A message from our founder
Equitable access can be life-changing.
"People have gone to school, studied hard, graduated, and in many cases, with significant debt looming over their heads that they still have to pay. No one is really tracking whether or not these students enter careers related to the fields of their college studies. Our Foundation talks to and supports students, and we see a troubling trend: by the time students graduate, new technologies have emerged, and some of them threaten to make some careers obsolete. So, there definitely – most definitely – has to be the development of new on-ramps into STEM careers.
Moreover, increased attention to reskilling, upskilling and cross-skilling through technical training, apprenticeships and other education and training formats will create valuable opportunities for current professionals to advance in their careers or pivot into new pathways or into leadership positions.
Our Foundation is located in the heart of a neighborhood where low- and very low-income families reside, but this is exactly where we want to be, because it’s where the greatest needs lie.
Social determinants of health (SDoH) are a major contributor to health disparities and operate on a continuum from fundamental structural causes to individual and family circumstances.
Addressing fundamental, structural causes of disparities offers the greatest opportunity to advance equity and to eliminate the disparities.
As a first-generation college student who grew up in a very low-income home, I want everyone to know that low- and very-low income are not synonymous with “being dumb” or with “having low intelligence.” On the contrary, students who reside in neighborhoods like this tend to be extremely bright, hardworking, and ambitious, and they deserve to have access to educational resources, mentors, and STEM learning opportunities right inside or not far from their neighborhoods. Who knows, the child just might be inspired to pursue a STEM-based career, like I did."
Kentrell Liddell, M.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Liddell - 1st yr medical student at Univ. of Iowa College of Medicine, accessed by scholarship.