Seeking to enhance the educational equity of those in the United States, I applied to become a Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Ambassador in the spring of 2023. DoD STEM is a Department of Defense initiative that promotes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education to develop a future workforce for national security. It provides resources, programs, and partnerships to inspire and prepare students (primarily minority and military-connected students) for STEM careers. They partner with many other organizations through the Defense Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Consortium (DSEC), which includes Prince George's Community College. I was later accepted as an ambassador, with PGCC as my sponsoring organization.

• Evidence of Acceptance

The DoD STEM Ambassadors were managed by leadership from the Tiger Woods Foundation (TGR). Throughout the year for DoD STEM Ambassadors, our responsibilities were as follows:

• Develop and execute a Planning for Impact project that addresses STEM challenges or provides meaningful STEM experiences to military-connected and/or underrepresented students.

• Guest author blog posts to be featured on the DoD STEM website.

• Support at least one presentation at national, state, and/or local conferences to share DoD STEM resources (may or may-not be DSEC-sponsored events).

• Meet monthly (virtually) as a community of practice to network, learn from each other, and engage in professional learning opportunities addressing the domains listed above.

See the adjacent website for the list of 2023-2024 DoD STEM Ambassadors, including my featured profile. 

My planning for impact project with the DoD STEM Ambassadorship overlapped with what I intended to do as part of the PGCC Gaming Club. This is detailed and expanded upon in a different section in this portfolio: 

• College Service - The PGCC Gaming Club

Additionally, you may also access this adjacent PowerPoint for a summarized version of my journy founding The PGCC Gaming Club. I presented this at one of the monthly expected meetings for the DoD STEM Ambassadorship as a program requirement. 

The TGR Foundation encouraged DoD STEM Ambassadors to apply to a 10-person team that would outline a Career-Connected Learning (CCL) Program that focused on an Advisor Initiative "wherein educators will be recruited as advisors to support students as they matriculate through a variety of CCL opportunities and pathways that focus on workforce and college readiness." The module would be implemented and/or shared with various organizations throughout DSEC, in their efforts to enhance educational opportunities. 

I am honored to have been one of the 10 DoD STEM Ambassadors selected to participate in this endeavor, where I flew out to the Tiger Woods Learning Lab in Anaheim, California and collaborated with the others to begin the outline of this module. 

• Acceptance Letter - CCL Advisor Program

After the Meeting in Anaheim, I was contacted by the TGR Foundation Leadership again to join one other DoD STEM Ambassador to actually design the CCL Advisor Module itself. I am very grateful to have received this opportunity, as I was genuinely interested in creating an advisor module from the standpoint of an educator who is not a formal advisor. Adjacent to this is the link to our finished Advisor Module, complete with activities, suggestions, timelines, and much more for advisors to use. 

• Request to Create Module Email

I am deeply honored and grateful to have had the opportunity to be a DoD STEM Ambassador. I have gained invaluable connections, enhanced my experience/skills as an educator, traveled across the country to collaborate with other educators, and made my sponsoring institution/employer PGCC a place with even more opportunity.

For a full accounting of all my activities throughout the DoD STEM Ambassadorship, please see the adjacent website/portfolio to the right.