Message from Calvin Cheng, President of Pueblo Science

People around the world are mourning the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. We see people in the United States and globally protesting his killing as well as the deaths of so many Black people at the hands of law enforcement.

At Pueblo Science, we believe that Black Lives Matter.

We stand in solidarity with the protestors and all the Black mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons who have to live with fear and anxiety in their own neighbourhoods. We denounce all forms of police brutality as well as any government that orders their military to turn on their own people. We recognize the systemic race-based discrimination and structural inequalities in the United States and Canada and support all actions against anti-Black racism.

Our organization has focused on developing content for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in low-resource communities around the world; however, our programs have not specifically addressed social inequalities due to race, including the discrimination faced by the Black community in Canada.

We will be reaching out to organizations who are currently working to promote STEM education to Black students. We aim to seek their advice on how we can spotlight their efforts, collaborate, and ensure our Canadian programs can reach and are accessible to these communities.

I am asking my fellow members of the board, along with the staff, volunteers, and members of Pueblo Science, to join me in identifying ways through our programs that we can further support and encourage Black students to consider a career in STEM.

I urge you to join us in this exercise. You can send in your suggestions by replying below, or by writing me at ccheng@puebloscience.org.We commit to releasing a summary of this exercise on our website by August 2020.