Dr. Keli Christopher is a trailblazing leader and educator dedicated to advancing STEM education for students of color. As the Founder and CEO of STEM Greenhouse, she champions the belief that nurturing curiosity in STEM leads to flourishing children. Her greatest accomplishments have been successfully advocating for change in philanthropy, education, and government.
Full Transcript:
Jennifer Moss: Hello and welcome to Powerful Women Let's Talk. I'm Jennifer Moss, host and reporter here at WGVU and joining me today is Dr. Keli Christopher. Dr. Keli Christopher is a trailblazing leader and educator who is dedicated to advancing STEM education for students of color. STEM of course being science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And she champions the belief that nurturing curiosity in STEM leads to flourishing children. Welcome Dr. Christopher, thanks for joining us on Powerful Women. Let's Talk.
Keli Christopher: Thank you.
JM: So let's start with you telling us a bit about STEM education. And, in fact, you've come so far. We've talked to you before, and I don't know that you were as far along in this journey as you are today. You are the founder and CEO of STEM Greenhouse, which in part is housed in Innovation Central High School, or at least the STEM 2.0 part of it because you have numerous opportunities through STEM Greenhouse. So tell us about your journey and how you decided that STEM education was needed.
KC: Well, first of all, my PhD is in agricultural engineering, and I was the third woman, third black woman globally to get a PhD in that field. And so I had an opportunity to experience what it felt like to go through these engineering programs as a person of color. And I also knew what was required in terms of the academic rigor that was required to be successful in a STEM field. And so now I just get to show others how they can also go on that path. And so my journey with STEM Greenhouse started with math programming for girls and local libraries. And then in 2017, I started an after school middle school program. And in that middle school, not one child was proficient in science. But I realized they didn't have a science teacher. So my after school STEM program really became teaching science and doing math remediation. But at the end of the year, the research showed that the students in my program have four times more growth in math than students in other STEM programs in West Michigan. And so that just led to the success of having an additional STEM Academy in the summertime to do more math and science. We started teaching science during the school day, especially to those students who didn't have science teachers. And then we started an elementary school program to get students more up to speed with their math by the time they got to middle school. And then most recently, we started our high school program so we could mentor those students all the way through to college.
JM: So how did you come up with the name STEM Greenhouse?
KC: Yeah, it's a-because there is no greenhouse. And it's very confusing. But the greenhouse is a metaphor. What we wanted to do was allow students to grow and to cultivate environments where they could really thrive. And so just like you wouldn't just toss seeds in the wind and just hope for the best, we wanted to make sure that we created spaces where children of color would be able to grow in their math and science abilities.
JM: And you have seen growth, you're closing those gaps as it relates to math proficiency in other areas, right?
KC: Yeah, and I think one of the reasons is that we focus on providing mentors, people who look like the students, they get to see a lot of representation in math and science, and then we also spend the time on it. A lot of STEM programs just do not focus on math, and that really is the gateway to success and your ability to go to college and everything. Not every child that participates wants to be an engineer or scientist in our program, but our goal is that they would have the math and science proficiency to go to college and do whatever they want to do.
JM: And when you look at that, how important then is it for kids to get involved with STEM education? Because as many students as you're helping, there are still many students out there of all backgrounds that don't understand the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
KC: Well, one of the things I like to say is that, you know, over your lifetime, you will have lots of different interests. And the key is to be prepared for whatever interests, you know, like when you're eight years old, maybe you want to be a ballerina, but by the time you're in the 11th grade, you may decide you want to be an engineer and if you haven't been doing that math and science all along, you will not be in a position to really be able to take advantage because really you need to take AP Calculus your senior year, you have to be ready for that. And that takes some investment much earlier.
JM: Okay, so we talk about STEM Greenhouse, it is at least 10 years old, you started, it's at least 10 years old now. You've had a number of students come through and you've seen recently more rapid growth than the early days. What does that look like?
KC: Well, in the early years, it's just anyone who starts a nonprofit organization, it's very difficult. It's not like a business. People want to make sure that you are invested in the work. And so it took quite a while for it to get off the ground, but there were so, there really are not a lot of other opportunities for students that are specific to improving math and science proficiency. You can have, you know, a club or something, but it doesn't necessarily improve your math and science proficiency. And I was really one of the only groups that was taking the data, the pre and the post testing, to show the gains, because that was our goal. We don't do all these activities for fun. We're doing it so that they would become more proficient. And so just that emphasis, and that made a lot of difference. And because we had the data, then we could secure more funding. And that funding has gone up substantially over the last three or four years, because we've worked hard to earn it.
JM: And what grades are we talking about and the ages that you're covering in the variety of programs? Because again, STEM 2.0 is housed in Innovation Central, but you have other programs that you offer the community.
KC: Yeah, so we start with the kids count program, that's for third through fifth graders, and that's in a couple of elementary schools in our community. Most of our programming, we target schools that have low proficiency levels in math and science. And so, we work with about four middle schools for our program where we teach science during the school day in the classroom for a semester. And then, our after-school program at those middle schools as well. In the summertime, we have the Sankofa STEM Academy, which is housed at Aquinas College and at Grand Rapids Community College, where students can come and get an intensive five to six-week math and science opportunity. And it's a job opportunity for high school students, actually. And then there's our high school programming, where our purpose there, we have two staff that work at the high school with the goal to improve the rigor or increase the rigor of their math and science classes so that when they graduate, they'll be ready for an engineering or a science career.
JM: So Keli, what drives you? What makes you determined to help the youth in our community? You started this 10 years ago You're the founder the CEO of this stem greenhouse. You have purpose and your numbers are good You're making a difference, but what drives you personally to continue this work?
KC: To me, this is this is justice work I see the lack of opportunities for children of color not only as like… it's discriminatory, you know, the children that we work with should have these opportunities, but they don't. So, for part of me, part of it is just the justice aspect, but also there's just the community aspect. We need all of our children. We just need all of them to be successful. They all need to have opportunities. And so trying to build the pipeline for 21st century careers, if we want students who are able to take all these tech jobs, we have to create the environment where they can be successful because otherwise we're going to always be looking to other states and other communities and other countries to fill our talent needs.
JM: Okay. And so it's noted that some of your greatest accomplishments have been successfully advocating as you talk for change and philanthropy, education and government, creating that equitable funding you're talking about for nonprofits in our community. You've got STEM Greenhouse. Are you working on anything new and or different? Or are you just kind of charting that course for STEM continually?
KC: Well, one of the things that we're trying to do right now is build capacity to grow to other communities. Because Grand Rapids is not the only community where children of color are lacking in their opportunities in STEM. So we definitely want to go across the region, across the state, globally, and that rule requires an investment of capital and improving systems. So that's kind of where we are now, but it's an important place to be because very few nonprofits that are founded by people of color, especially black women, are at a place where they can grow and become a regional organization or a national organization. But that's where I believe STEM Greenhouse deserves to be and where we're headed.
JM: Keli, did you ever feel, you know, along your journey again, that you faced a number of challenges trying to accomplish the goals that you had in mind with STEM and moving that forward with the children.
KC: I remember about five years into this journey and I would write a grant and get denied. I mean I was denied way more than I ever received. And at the same time I was really doing excellent work. I was receiving awards, you know, I was being compared to other organizations and I still was not receiving the funding that I felt that my organization deserved. But I don't know exactly what happened, but I got really clear in that moment that after I had been rejected for maybe the fourth time for the summer academy, I was looking forward to do. And I realized that I had joy, even if it was always just going to be me going to two middle schools, by myself, like I had joy then. So getting more funding did not necessarily mean… it was, it didn't validate me. I was, I knew I was excellent and I knew I was happy. And it was, it's sort of funny because once I realized that, that they couldn't give me more joy by getting more money, then the money started coming, you know? So, you know, now we can work with a thousand kids. Back then when I was working with 40 kids, I almost feel I was happier back then. But now I'm doing different kinds of work so that I can build capacity for us to serve more students. But I think that's a key takeaway that it's more important to do something that you're passionate about. And even when people don't recognize you, even when people do not recognize your value, so to speak, you knowing your own value makes a big difference. And so...that was a huge turning point in this. And that's really when things started to improve for me. Also, I will say, because when I would go into a meeting, I was no longer begging. You know what I mean? I didn't come in with a begging spirit.
JM: You had confidence.
KC: I had the confidence. I knew I was excellent. Whether I had, even when my budget was minuscule and I couldn't hire anybody, I knew what my worth was, and that made all the difference.
JM: And there's joy in that.
KC: Yes, there was a lot of joy in that. And when I look back on it now, I'm sure that the people I would meet with probably thought, is she crazy? Like, she has nobody, but her confidence is so great. And I think that was attractive to people. Because like I said, I no longer had that beggar spirit. Like, please help me. I'm valuable. And if you're wise, you will invest in this, because it will help a lot of children.
JM: And again, point of reference, you went from at the beginning stages 10 years ago, 40 children and now you're at 1000?
KC: Yeah, it's crazy, right? That we could serve so many more children now. But that's all I could do by myself. You know what I mean? As running an organization and teaching and doing all of the things, I could only go to two middle schools that had 20 kids in an after-school program. That's all I had the capacity to do. And so now...I'm not in the classroom. I just left the classroom maybe three years ago. And I'm more in an administrative work. But again, I still have that same sense of confidence. And that has brought on a lot of new opportunities for me. But it all happened simply because I realized I had joy, even when it was just 40. And I decided if I just spend the rest of my career with 40 students, I will be fulfilled as a human being.
JM: I was just going to ask, do you miss the classroom? I have to ask you, do you miss the classroom?
KC: I do miss the classroom. However, I get a lot more satisfaction out of helping a lot more kids, you know, so I do miss those personal conversations and knowing students individually. There was a time I knew every student in STEM Greenhouse. But now when I see pictures on the internet or something of students that I don't know and they're growing and learning. It fills my cup.
JM: Wonderful. You've received numerous awards over the years, including the 2024 Woman of the Year Brilliance Award, West Michigan Woman Magazine, the NAACP Role Model Education Award, among many others. Does being recognized as such fuel your desire to do even more in our community?
KC: The recognition is honestly, the benefit is having more people learn about this work because sometimes without the recognition people would never know about what you're doing and that recognition gives me those opportunities to meet people in other communities to Have interviews like this so that's really the benefit of the recognition But it is nice to be recognized generally because this work You know I like I said if I've been doing it for ten years, and I'm getting recognized in the tenth year…there were many days when I was doing it and I was not getting recognized. There were many days when I was doing the work and I was not getting paid. So it is nice to get to a place where people can value your work and all the hard work that you put into it.
JM: Well, we wish you the best, of course. Dr. Keli Christopher, thanks so much for joining us today and for all your work in the community. And thank you all for joining us for this edition of Powerful Women. Let's Talk.
