out of things.
“My grandfather was the chair of the mathematics department at Stanford University. Nevertheless, I felt completely disenfranchised from things like algebra in school,” Gilberg said. “Teachers explain why we are learning it, how this mathematics can be used to create software and graphic design, and other things that many of us would probably find interesting. In our case, we know how to reach out to youth in a way that generates that interest.
“I want them to know that they don’t have to wait until college to discover and start pursuing what they want to be. These things can start as early as middle school and high school. ”
NOAA Helps Add Marine Science
A big part of STEAM the Streets’ mission is to diversify the STEAM field, which is home to so many white men, and the group found friends at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). We are developing a marine science career module for our app.
The module’s first highlighted career is already underway, through the experience of Dr. Tammy Silva, a Fall River native serving in that role at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate, the position of Research Marine Ecologist. focus on
“We’re in pre-production for the episode right now,” Gilberg said. Or you can hear her talk about salary ranges….She graduated from UMass Dartmouth and is from Fall River, so she’s a good and friendly link for people in our area.”
Gilberg hopes it will be the first of many marine science careers to be highlighted. , there is Stellwagen Bank, ”he said. “As we know offshore wind is huge, so we want to expand next.”
‘Just imagine…’
Diaz and Gilberg said they expect the app’s awareness to grow over the next year as STEAM the Streets continues to set up meetings and partnerships with schools and other organizations in and outside the region, such as Gilberg’s visit to Aspire High School last month. He said the focus would be on improving Present the app to students there in Oakland, California.
“We have something planned at Voc-Tech in January,” Diaz said.
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Beyond the yet-to-be-announced ocean module, Gillberg said future development plans for the app include incorporating mentorship into the app as an unlockable feature that can be earned. It’s a very big one, because no matter how accessible something seems to be, it needs a community,” he said, embracing sponsors like the Marion Institute, Bay Coast Bank, Kearney Family Foundation and McMillian Stewart. He pointed out that he owes much to the support. STEAM the Streets Achievement Foundation. “This is the larger vision of creating a community.”
“When you look at us and where we are at this job, who would think we’re doing here what we’re doing at this level? I mean, we built the app A couple of kids from New Bedford who came out of a love for hip-hop and knew nothing about building apps, but they did it anyway,” Diaz said. “And now we’re working with federal agencies to discuss how to get this thing into the hands of as many people as possible across the country.
“If you could do all this, imagine what you could do.”