Team Interview: Michole
Where do you consider home (i.e. where are you from)?
I am from Sealanta (no one else says this but me lol). Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I was raised between Seattle, WA and Atlanta, GA. So I call both of them home.
Why did you join STEMulation?
I actually co-founded STEMulation back in 2019 after having some success making educational escape rooms. I see escape rooms as a creative way to help students embody what it means to be a critical thinker, an investigative scientist, and/or a socially just human-being based on the quick decisions they have to make with (seemingly) limited information. Since then I’ve continued to grow our brand by finding a talented team that lives for creativity, radical dreaming, and liberating Black and Brown folks from an oppressive world that we no longer need to validate our worth. We choose to make that difference using STEM to show what these fields are really missing when they leave us out of the room.
What was your favorite part of helping to create SpaceBox?
Recruiting and coordinating all of the talented folks that made SpaceBox! As the Executive Producer, I sought out people who understood how important it is to center Black narrative voices within STEM. Then putting all of these amazing people together for a single project was beyond magical. One of my favorite collaborations of talent for the box was the astronaut audio logs! For the audio logs, we wanted to give the fictional astronauts a real voice and personality. Parker Miles, our lead writer and the voice for Lewis Reynolds (a SpaceBox astronaut), wrote a script for Dr. Zora Nguyen (a SpaceBox astronaut) who was eventually voiced by Ayinna “Ace” Onwurzirgbo. The three of us met several times to edit the script, dry read the script, record it, and celebrate a job well done. If only y’all could have been in those meetings to feel the pure creative energy. It was dope!
What is an experience (or 2) that helped you discover/ cultivate your interest in STEM and/or education?
Need a response
How do you think STEM education can be more inclusive?
We have to necessitate including and valuing other perspectives around what STEM, especially science, is. We have to be open to learning science not only from a modern and western society’s perspective. Consider how Native Americans/Indigenous folks view our existence in this world as single, yet diverse spirituality with plants and animals; with the animate and inanimate. When we open up our life experience to not just see everything as objects that serve humans we are allowing for other ways to for others to be included in the science. We don’t only need to know how to analyze the chemical composition of a river (Western Science). We need to also understand how that river exists in an ecosystem of care that provides vitality and well-being with (not for) humans, squirrels, deer, grass, transportation vessels, and etc. Broadening our definition of science allows for more paths of entry to feel as if they can do and be apart of it.
What is a random STEM fact that you love?
The constellation Pleiades, aka the Seven Sisters, is called Subaru in Japan. Now go take a look at the car brand Subaru’s logo. You’re welcome.
What was your favorite game to play growing up (e.g. video game, board game)?
Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation. Now look it had less to do with the violence and more about the ability to explore these complex worlds with people, vehicles, buildings, objectives, music, and more when I couldn’t travel at all. I enjoyed the freedom that game had to offer so I played it endlessly. Have you ever explored the desert, mountain, city, or ocean landscapes in GTA V? Check it out and you’ll understand lol.
What is your favorite science fiction movie or tv show?
Star Trek: Discovery! This is the first Star Trek series to have a Black woman lead, a gay couple, and actors that are transgender and non-binary. Then seasons 1-3 all hit on topics about mental health, liberation, potential, and exploration that by the end of the season you’re going to want to do some healing and adventure yourself. It’s also the way in which the writers use different cultural interpretations of science to design the science that happens in the show. You can look up any word you don’t know from that show and learn something cool about our current world. I’m in the midst of Season 4 right now and it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.
What book are you reading right now?
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
What are some words of wisdom that you live by?
Boundaries, not rules, show people how to love and care for you and how much you love and care for them.