College of the Canyons’ second annual STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) open house for young Black scholars started with a lab and the Brownies of Zawadi Troop No. 3246. 

Gretchen Stanton, COC’s chemistry department chair, said that about three years ago, the college’s STEM Scholars Program – a program on campus that supports STEM students with mentorship, research opportunities and a stipend – wanted to host an education project. 

That led to an invitation to 10 Zawadi Troop Brownies, including one of Stanton’s daughters, to spend two hours in a COC organic chemistry lab, where they performed hands-on experiments and learned about Black trailblazers across scientific disciplines.  

Those two hours were exciting enough for the Brownies – and their parents – to ask for more. 

“Some of the parents came as well,” Stanton said. “The parents who didn’t come, the kids went back and told them all about it, and they asked us, well, ‘What are you doing next?’ So from there, we really wanted to try to grow the program and make it a bigger event.” 

This year’s open house is only the second annual iteration, but it’s already picking up steam: Kids from all over Santa Clarita, as well as the San Fernando Valley, have come to COC for the past two years in the spring to participate in experiment stations that teach them principles from chemistry, biology, and earth and space science.  

While students learn about scientific history-makers, with each table in the courtyard near Aliso Hall displaying placards with the names and pictures of Black scientists and engineers, they also got the chance to meet COC STEM faculty, as well as the student volunteers who run the show. 

The Earth and Space Science department opened three of its labs to students to use during the open house, Stanton said. 

Stanton said about 50 students participated last year, and that number’s up to about 80 this year. Stanton said it helps that local community organizations have been spreading the word about the annual event, including Black Moms in the Valley, Coco Moms, and of course, the Zawadi Girl Scout troop. 

Making sure young Black students know about the career path possibilities that exist in STEM, while at the same time instilling them with the confidence in their own abilities to pursue them, can have a compounding impact on their lives, Stanton said.  

“We really want to just start to work on that STEM identity early on, and we know we’re going to see some of these students or these kids later,” Stanton said. “We want them to come on campus and feel like they already know people here. They feel supported. This is their community.” 

Coupled with career awareness, giving kids the chance to experience a hands-on activity that exposes them to a scientific principle in action can incite their interest in a STEM field in a unique way, Stanton said. 

“I was talking with some of the parents and also some of our STEM students. They could remember that event, or that class, when they were very young (that) introduced them to STEM, and they saw something that is a core memory, that was the path,” Stanton said. “So we’re hoping to just ignite more of that. We know our Black youth, they have so much to offer, and we just want to make sure we’re nurturing that.” 

Mothers at the open house said the Saturday event gave their kids already interested in STEM the opportunity to learn more about what they love and introduced it in creative, captivating ways to those more interested in the arts. 

Amber Aaron Mosley brought her 7-year-old daughter, who attended through her Girl Scout troop, and 12-year-old son Saturday. 

“It’s just a fantastic opportunity for Black children to be able to come together in a scientific space, and to be taken around on a college campus, to be able to have an experience in the respective science spaces, from bumblebees and stones and rocks and minerals,” Aaron Mosley said. “They had a fantastic time.” 

Aaron Mosley said her son, who already has an abiding interest in chemistry, was able to remember chemistry principles from a prior science workshop while in the chemistry station. 

“We don’t spend time with them at school,” Aaron Mosley said. “To see the knowledge that they’ve retained and new things that they’ve learned, and (that they’re) feeling confident to share them in a classroom setting, in a learning environment, is wonderful.” 

The open house’s chemistry presentations also made a big impression on another student: Cora Hines said that her 6-year-old daughter, a dancer and a natural artist, was drawn to chemistry in a completely new way after her own experience. 

“I think every child, especially in our community, being a little Black girl, should try and do something like this. And I think that it’s great that we have the opportunity,” Hines said. “One of the classes was biology, and she was unsure, but when we got to the chemistry, she was like, ‘Mom, where are we at? And I said, ‘We’re at College of the Canyons.’ She was like, ‘I want to go to college.’”