As journalists, living within your stories is a treasure. For Gayle King, this journey will lead her into space. In 2021, King expressed excitement during an interview surrounding the launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket into space with Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Oliver Damon, and Wally Funk. Now, King will be front and center as Blue Origin—created by Bezos in 2000 to work towards a future that will permit millions to live and work in space with the overarching goal of sustaining work—prepares for its 11th flight under its New Shepard program, NS-31 mission, according to WJTV. This time, it will be with an all-woman team, which marks a first for Blue Origin. “I had to think really hard about this decision, and I consulted family, friends, doctors, and people who I know who have gone to space,” King said in an interview with Oprah Daily. Among her trusted confidants who gave their blessing was billionaire Oprah Winfrey , who advised, “If you don’t do it and see...

By age 6, children already begin to associate boys with greater aptitude in STEM fields, including computer science and engineering, compared to girls. Such beliefs among girls tend to become deeply ingrained over time. The 74 reported these reports stem from an analysis conducted by the American Institutes for Research, released Monday. This comprehensive review examined nearly 100 studies across 33 countries. David Miller, the lead author and a senior researcher who launched the project five years ago, emphasized that without efforts to address such perceptions, girls may turn away from “fast-growing tech fields like artificial intelligence .” In elementary school, girls comprise about half of the students enrolled in foundational computer science courses. However, the participation drops to 44% in middle school and decreases to 33% in high school, according to The 74. Miller noted that these findings have significant implications for girls’ decisions regarding high school course...

Middle schooler Eniola Shokunbi is making a significant impact in classrooms. Shokunbi, then a fifth-grade student at Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy in Middletown, CT, was tasked with developing a solution to address future pandemic challenges in collaboration with her classmates, Shoppe Black reports . This inspired the creation of an air filter system designed to combat COVID-19 and cold viruses within classrooms, as reported by NBC Connecticut. “The air goes through all the sides,” Shokunbi explained to NBC Connecticut. “And it comes out of the top, so it filters in and out.” Her device, which cost $60 to make, is composed of a box fan, four furnace filters, duct tape, and cardboard. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in North Carolina further validated the invention. “It showed that the air filter removed over 99% of viruses in the air,” Shokunbi told NBC Connecticut. “And that it was effective.” Shokunbi and her classmates installed the air filters, which have been in...

David “Slim” Penn Jr. has opened a cannabis shop in Pasco, WA. Penn’s journey into entrepreneurship began as a child, according to the Tri-City Herald. He would mow his neighbors’ yards and had a paper route. “I remember those 20-pound papers,” he told the outlet, embellishing the weight of newspapers in the past when they were larger and heavier. Today, that business mindset has carried over into the cannabis space. Penn is now a franchisee of Lucky Leaf Co., which is owned by his friend David Morgan, who has stores in Spokane, WA, and Pasco. Penn had previously backed Morgan when he was looking to challenge the city to allow for legal cannabis sales to adults back in 2022. The following year, a council approved removal of the ban and permitted the legal sale of cannabis, paving the way for three storefronts including Lucky Leaf Co. Now, Penn will operate his own store alongside his partner Jamie Badden, who serves as the manager of the store. To get the shop up and running, they...

Sheryl Lee Ralph is among the greats who have lived to smell their roses. Today, she is widely recognized as an actress, but her journey began at Rutgers College. She initially enrolled at just age 16, the school shared, with plans to study pre-med before discovering her true calling in the arts. “I’m an immigrants’ child,” Ralph said, according to Elle. “My mother had very big dreams for me. In her words, it was, ‘Be a doctor or a lawyer, and if you can’t be either, marry one.’” Despite her mother’s desires, Ralph would pivot towards acting. She discovered her passion for the arts while working on a school play. “I found my passion on the stage of the Little Theater on the Douglass College campus,” she said, according to an article shared by the school. Based on an article from Philadelphia magazine, when Ralph was 20 years old, she landed her big break, featuring in the 1977 film “A Piece of the Action” alongside Sidney Poitier. Two years later, she made her television debut on...

Stephen A. Smith’s proudest moment was retiring his late mother. For the host of ESPN’s “First Take,” he has kept his mother in high regards due to her sacrifices raising him with a father he describes as “negligent.” In 2005, Smith was able to reward his mother when he signed a $1.3 million annual contract with ESPN to receive his own show, called “Quite Frankly,” he revealed on the “Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson” podcast. At the time, his mother had retired as a registered nurse working at Queens General Hospital in New York, NY, but she took on work at the Police Athletic League (PAL) to fund her yearly vacations because she did not have additional earnings outsides of her pension and savings. “My proudest moment to this day was that I drove straight home, and I put it in my book straight shooter, I drove straight from Manhattan to Queens, New York. I walked right in that PAL and I grabbed her by the arm and I said ‘Let’s go,'” Smith expressed on the podcast. “I looked at her boss,...

Venita Cooper’s passion for sneaker culture has led her to become an entrepreneur -turned-tech-founder. In 2019, Cooper opened Silhouette Sneakers & Art in Tulsa, OK, after working as a K-12 educator in the Mississippi Delta through Teach for America. She was brought to Oklahoma because her parents decided to retire, Cooper told AFROTECH™ in an interview. With no entrepreneurial background, the thought of launching her own business never crossed her mind until 2018, when the idea of opening a sneaker store was presented to her. “At first I thought it was crazy ’cause I was like, ‘I’m not an entrepreneur. I’ve never done anything like that before,'” Cooper said. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that to start a business and to run a business, to me, the No. 1 skill is the ability to make good decisions consistently and quickly. I always ask investors and other founders who have successful companies, what is the characteristic that they can identify as that No. 1 characteristic...

Aisha Bowe is an inspiration for Black women who aspire to work in the space industry. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Bowe is a former rocket scientist for NASA and received the National Society of Black Engineers award for Outstanding Technical Contribution. However, before earning accolades, the aerospace engineer struggled to find her footing in her academic journey. In an interview with the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast, Bowe recalled not doing well during her time at community college. “I bombed the first semester,” Bowe told hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings. “I think I’m going to be a business student and study economics.” Ultimately, struggling in community college led her to pursue a dream that she thought was once unachievable — becoming a rocket scientist. So, she transitioned into aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, although people around her didn’t understand why she was pursuing the career. “They literally thought that I had lost it,” she said....