Letter from the Founder

Dear Trubelmakers,

The past year has been a dynamic time for trubel&co.

Two things became absolutely clear. Technical education is falling behind, between rising barriers to BIPOC success within STEM, a growing deficit in the technical workforce, and a perceived lack of connection between STEM topics and leading student social interests. We’re also experiencing a social reckoning, amidst critical climate crises, increasing awareness of social inequities, and emerging pressure for responsibility within technology and innovation.

To solve society’s most complex issues, we will need drivers of responsible innovation. We need some good trouble. This is why we, a group of educators, designers, and strategists, came together to build trubel&co, a culturally-responsive technical education platform that champions diverse youth to disrupt society for the better.

In the past few months, we’ve gotten a lot done. We became established as a 501?3 non profit organization. We set up important foundational partnerships. We’ve learned plenty from ecosystem leaders and crafted a mission that reflects the change we want to see within technical education. And of course, we continue to work with students.

In partnership with MIT MITES, we welcomed 20 students to Mapping Justice for a third summer in a flipped-classroom learning environment, where they learned to use GIS (Geographic Information System) software to tackle community-based challenges important to them, and often close to home. The 2022 summer cohort for Mapping Justice mapped inequalities they truly cared about, from climate migration to voter discrimination to travel inequality amongst high school students. One Mapping Justice alumni from summer 2022 shared:

“This course showed me that STEM can stretch far beyond a classic 9-5 job… I can channel my STEM interests into productive projects to enact positive social change.”

In addition, we’ve impacted 200+ youth through workshops around Race, Power, and Technology. Our alumni are already acting as change agents for social good, bringing their experiences and applied skillsets gained from trubel&co instruction into the world:

• Andrew West explored trans voter discrimination, and has been committed to exploring how AI can oppress communities of color as he continues to get research opportunities at Yale University.
• Edelawite Sasahulih was accepted into the National Geographic Society's (NGS) Freshwater Conservation Internship thanks to their trubel&co-learned GIS skills and our emerging partnership with NGS.
• Johnny Lin did his Mapping Justice project on the digital divide in Silicon Valley, and he’s continued to work toward addressing the opportunity divide in the Bay area. His capstone for Mapping Justice helped lay the foundation for his nonprofit, Mission Bit.?

After three years of Mapping Justice programming in partnership with MIT MITES, trubel&co is expanding the reach of our educational offerings to three new cities, with student populations in need of culturally-responsive technical education.

trubel&co is ready to bring responsible and culturally-responsive STEM programming to more scholars than ever before in 2023, and we need your support!

Here are 3 ways you can support trubel&co:

1. DONATE - By integrating STEM education with civic innovation, trubel creates a pipeline of changemakers committed to improving their community using equitable data analytics, responsible technology, and inclusive design. Your tax-deductible gift to trubel&co today directly bolsters our capacity to bring culturally-responsive technical education to communities closest to the need for change.
2. SHARE - We’ve live to the public, and we hope to spread the word! Feel free to re-post this article with one click to loop your network in on the latest at trubel&co. We also welcome you to follow our LinkedIn page and subscribe to our website to stay tuned on future progress as we share our impact.
3. INTRODUCE - We’re actively seeking to grow our community. If you know of any potential partners (ranging from?folks?interested?in funding innovative approaches in education to organizations with aligned missions), please connect us! We’d love to continue sharing our work and uncover ways we could partner in the future. Email Nick to get the ball rolling!

Help us launch into 2023 strong by supporting us in one of the above ways so our courses can come to life and get into the hands of those students who need it most.

Our future trubelmakers are counting on you!

Thank you and happy holidays ahead!

Sincerely,

Nick Okafor

Executive Director, trubel&co

Make a gift today. Explore our new website. Learn more about our impact.