The past nine months as a 20th Anniversary National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) Fellow was an experience I will never forget. I had the opportunity to network with other women helping lead the cause of STEM diversity, equity, and inclusion in young girls. The readings we read related to diversity, equity, and inclusion within STEM and young girls and women validated my passion for ensuring young women of color have an opportunity to pursue STEM. It was eye-opening to read case studies about my experience partaking in the STEM path. I felt heard and seen. I remember sitting at an all-woman engineering conference in a session related to leadership. It was hard for me to picture myself as a leader when no one else in the room looked like me. This is the reason I founded Unicorn Leaders. Unicorn Leaders is a nonprofit focused on mentoring young women of color into STEM leadership positions. 

It was also a great experience to partner with the Texas NGCP Collaborative. As part of the fellowship, I focused on understanding the STEM data related to Texas. My results determined, there is an opportunity for Texas to have more intersectionality within their data when it comes to STEM statistics, such as gender breakdown to STEM classes taken in high school.

Overall, this fellowship was once in a lifetime experience, and I hope it continues. Thank you to all the NGCP staff that selected me for this opportunity.