Another Success for iUrban Teen Tech!
Jason Lee eighth-grader Zion Ward became part of a national effort last November to try to do just that. Zion was the only K-12 student formally invited to join educational advocates and leaders in a Twitter roundtable hosted by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans (WHIEEAA). The Twitter chat, titled “The Opportunity Gap—Facts, Myths and Possibilities in Black Academic Excellence,” also included Deena Pierott, founder of iUrban Teen Tech, of which Zion is a member. The program works to increase real-world exposure to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for nontraditional STEM students, including girls and African-American and Latino male youths.
During the Twitter chat, Zion weighed in on subjects such as President Obama’s goal to raise America’s population of college graduates (“I think it’s a good idea—looking forward to it”); supporting families (“Communication—if you don’t know, then you can’t learn and you can’t grow”); closing literacy gaps (“More extracurricular activities for families…tutoring, parenting”); and making college more affordable (“Lower interest rates of student loans”).
