Partnering With NAACP, NASA Supports STEM Education Equality

NASA and NAACP representatives when signed the agreement (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA Not long ago, NASA established a partnership with the National Association for the Progress of Colored Skin People (NAACP). Through this collaboration, NASA and NAACP will improve education equality.

This partnership was only agreed on September 19 after the two institutions signed the Space Law Agreement contract. In the contract, it is stated that underrepresented students will get equal education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

NASA will provide guidance on programming, STEM information students need, to facilitate tours to various NASA facilities. Meanwhile, NAACP will combine lessons, content, and STEM themes from NASA into the Afro-Academic, Cultural, and Scientific Olympic (ACT-SO) program.

The ACT-SO program is a competition held in the US so that students can compete. Those who win the match will get scholarships and intensively in various fields, including STEM.

Shahra Lambert, Senior Advisor to NASA's Involvement and Equality, said that NASA and its institutions share the same long-term commitment, attracting more students from different backgrounds to STEM education.

"This agreement reaffirms the commitment and strengthens partnerships that will allow us to expand opportunities for more color students to build their STEM identities," Lambert said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NAACP Leon W. Russell revealed that his institution is trying to increase the number of STEM students. The hope is that this new partnership will support the initiative that NAACP has pushed over the years.

"Through the ACT-SO program and this new partnership with NASA, the two organizations will make greater progress on helping pave the way (for color students)," Russell said. "By enforcing today's agreement, we hope to increase the number of black students and underrepresented students in the STEM sector."