The Forge has hired Imani Mitchell as its first Education Coordinator, a step toward growing programs serving youth. The organization has been contracted as the program delivery agent for a National Science Foundation grant.
Imani’s focus will be developing the Forge’s youth programming offerings and partnerships, starting with the NSF-sponsored study, titled African American Young Women in Making to Engage in STEM and Entrepreneurship (AAMASE). Ken Rafanan, a Forge member and a researcher at TERC, a math and science education and research nonprofit, is the principal investigator for the research study.
Places like the Forge Greensboro give youth the autonomy to create and make on their own. It allows them to make “mistakes” in a safe place and recognize that a mistake only brings them one step closer to meeting their goal
— Imani Mitchell, Human Development and Family Studies Alum