Jefferson Veillard WP3 Project

Prologue

In this day and age, our world is becoming more and more shaped by science, technology, and engineering. This is in the context of both the world’s biggest problems and greatest solutions. Thus, STEM has become a very exciting field to be a part of because of the principles of innovation, creativity, imagination, reformation, and advancement that compose the melting pot which is STEM. However, in the United States there is a big problem with the practice of STEM: it’s very exclusive towards racial minorities. In fact, “despite comprising 27% of the US Population, only 11% of science and engineering jobs are held by Black, Latinx, and Native American workers” (Smash.org). Such a statistic isn’t just something to debate about, it’s deeper than that. It’s an experience. For me personally, being from the diverse inner city of Boston, there aren’t really STEM role models accessible for minority youth. STEM in some ways seems like a dream world that’s out of the reach of racial minorities because of how unrealistic it is for one of us to make it in STEM. So for me growing up, despite my aspiration for becoming an engineer, there were many times where I doubted my ability to make that dream a reality, because I rarely saw people that looked like me thriving in STEM.

But the exclusivity of STEM isn’t limited to its lack of openness towards racial minorities. It is also exclusive towards those of lower economic status. Because racial minorities in the U.S also tend to be economic minorities as well. And to obtain a good paying job in STEM, you almost definitely need a degree, one which requires a minimum of 4 years worth of tuition, something that many racial minorities can’t afford in this day and age, hence the low representation of racial minority students in the current undergraduate college student population. Specifically, “[within] the current undergraduate college student population, 52.9 percent are non-Hispanic white, 20.9 percent are Hispanic, 15.1 percent are black, and 7.6 percent are Asian”(Census.gov). All in all, it’s very tough for socioeconomic minority groups to find strong representation of their background in STEM, and this reality is something that is very discouraging and at times can be a real dream crusher for youth who have an interest in STEM.

And so when thinking about what youth could do to overcome the discouraging reality of STEM, I determined that a great asset would be one realizing the encouraging potential within themselves. For me, I break down the process of recognizing one’s STEM potential through three interconnected processes. Primarily, determining value in their background and realizing how that influences said potential. Secondly, determining value in their character and realizing how that influences said potential. And thirdly, determining value in their skill set and how that influences said potential. By conducting this process I personally have found it easier to overcome things like imposter syndrome, inferiority complexes, absence of motivation,etc and truly find more encouragement and inspiration from within myself to not only pursue my STEM aspiration but obtain success in STEM at different levels of my career. And so it’s for this reason that I want to share my story with many other youth who are in the same boat I used to be when growing up, so hopefully I can inspire other socioeconomic youth to engage with STEM head on and not late the world’s influence stray them from their dreams.

Introduction

“I wanna be the first to create a flying car!”. That was what I would say ever since I was 5. After watching as many cartoons as I did plus my passion for building things out of anything in the house ranging from water gallons and cardboard to legos, it was no secret that I loved STEM. In addition, my dad was an electrical engineer back in Haiti so the “wanting to be like pops” feeling you get as a young boy also had a role to play in my passion for STEM growing up. This passion for the field prompted me to engage heavily in school, specifically my science and math classes. And the more and more I learned about STEM, the more confident I felt that I could make a difference in the world through STEM, almost like a STEM superhero. But at some point in life, you have to get your first taste of reality, and for me that happened going into middle school.

Going into middle school, I transferred to a private, predominantly white, suburban school, where I was one of 2 black students in my grade. In addition, I was at the school on scholarship, while mostly everyone else in my grade went there without any economic worry in the world. Moreover, the way I looked and talked, coming from the city, made me stick out much more and it made me feel like an outcast. This environment that I was exposed to made me feel inferior in every sense of the word, I felt dumber than everyone else, felt less resourceful than everyone else, felt less capable of growth than everyone else. And this feeling of inferiority led me to give up on my ambitions of becoming an engineer for a while.

Consequently, my self esteem dropped immensely, and I started to develop a very negative “in” look upon myself because of the environment I was in. My background, socioeconomically speaking as well as culturally speaking, were things that I began to be ashamed of and things I wanted to hide. I truly lost sight of all the potential that I had once seen so clearly within myself, and thus my dreams began to become painful memories of wishes I thought could never come true.

But like every superhero story, there’s gotta be a comeback, and for me that was a long process that occurred throughout my freshman year of high school.

Power in Background

With soccer being my favorite sport, I spent all of that summer before my freshman year watching international competitions. However the 2016 Copa America was special for me because Haiti had qualified for the tournament. Our country didn’t have the best team, so I never found the opportunity before that summer to support them in a competition. What made things even better was in the group stage of the tournament, Haiti faced off against Brazil, the best national team in world football. We didn’t win the game, but the resilience and hard work that I saw the Haitian team put out on the field made me so proud of my country, so proud to be able to support said team, and so proud of my Haitain background. I can still remember all the yelling that went on in the stadium that day and even in my own house everyone was cheering after we scored a goal against Brazil. Despite losing as much as we did there was just a sense of accomplishment and pride that came from that goal that rejuvenated a bit of my love for where I came from.

Furthermore, that same summer my grandmother had come to visit from Haiti. Above is a portrait of a grandmother with her grandson, with her arm around him showing how supportive, caring, and invested she is in her grandchild’s life. My grandmother is just like that with me, even though we are separated by country. Whether it be over the phone or in person she is always being this type of grandmother you see in this portrait. And this made it very easy for me to learn from her about different aspects of life in general. Going into highschool I grew to practice a more complex way of building relationships and understanding others , so I was able to develop a deeper relationship with her, and I began to absorb values and wisdom from her that she worked hard to instill in my mom and her family back home. This helped the development of my outward perspective on the world as well as my inner view of myself. My love for my grandmother and her values combined with my admiration for my country allowed me to learn about and embrace the strength and power of my culture, and it inspired me to look within myself and accept myself for who I am in terms of not just my background, but also my character and values.

After finding pride in my upbringing and heritage, I grew to want to discover more about my country’s history, and so as a final project in my 9th grade History class, I decided to do a research project on the Haitian Revolution and Haiti’s path to becoming the first slave country the world had ever seen become an independent black republic. One of the more reliable resources that I used for said research project was this documentary done by PBS. It’s thanks to this documentary that I learned about how Haiti had fought off 3 global empires (French, British, and the Spanish) in order to gain their independence. But what was more important to me wasn’t learning about the achievements, but learning about all the faith, passion, blood, sweat, and tears that my ancestors evidently invested into their dreams and aspirations. It was a gruesome war, and as the underdogs we always stepped up when it mattered most, despite how battered we were. Furthermore, the struggling progression wasn’t just seen on the battlefield, but off it as well. All in all, the Haitian motto of “L’Union fait la force” meaning Union makes Strength in Haitian Creole, was birthed from this movement, and as someone who was so passionate about my community and the betterment of it, learning that there was so much rich history of reform, progression, and willpower within my Haitian heritage was the final step needed for me to really find value in my background and help me develop some confidence within myself concerning my ability to tackle life with an ambitious mindset.

Intermission

After obtaining an ambitious mindset and form of confidence, the next step for me was to figure out how I can use this new found motivation to enhance the expression of my other characteristics as a person. Whether they be academic characteristics, social characteristics or just personal values, now was the time to invest in the development of all these personal traits.

Power in Character

The primary part of my character and who I am as a person is my religion. However, prior to high school, I hadn’t taken much time or put much effort into developing my faith in God and also developing a lifestyle ideal for a Christian. So after obtaining the motivation and ambitious energy through the power I received from my culture, I began to enhance how much I invested in learning about the word of God and practicing the values taught to me in my everyday life. So I began to take notes during my church sermons every Sunday and would write my own questions which I would ask my parents to gain more clarity as to how certain aspects of God’s word influence the daily life of a Christian. Furthermore I began to work a lot harder to make that aspect of myself shine through my decision and actions. In turn I began to develop a powerful sense of self that I never had before and it served as a great platform to build upon in terms of my character.

The next set of characteristics which I looked to enhance were ones that corresponded with my academic performance as well as professional performance in environments like jobs, volunteering, sports, extracurricular programs,etc.This was a process I began to take part in during my sophomore year of highschool and it’s something I keep working on to this day. As for my approach for enhancing said attributes, most of the lessons I needed to learn concerning that aspect of my life came from my increasing engagement with music. Specifically there was this morning playlist I would use everyday to hype me up and seize the day. This playlist consisted of songs revolving around the ideas of humility, extreme work ethic, and having a vision for the future meaning chasing one’s dreams. This playlist is one that I continue to edit and continue to use to get me in the zone and prepare me to express humility, high work ethic, and high ambition wherever I need to do so. One of the best songs from this playlist that encompasses all of this would be “Hold On” by Lil Tjay. The song allows me to connect to my humble beginnings and drive to build a future for myself, family, and community. In the song, Lil Tjay alludes to the struggles him and his family and friends faced in the past, and passionately talks about how he aims to make a good future for himself and those who depend on him, hence telling everyone to “Hold On” for him to find his success and be able to help out his valued family, friends, and community. These are the types of messages I rely on to help in the development of my maturity as a person and see them as being a great asset to rely one when trying to solve big problems in school, work, and life.

The final set of characteristics that I looked to develop were my social skills and this was something that I looked to develop more during my junior year of highschool up till now. And to enhance this aspect of my character, I again turned to music, but this time a different playlist.Two of the best songs from this playlist were “Blame it on the Boogie” by Jackson 5 and “Get Down on It” by Kool and the Gang. These songs in addition to many others have helped shape my fun, enthusiastic, and energetic side. They are just “feel good vibes” type of songs. And its funny because for a good portion of my life so many things about me, whether externally in terms of what I looked like, or internally, in terms of my social engagement skills, caused me to be outcast in many different environments. And this inability to connect with others was something that always got me hating on who I really am. However, as I grew older and understood more about myself, I learned that a good way to overcome my social engagement hindrances was to bring positivity and high energy in a room, welcoming anyone and everyone who wanted to join in on the action. And this song does just that, so I saw it as a great representation of the energetic, fun, and friendly aspects of myself which to this day I still invest time and effort to develop.

Intermission

After developing a foundation for my character that I could build upon over time through enhancement of certain traits, I grew to develop a real identity for myself. And having a concrete identity for me personally, always finds a way to be a resourceful tool to making your own impactful mark wherever that maybe. And so that is why I find it so important to follow this process, because it has allowed me to build myself up to the point where I can begin to overcome the social or statistical hindrances that get in my way of becoming an engineer. In fact, I can now begin to look for opportunities to make my dream a reality without doubts in myself and my capacity. And so that is what I seek to do going forward.

Power in Skill Set

The Steppingstone Foundation was an organization that invested a lot of time and effort into my development in an academic and personal sense, and have been doing from 4th grade till now. To give back to the organization, I volunteered and worked for them all throughout highschool with the purpose to serve first generation and other socioeconomic minority youth in Boston by offering mentorship, education, and support in the process of applying for schools, jobs, volunteering opportunities etc. I was able to be a mentor, teacher, and be a support system for youth ages 12 to 18, all from different backgrounds, all with different experiences, and all with different passions and dreams. Steppingstone offered me that space for me to apply the knowledge of recognizing strength and potential within myself and repurpose it so that I could support others in their process of doing the same thing. The skills I saw within myself as someone who can be a real platform for helping others build their future, especially in my valued communities, are tools I keep with me and aspire to develop further as I grow in the process of determining what type of leader/reformer I want to be within my valued communities.

In addition to discovering and developing my skill sets as a community leader, I also began to discover and develop my skills as an engineer during the summer of my junior year. Through the MIT OEOP office, I found different opportunities to explore my passion in STEM and test to see if I had what it took to become a future engineer.

At MITES, I pursued building a deaf assistant headset in which the user can respond to dangerous circumstances that are prevalent in a big city like Boston. Using microphones and lidars to receive inputs of noise and movement in the area, I determined what values are equivalent to a dangerous situation like a gunshot or a person running toward them from behind by coding an operating system for the device in Python. This way, when these circumstances happen, certain LEDs that the user can see will flash and warn them to be aware of their surroundings.

After my MITES experience, I became driven to explore what I can do with biomedical engineering. Through SEED, an MIT STEM outreach program, I got to do a course where I designed femur fixation plates for people with thigh bone injuries. Rather than doing mechanical/electrical engineering and coding to make this project, I used online CAD software to design the project and then 3D printed it, all the while, keeping in mind that I wanted to make the project inexpensive and accessible for all.

Seeing my projects come to fruition made me ecstatic because they reflected the skills I had to make a difference in society, which excites me to continue to immerse myself in STEM through educational learning and community involvement so that in due time, I can have all the tools needed to make a big impact through STEM.

Conclusion

All in all, it is through discovery and investment in my background, character, and skill set, in that order, that has prompted me to see my dream of becoming an engineer as more than a wish or a fantasy. And although the world of STEM may not be very welcoming towards the likes of me because I am a socioeconomic minority, I have grown to believe that I can bust through the walls that stand in the way of seizing the opportunities STEM has to offer. And so for youth who are in a similar situation as I am, where the limitations of society impose upon you and your dreams, from my own experiences, I can say that building a solid and empowering identity for yourself through exploration of your background and character, as well as having a fearless approach towards obtaining new opportunities to advance your skill sets in the field of your choice, will make a big difference in the way you see and approach the obstacles placed in front of you in the path to realizing your future.

Works Cited

1. Bureau, US Census. “More Than 76 Million Students Enrolled in U.S. Schools.” The United States Census Bureau, 4 June 2019, www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/school-enrollment.html.
2. “Our Impact.” SMASH, 19 June 2020, www.smash.org/about/our-impact/?gclid=CjwKCAjw8-78BRA0EiwAFUw8LAph2aNYRSh8uE6Co799BDyn2CunxWyWEAhvvhz2pWsHAq0WrffUShoCHOQQAvD_BwE.