Justice Code's 'global citizens' embody STEM goals
Jan. 12—Caia Brown considers herself more of a networker than an activist.
But when she sensed a niche and a way she could help her local community, she went right to work. Brown, a teacher in the Albuquerque Public Schools, reacted to the social upheaval of the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic by creating Justice Code, an organization dedicated to nurturing opportunities for kids in New Mexico to excel in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) fields.
The ultimate goal, she says, isn't just to help students improve across the board in subjects they haven't excelled in; it's ultimately to prepare the next generation of New Mexico residents to find careers at places like Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories.
"There are a plethora of high-paying and high-demand STEAM jobs here," says Brown. "Justice Code is the answer to a problem I was wondering how I could help to solve. ... We're preparing local talent here in New Mexico to fill the jobs right here."
Brown, and others like her, are dedicated to serving their communities year-round and into the future, furthering the service-oriented mission bestowed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 15 — also known as the day we observe the birthday of the enigmatic leader of the Civil Rights Movement.
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Learn more about volunteering or supporting Justice Code at 505-226-2832 or justicecode.org. To learn more about Cathryn McGill's work with Albuquerque Public Schools, call 505-407-6784 or email info@nmblc.org. The New Mexico Black Leadership Council offers a variety of resources and information on events, programs, and youth-oriented support services.
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Find additional resources and information about this weekend's events — including the MLK Commemorative March/Parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, January 13, at UNM — at the New Mexico MLK State Commission website, nmmlksc.org.
Brown knows how STEAM opportunities can change lives and impact futures. She grew up in Chicago, later teaching high school there, then moved to New Mexico to follow a family member who worked for Honeywell International, an aerospace and technology company that has a facility in Albuquerque. Over the last few years, Brown built Justice Code to reach more people. Currently, about 60 students, mostly based in New Mexico, participate, and they meet twice a week to study, both in person and remotely, and to also build relationships. Justice Code is staffed by volunteers, and Brown says it has partners such as the Supercomputing Challenge, the Computer Science Alliance, and the Igbo Union of New Mexico, a nonprofit representing the Igbo people from southeastern Nigeria who are committed to preserving the Igbo culture and other minority communities in New Mexico.
Justice Code takes students to participate in such community service endeavors as serving at food banks and to such competitions as the Supercomputing Challenge and the Try-Math-A-Lon, sponsored by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
One of Brown's star pupils, Aileen Ukwuoma, was recently named a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist. Ukwuoma, a senior at Early College Academy in Albuquerque, serves as Justice Code's junior president and earned a handful of awards at the NSBE National Convention last March. Ukwuoma says she has been a part of Justice Code since her freshman year, and that it's helped increase her knowledge of computer science as well as her cultural roots.
"Justice Code has enriched my life in so many different ways," she says. "Academically. Culturally. It's allowed me to connect with Black history and with the Igbo community."
Another student, Mekhi Bradford, is just 13 but already has big plans. Bradford serves as Justice Code's student ambassador and says he hopes to study law at Georgetown University. He adds that he sees students' imaginations fired up by competing in challenges in which they try to imagine how a future city might work. All the students, in fact, are expected to compete in at least one challenge per year. Many are learning coding and robotics and other growth-industry areas, and Brown says even if they don't pursue a career in those fields, Justice Code helps by creating "global citizens."
"They might end up working with somebody who grew up in Hawaii. They might end up working with somebody who grew up in Brazil," she says. "We're preparing them, for whatever they are in life, to have less biases and more empathy."
Justice Code is seeking volunteers with experience in any of the STEM or STEAM fields to help educate and nurture the students, Brown says, and is also seeking to raise about $100,000 to send the kids and their chaperones to the NSBE National Convention in Atlanta in March.
To continue to grow and serve more students, Brown says the organization needs more volunteers in non-technical areas too, including those who can help plan community events or who can volunteer to make sure the kids are safe. Some volunteers, Brown says, help behind the scenes by using their skill sets to assist Justice Code in whatever manner they can.
"Justice Code works," she says, "because we all work in our areas of giftedness."
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Cathryn McGill, the founder and CEO of the New Mexico Black Leadership Council, says that with test scores in crisis, it's incumbent on society to do whatever it can to reverse the trend. McGill hopes to recruit 50 volunteers of her own to assist in mentoring Albuquerque Public Schools students, and she looks at Justice Code as a template.
"They sort of embody the principles of youth empowerment and being able to prepare young people for careers that will put them on the path to wage self-sufficiency," she says. "They go against the belief that students of color can't be good at math and STEM fields; they're walking the talk as it relates to that. It also shows community organizations are so very needed to change the narrative in public school systems about these particular fields of endeavor."
McGill's program, which she's developing as a pilot, would recruit eight volunteers for six different Title 1 Albuquerque schools and two volunteers that could float between the six schools. The volunteers just need to have flexible schedules and be invested in their community.
If the program works, she hopes to expand it to other cities. In light of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, McGill says people should be asking how they can be of service not just on this day, but well into the future.
"I believe it's possible for people to commit to assisting this organization, or another, not just on MLK Day and then going away and saying, 'I've done what I could,'" she says. "If there are people who have money or a talent they can contribute or some other treasure, those contributions can be made 365 days a year. Perhaps the Day of Service can be said to be taking personal responsibility for making our communities better year-round. Whether you have kids in the public school system or not, it's in all of our benefit to see these kids thrive."
