Words from the SEM Founder: Dr. Frederick Moore
The Scientific Empowerment
Movement was a concept that evolved as a natural progression
from my past and current experiences. Dr. Michael Penn
Jr. and I founded, Building Diversity in Science (BDIS),
in 2001 from a desire to mentor minority high school and
college students in the sciences.
Through
our experiences as African American males, whom had very
different paths to graduate school, but both achieved success
at the highest levels of education, we both wanted to share
our insights with others. BDIS was
a mechanism for us, to create the ideal environment that we
wished existed during our academic journeys. It was a
way for this new organization, to beta-test an approach to
empowering oneself in an academic environment that happened
to be science, to achieve success that was defined by each
person. From our experiences of working with minority
college students in the BDIS mentoring program, Dr. Penn and
I, decided to edit a book titled Finding Your North: Self-Help
Strategies for Science-Related Careers (FYN) to disseminate
these concepts on a national level. We realized as students,
parents and individuals from all walks of life, read through
FYN and commented on it’s content, they shared with us
that our approach to helping individuals discover their purpose
in life, while using science as a platform for the discussion—were
universal.
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SEM was my approach to leverage
the people that sometimes have the biggest influences over
our youth (entertainers & athletes), with young minority
scientists, physicians and professionals that are still only
one generation removed from them, to create a paradigm shift
in their minds’ which are: there is an expanding “New
Jack” population of individuals that have utilized
a background in science, to pursue careers in all walks of
life, and that there are scientists that look like them doing
it; that there are individuals of color with a background
in science that listen to hip hop music, like to dance and
even played four years of college sports, but also developed
a strong mind through scientific training and are cool; that
by learning approaches, techniques and strategies to develop
a deep understanding of one’s self (intellectually & emotionally),
it will assist with discovering one’s strengths, aligning
with one’s passion, and help to create one’s
perfect science-related career; and that creating diversity
in the science is not only important to minority populations,
but also our society as a whole. I believe that if SEM can
merge these images and concepts into the minds of our next
generation of youth, we can enrich the pool of scientists
that find cures for diseases, create well-balanced, and empowered
adults that enter the workforce and assist individuals with
developing the courage to blaze their own unique trails.
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