Our Impact

Alquan, Anisha’s very smart and energetic big brother, wears his emotions on his sleeves. Like his sister, when he first joined PE’s programS at the Westside STEM Learning Center (SLC), he used to get frustrated easily. Rather than giving up, however, he’d take it out on his instructors and peers. As tough as his exterior often appears, however, our talented team knew that Alquan could succeed if they consistently reinforced expectations and helped him develop coping mechanisms. After two program cycles, he now knows he can choose to talk it out or sit it out when he gets upset. Once developing these social and emotional skills, inquisitive Alquan began to excel in program. He recently came to appreciate the practice of trial and error as he worked persistently to get his robot ready for competition. “You gotta follow instructions first, you can’t just build a robot.” This tough young man who once hated following the rules is now first to help Ms. Shnesa get other students back on track. Watching this grinning boy ecstatic to show his mom his robot at the year-end robotics competition, it was hard to recall the tough young man we met who challenged all the rules and didn’t see his place in Robotics.

Malik is Alquan and Anisha’s young cousin who inspired Project Exploration to bring programming for younger students to the SLC. Although shy at first, walking in the footsteps of his cousins, Malik has since shown our team a more independent, inquisitive, and open side of himself. “When you ask him about a problem, he’ll give you the solution,” said Ms. Tara of how Malik has grown in the program. Similar to his cousins, trust is something to be earned. However, it didn’t take him long to trust and seek the attention and approval of his STEM facilitators. Although he cruises through activities and catches onto new concepts quickly, they feel he often shares that he doesn’t understand just so they can come over and appreciate how well he’s doing. With their encouragement, he continues to become a leader in program and will now jump in to help other students when he’s completed his own work. During a recent visit at the SLC, PE’s Executive Director found Malik busily working on a project and asked his what he was doing. No longer shy or in need of his cousins’ encouragement, he hurried through an explanation of the problem he was solving before proudly exclaiming, “I’m a scientist!” Malik’s STEM identity continues to emerge every day.