From Parent to Partner: A BGDE Parent’s Perspective on STEM and Tech

What does it look like when a parent becomes a true partner in their child’s STEM journey?

In this episode, BGDE founder and CEO Kara Branch sits down with Tiffany, a BGDE parent and leader in digital transformation, learning, and technology, to talk about the real impact of early STEM exposure—from both a professional and personal perspective.

Tiffany shares how she discovered Black Girls Do Engineer, what stood out about the programming, and how she has seen her child grow in confidence, skills, and curiosity. With her unique lens as both a parent and industry leader, she also breaks down why preparing children early for the future of work—especially in STEM—is no longer optional.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that when families are informed, engaged, and supported, children are better positioned to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

In addition to her work in tech and as a BGDE parent, Tiffany is also a new author featured in Femme Led: Hard-Learned Lessons on Leadership, released March 24. She contributes Chapter 13, “The Power of Saying Yes,” where she shares insights on leadership, growth, and opportunity.
📖 Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/Femme-Led-Hard-Learned-Lessons-Leadership/dp/B0GS197RGS/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

🎧 Tune in for a conversation about parenting, preparation, and building pathways for the next generation of STEM leaders.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Welcome back to Black Girls 2 Engineer podcast. I'm Camera Branch, chemical engineer and founder and CEO of Black Girls 2 Engineer. Today's episode is a session one because we're centering a voice that matters deeply in this work. The parents' perspective. I'm joined by Tiffany, a BGDE parent and a leader working in digital transformation, learning, and technology. Her perspective is powerful because it bridges what's happening in industry with what families are experiencing at home. This conversation is about what it looks like to move from being a parent who's searching for opportunity to becoming a true partner in your child's film journey. If you're a parent wondering how to support your child and film, this episode is for you. So, Tiffany, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Welcome. Hi. Happy to talk to you and be here with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

I am so happy to have you. Most definitely from your industry perspective, but also being an amazing parent. We'll talk all about it. You are a consistent parent. Y'all hold me down. I would not be doing this without my parents. And so today, for my listeners, we are we are getting that chance to talk to one of our amazing parents. But also, I love the fact that our parents are in these industries. They know the importance of being in this space as well as their kids' growth for this space. So I'm happy to get into this conversation. Yes, me. I am too. Thank you. So introduce yourself to the world, Tiffany. Tell us about who you are, the work that you do in digital transformation and learning. Sure. And who you are also as a Black Girls Do Engineer parent.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yes. I will start with the Black Girls Do Engineering Parent because that's what I'm obviously most proud of with my kids. I have twin nine-year-olds, and my daughter has been coming to the program for over a year. I like I'm trying to think of, I think it was in August, not last August, but maybe the August before. So we're like almost a year and a half, or maybe a year and a half into attending events. And then Carr, you so wonderfully started inviting the boys. So my son attended the first event in December, which he had a he honestly had a really good time. He's coming next week for situational the 21st of February to the designing the shoe event, which he's super excited about as well. Just really excited to support this event. A little bit about me. I am a almost 25 years of been working. And mainly, I had to think about this mainly in some sort of technical-facing role and or department. So while I am not a BIP engineer or really like technical in terms of my education, I've been with aerospace companies, oil and gas companies, and largely working in their IT departments, or even if not, then aligned to something technical in the work that I do, which is where I am now working on a digital fluency curriculum for the oil and gas company.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

A lot to unpack just in that.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Because I've worked in all those industries. And so I definitely want to get into the day of day. Like just what it looks like. So digital transformation, I want to say most companies started talking about it. A little probably, I feel like before the pandemic. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people started wanting to make that transition over.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah. I think Microsoft really pushed it, right? Yeah. That's when I started hearing the term kind of 2019-ish was when I started to hear it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

And I remember being in industry and I knew it was needed, but I was always like, I have to see this happen. Because a lot of people had a lot of stuff on paper. Oh, yeah. A lot of people had data, but it wasn't clean or it wasn't just where it needed to be. So I want people to understand that the work that Tiffany does is very important and also very hard for companies in the industry. So tell us a little bit about what your day-to-day looks like.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

My day-to-day is really about building out fluency for the company that I work for. So building out fluency curriculum, building out a digital fluency curriculum for the company that I work for. I have been with them for now almost two years. And really, I have just an amazing manager. And they have, as part of their purpose and intention right now, is to build out this really robust curriculum. And I went in and she said, I have these kinds of ideas, but you're the expert. And so take it for what it is, and you build something from what we've been talking about. We do use LinkedIn learning courses to build out that, to build out that curriculum. And that's just been a fascinating rabbit hole that I've had to like go down for the last almost two years with this. We are talking about things like intelligent automation, artificial intelligence, security and cloud, and then even some of the surrounding behaviors around these technologies, like agile and continuous improvement, change readiness is also being added to the curriculum as well. And then even now, most recently, more specific technologies such as Egypti AI. So it's just been really interesting of finding these nuggets. And like really, that's my job is to find the nuggets of content that will be most appealing to very busy professionals, organizing them in a way that will be that will resonate with them, where it's not too much over their head, but not really talking down, and or not even not talking down to them, so that it gives them information so that they can apply it to their day-to-day roles. And so that's what I really see as my job is to be the curator of this content in a way that allows them to do their jobs better.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yeah. So a lot of people think of content as just being content creators, they're in their lives, which is for us who like a scroll at night. That works for us too. But people don't think about the content behind curriculum, the teaching aspect of it. We do a lot of uh curriculum licensing and building. And that's so funny as an engineer, I would have never thought in a million years I would be writing curriculum. I do, I wrote a lot of technical articles, but never thought about the curriculum aspect, but the importance of it, because a lot of times curriculum is needed to not just build it out for your company, but to educate so many. Yes. As we are most definitely in this whole digital transformation and all these new technologies, it's like people are really in a learning stage. Yes. And so this curriculum is needed, most importantly. But then people don't also understand of like how you have to stay relevant when you're creating these curriculums, especially as about like how fast technology is moving. Yes. How is that going for you? I know you mentioned you're implementing like an AI all the important learning. Yes. Learning shout out to them, anybody who's looking to upskill. There's a lot of great learnings out there.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

There's a lot. There's and there's so much. When we first started out, it was six pathways. So everything is organized across a pathway, given the topics like security, agile and continuous improvement, immersive technologies was even one of. But again, as we but as we like, as I got to almost the end of last year, some of the topics were not even almost, not won't say relevant, but they have been updated since. And so now we're into this space of agentic AI, which is huge right now, because it's really taking the best of artificial intelligence, combining it with generative AI, and then creating workflows that employees can now get more stuff done with less of them, with less of their time being spent on doing those activities. So I personally think that at this time, and honestly, what companies even probably are considering and trying to better understand is how does this work within our workforce of trying to implement some of these technologies? Obviously, Microsoft is at the head of a lot of this stuff, particularly from a corporate perspective. But then you have OpenAI who's doing a lot of this as well. Even Google. Like Google, I was like, I used our my the instructional designer that I work with. She used several products from their suite of AI-driven tools to help even create some of the techno or some of the content in the curriculum. So it is really about trying to find the most up-to-date, most relevant event information. Because I work in a very unique industry, it's also how do you find content that will appeal to them? My learners, my the employees I address with my curriculum, they're not in healthcare. They might use a lot of this stuff in their personal day-to-day lives, which I think is which does help round out their curriculum because they can see it in their day-to-day. But again, when you're developing corporate curriculum, it's about how do I find content that will most appeal to them in terms of how they get work done. So that's even how we've even embellished the curriculum is that I'll be working on something I call digital boosters. So the digital boosters is take some of this content and then find more content and help them understand how they can really put it into action like right away. What I like about what I like about this time that we're in is that because it is moving so fast, I have a job. And then I can keep building on what this curriculum has to look like because that's really what it's about. In the beginning, it was like, we need some courses, we need to organize in these pathways, you decide how that looks and deliver it. And thankfully, I've been able to continue to say, hey, this is how we can improve. We've introduced a podcast as part of it. Because one of the things that we were hearing, and I saw even in the feedback from our foundation's course, was that they didn't understand how some of the actual current projects had these technologies in them. They're just thinking, oh, we're working on these projects that have the technical terms, but they don't realize that it's being driven by these various technologies, studies, digital technologies. So the podcast, which was brand new to the organization, the conceptually and even in action was very new. So we're talking to senior leaders of the organization who are leveraging these digital technologies and how they're doing that. We even started, I even added a piece which I love personally, are the digital bytes. So these are bite-sized learnings, six minutes or less, six of them for any particular pathway. And they're just supposed to give you a taste of what the topics could be that are in the curriculum. So it's been a really exciting, really fun experience. I also work with a really great instructional designer. And then I have just a really supportive leader who is who gives who trusts me to find the content. And she's getting so much positive feedback when the curriculum does go out because it is, I'm happy to say, that it is meeting the needs of the learner who's the employee.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Kudos to you, because that is very hard, especially with like instructural like learning and curriculum and learning management systems, all that. Yes. It's like making sure you get to the end user and that they're using it. But I used to do this role for a tech company around something like that. And our main thing was like, are they completing it? Like completion. Yes. That was our biggest thing. Like, yes. We can see you opened it, but are you completing that? Yes. So it's it's not an easy role to do, but it seems like you're doing great.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah, I like the bites. The bites are one of our most popular pieces. You think about it, if so, if I can tell a person, hey, you can complete real learning, and these are not like fluff courses, they're it's you can get a lot in three minutes. I say six minutes or less, but most of them are four minutes or less. And it's really hardy content that they can start to think about. Like obviously, it's not learning in the sense of, hey, they can take it and apply it, but it is something that says, hey, I need to know a little bit about some of these terms and these terms that I'm about to go into a meeting for. Let me take one of these courses to see what it was some of what I might hear and what the terms mean. So it really is, oh, let me get started. And we are seeing a correlation between people who are starting the bytes and then, or I'm sorry, complete the bites and then start the curriculum. Because you're right, Cari, like getting people to complete courses is the hardest part. But as a learner myself, I can I empathize with that. Like for all the courses that I've looked at in LinkedIn, I don't know, I probably completed 10% of them. So I've looked at 500 courses, which is not an exaggeration of the number of courses that I've looked at easily within LinkedIn over the last two years. I probably completed, and 10% is even 10% is even a higher number. It's probably 5% of the courses because they were they were that interesting, and I had to look through them all to really understand if all the content was what we were looking for. I understand. Work is busy, and so you're being tasked with 12 other things that need to get done, more importantly than learning. But I think it's been what I definitely hear from the learners is that it's worth the investment. And so that's what I'm most proud of is that when people do complete it and get through it, they do believe it's worth the investment of their time.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah, I agree with that. I'm I tell people I'm like a lifetime learner. Like, yes. My thing is if I could have stayed in school forever, me too.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Don't take me to U of H. I when I go to U of H, I'm like, why am I not here? I was like, but I had to tell myself they they don't really pay you salary to stay in school, so you have to go to work. I go to student, when I go to U of H's student union, I'm like, oh my gosh, I could what I would do if I was here. I see kids all young people in the in their phones and doing that complaining.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, we wish that we had the build-outs and the learning environment that they do, but I love to learn. These days I'm very intentional on my learning so I know where I want to get to. Yeah. But like when I even in industry, upskilling was a requirement for me. You have to stay fresh, you have to push yourself. I know it's not always easy to get those certs, but I tell people like in this time that we're in, you you really don't have a choice. And I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true. Technology, as you mentioned, is moving really fast from working in the industry. Like, I used to see us updating stuff like every two months. And I used to come like a man. Like, why are we updating this stuff all the time? But now, as I've been doing the work, like with the youth, it's moved really faster than that. I feel like our next two or three years is gonna be so different.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

And so it's not amazing to be like what I'm doing today probably does not work for the next uh the next generation.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Wow, it's when you feel like you've caught on to one thing, and then here's the next thing already taken off. The work you do, and I want people to understand the work that you do is so important and that they should be taking the time to do these learnings so that we can all stay equipped and employed. And I've lost when you say, I have a job because you do. We're in the wave of learning. Like people don't understand that they're gonna have to be learning a lot more, a lot of information. And so these roles, such as yours, is very important, yes, and needed. And I can't stress it enough. I know it's hard to do what you do, and I'm gonna keep saying that because I've been in the seat of creating content. As many of us know, that's why I love the bites. Like you have to pull the audience in very quickly to get them to do it. So get the bites from Tiffany and then get into the course. That's what I want our listeners to understand. Get into those courses and start upskilling yourself so that you can be prepared as we are in a huge shift when it comes to jobs, careers, learnings, and things like that. So, what they're worth is do you feel that most people are doing a lot around artificial intelligence, or is there other learnings that other people are diving into?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

I think the on the other side of artificial intelligence is security, cybersecurity. And I think honestly, the cybersecurity aspect of these technologies is what keeps them from learning about the technology itself because it's really scary if you don't have technologies that are recognizing the importance of keeping your information safe, where the information is stored, who can get access to the information. And so I feel like sometimes people are just then decided to go heads and head into the sand. I personally, when I was putting together the curriculum, the one that I thought was the coolest that I don't see a lot of people, at least in my organization, taking on is the immersive technologies one. So virtual reality, augmented reality. I was like, oh, this is super cool stuff. We've had a little some people diving into it. The security one is actually a really big one, as well as how the work around these technologies gets done in terms of the agile and continuous improvement, which I think is one of the really good signal from that is that it's it's telling people it's telling us that people want to recognize the behaviors that can get these technologies out quicker in a more streamlined fashion, or doing any kind of work in a more streamlined fashion. Because if your process takes six months to complete on a technology that started in January 1st, I assure you by January 30th or June 30th, yeah, you might be having a different conversation. You're not even talking about the same technology that you were on January 1st. I see that also as a positive signal that people are wanting to lean more into that.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, that's good to know. Like cybersecurity most definitely should be up there. Um we most definitely have to be safe with everything that we're doing online. I can't tell you how many times I talk to people or family and be like, don't pick that. Somebody calls, don't do that. Yes, you have to remain safe. So it's good to see that. I can tell you, like the youth love cybersecurity, they just love it, they're into it. Really? Yeah. Like I used to tell people when I used to do stuff around cybersecurity, like the youth would just get very excited. So I'm happy to see that's something that many of them are interested in. We had to transition it because they always think about just hacker. I'm like, hold on, it's more just hackers more. There's just like what they would like to understand. But I had to help their mind to understand like the thing beyond that. But they are really into it. So that's good to see.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Not just I think it's a fascinating field. I I in fact, it was so interesting because when I was putting that particular pathway together, it was something I sent my brother. I have a younger brother, and I was like, man, you should get trained up in this because again, like doctors, lawyers, uh, people in the food service area, like you have a lifetime job if you learn about these technologies and how to do this really well. And I think even more importantly, it's gonna be there forever.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Especially in the world, yes. But it's good to see that that was on the top that people are also learning new texts, but they also want to make sure they're safe and understand how to be safe. So it's good to hear like all of that is happening, especially around the space that you are doing. Another thing I want to get into is so you mentioned, so I know Tiffany amazing daughter and science because I worked with the both because I've seen him for a long time, but you mentioned a year and a half. So, what made you decide like to go into this space? I know you have your own experience with industries, and you're really huge and a big part of the learning community and making sure people are trained up so you know that importance. What made you really decide to really walk through Black Girls Engineer doors for that first time?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

I I will just I would first off by saying that what you presented was a no-brainer. Like, I remember, I like I don't remember what the first session was, but I was like, oh, 10 to 1 for$60 or whatever. I was like, sign me up. And then I passed it to her friends' parents and moms, and they said yes too. So that was all we had. Something that the girls could do together, but I my husband is an engineer, and honestly, one of the funniest stories is that they're always breaking stuff in my house, absolutely, and taking things apart and try and trying to put things back together. And my daughter is so curious. I she had her curiosity is like at a hundred. I it's so fascinating to me because when she does stuff, Cara, I promise you, I tell my husband, I'm like, those are your jeans. Because I can't take credit for any of it. Because I was such like a don't break it kind of person. I wasn't sure if I could put it back together. If it was broken, it was just gonna be broken. But my daughter is exactly the opposite. She will open the back of something and take things out and she can put it back together. So the interesting, like fascinating part is that her her disposition is that she is able to figure it out. When you're presenting things where that's exactly what they get to do and they get to do it with your stuff, sign me up. Sign me up. But even if you don't have a kid that's like that, because her brother is a little, they're twins, two people in the same womb, not the same two people. It's what I always like to tell people. He's a little bit less that way, but he's still very interested in it. And really most importantly, because of the work I do, because of the work that I've seen over the course of my career, I know that these are non-negotiable skills that they need, right? So I didn't grow up with engineers in my family. I grew up with sales, pharmaceutical sales, educators. My mom's did was insurance for a long time. So I just didn't see the I didn't see this in my life. So this is one of the things I love about living in Houston is that when you can take advantage of these types of opportunities for yourself or your kids, it's like easy. Like I said, it was a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

No, so it's so funny you said they break things. I've heard so many great stories around I you'll be surprised the calls I get. I have people call me and be like, My daughter's just mixing up all my stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

We have you have a future canvas in your home. Exactly. My daughter loves slime, she likes putting slime with baking soda or water or paint or whatever her like and she look she they and they both will come to me and be like, Mom, can we do baking soda with some vinegar and some water and this paint that and I'm like, what are y'all doing? So if you come into our house, if you come into our house right now, we have a floor, we have a room on the bottom, and the carpet is jacked. And it's because that has become our babysitters had to transition from putting stuff on the carpet to the stuff spilled on the carpet, and to now that we're just like, you know what, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah, we really understand. That's why I love that my husband Ricky is like leading black boys to engineer because that was him as a kid. Yeah. So we always like debate because we're very technical. Like he always says he was the engineer that put the stuff together, and like I'm the brains of the education part. And I we were mentioning that to the boys in our first event of how he started, so patterns that they could recognize. He used to take watches apart, that was his thing. Yeah. So when he's a little boy, he used to take the watches apart and put them back together. Wow. And so I don't know if there's guy just too yelling and putting the death. She probably was yelling at her home too. Yeah. Or she probably just thought it was adorable. I don't know, but that's his thing. And so we wanted the boys to understand that if you had those behaviors or if you find yourself doing those things, this may be a path that you want to consider. I was just a technical learner, that was my style. Only thing I was playing with as a kid was Barbie dolls. I'm sure. Really? Yeah, I played with Barbie dolls forever, but I probably had the best imagination and creative, great creative thinker for sure. Yeah, came with dolls, but and I collected them too. That was my thing. Yeah, and yeah, and so it made me into this creative thinker for sure. I can create anything, but my time to look for those signs. I have three daughters, all very different. And I don't know, I don't have to go see them. You might be in here, making up stuff and things like that. But I know my youngest, because they have so much technology, yeah. It's like the YouTube queen, like she learns so much. Yes and like she can tell you everything about everything. So they get a lot of those reading about everything from me. But let them let them break the time.

unknown 26:51

Put it back together.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

My parents taught us how to use the voice, the voice to text. Like, I never you we me and the parents, me and the moms always laugh about this because they have spelling tests every week, and we're like, it's great that they have these spelling tests, but then they never spell because they just yeah, they had it at their fingertips as they were small. So it makes I couldn't figure out how they figured it out so quickly. No, again, you know what it's like then you've been in training, like people want detailed instructions, step one, step two, step three. They literally would just pick up my phone and just start talking to it, and I would see the thing go. And I'm like, How did y'all they're like, why don't you just press this button? I'm like, Yeah, but the part about how you figured out that was the button and that's what it did.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah, they're very like that's why I love working with the youth. I tell people all of the time. Like they are brilliant, and I that's why I wrote an article just about like them being trained. Like, you have to make sure the right people are training them because that exposure is key. But if you don't do it the right way, the way that they need it to be done, they'll run away from it. Yes, because their minds are just these kids, it's just amazing, they know everything. I have my seven-year-old right now is like using support to figure out a Rubik's cube. And I was like, Oh, that's that. But this is the way that they are, they've had technology since they were babies. Yeah, so they recognize patterns, they recognize stuff so much more in advance than we were able to. Yeah, so let them do it. Like, just let them. I know it sucks when they're breaking stuff, but she's putting it back together.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

So she puts it back together, and they both do, and when they don't, then it I was like, it's a lesson in and of that's the lesson too, right? So it's and we started this when they were like just young. We are not one of those houses where it's like everything has to be pristine and its proper place and things like that. We recognized we had two kids at the same age, and so they were gonna eat rice and they were gonna play in the rice and do stuff with the rice, and then the rice was gonna end up on the ground and on the top counter, and that's what it was, and it wasn't our job to stop them from doing that. So we have really, excuse me, really worked on just like literally holding our hands and not jumping up or not yelling at them when water spills or when something happens because it's all fixable, it's all replaceable, they're not getting hurt about it, they're learning, they're figuring, like you said, they're making the patterns and making the connections, and so then when they do it again, it's usually it is usually quieter or cleaner or put back together if it did get put back together.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

They're scientists, yeah. And I love it. It's they're in curiosity phase, and many people we see that in our children, and we're so busy, so you're like, what is going on? But let them be in have that curiosity. That's it. Um it's better than them being on their tablets.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Like we as we as parents complain about the tablets, and I'm like, okay, if they're not on a tablet, they're probably gonna be into something. You want it to be you, and I understand, like, you don't want them making a mess with flour and sugar and 10 things in your kitchen, but sometimes that's what it is, and you have to just say yes to it and say, Okay, when you guys make a mess, we're all just gonna clean it up together. That's the statement.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Yes, I and we're most definitely like a STEM household, and we just live and breathe it, like it is what it is. My like my youngest, she just hops in and started like cracking eggs and stuff. I just say, okay, this is help for today because it is helped too, with all the stuff that you have to do. So I love that they're doing all of that at home, and as parents, you're allowing them to be freely themselves with their creativity, and that's where it starts. Many people don't know. And I'm happy you shared your story because many people see their children doing this, and they're like, What is going on? I know my friends are freaking out like when their children were mixing all their shampoos together. I get it, very expensive. They were like, Why are they mixing all my shampoos together? And I was just like, She's a chemist in a maker. That's right. But let them do that, and I'm happy that you've seen those trends, and we're interesting of us to be able to build upon that. That's why I love my parents. And so, what would you say to other parents who are seeing these things or might want to take a chance on a program like this, but they're not too sure. So, what kind of advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Do it, just do it. We've heard this term for 30 years now in our life. Just do it. It's it's not gonna hurt them, it's it will help them. So that's really the most important thing. And it gives them that exposure. They could be bringing things if they're not getting it at school, they could be bringing new ideas to their schools that teachers and administrators can hear. It could just be opening their minds. One of the things that I always say that I look around with the experience of my kids are like, wow, if I just had the experiences that you did, what where would I be today? And it's not to say that I didn't have exposure, but I did not have this type of exposure. Like it just barred up, I did not. And it wasn't because of finances or it wasn't because of where we were from a class perspective. It was just this these opportunities were not at least uh what available as far as we were aware, because my mom was always interested in getting us involved in things. But I don't know that 40, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, when I was my kid's age, if they knew what technology even meant back then. That's the part that we have to just acknowledge is that we're now in a new time. So it is important that kit your kids are getting exposed to these technologies as much as possible. So even if they are getting it at school, get them a little bit more on a Saturday as well. So that they're they're doubling up on it as well.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

One of my thingy and my teams uh was talking about this week was it takes a village. I think we have to get back to that. Yes, because a lot of time back then, I don't want to age us because we're not that old. We still taking a village meant like everyone coming together as a community on the street and helping with stepping in or helping where you may have been needing to go to the store and a neighbor comes over and take care of your children and help. You can help them in their growth any way that we can as a community. I think that still is needed, but I think it's like taking a next level when we say village. Because of how the world is evolving, it's more than just that care is most definitely from training and teaching, myself included. Like I come from an undersourced community, and education was my way out. But now that my children are more in a different environment than I've ever would have been as a child, and as my daughters in high school, they have so much more opportunity. There's so much that they're learning, so many clubs they're a part of that I didn't even know existed when I was in school. And so being able to place them in programming like this is that village. Yeah. So when you're feeling overwhelmed or you don't know what to do, when you see these great things in your children, but you're like, how do I help and support them? Programs like that is now that village. And so taking your kids and putting them in a Saturday program after school, whatever, to keep them growing. It's your village where you can go take some time for yourself. That's how I always tell my parents go have a great, go do and live your best life. Because, first of all, you all need that. I know as parents, we put a lot into our kids, but also it's because it's our turn to step in and take it from here and really support your children.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

I have done everything from brunch to walking to shopping, doing my grocery shopping. That's what I love to stay and sitting in in the quiet of my house for two hours. I am yes, the parents we get a lot of people who are like, I can't stay.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

And I tell them, I give them emotional support. Come on in here, take a picture, hug, whatever you need to do. I get it. I'm a mom. I get it. It is hard to leave your children with people. But at the same time, you need that time too for yourselves. And we want to be here to really nurture your kids and really do what we know how to do.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

You're a big part of that car. You, I what I do remember, particularly from the first time, is that you had such a tremendous support staff, and there was those nerves of like, where am I we? Okay, I know where I am. Okay, Greentown got it. But to walk in and they're a little bit nervous and they're looking for their friends, and they find their friends, but then your support staff was just like, We got you come back in a couple of hours. So it wasn't anything where I didn't feel safe, like I didn't feel like my kids weren't gonna be safe. We could not get in that door. I remember like you came after a certain time, you were knocked the old door. I take care of them.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Like, I tell people I take care of us if they're not phone. I let them, if they were in the middle of something, they need to hear mom or dad's voice, I'm picking up the phone. Yeah. If there's something they need to eat, I'm ordering. I like I just know how I want my kids to flip them in the space.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

And you remember that, or you may not remember, but I brought my niece was visiting from Egypt with my. I sure did remember. I was so excited. Yes. And and that was really special for us because you sent that out so far ahead that A, it allowed me to plan for it. So that was really important. And I remember when my sister and I were having the conversation about her kids, my niece and nephew coming to see with us. I said, man, I said I would just love for my niece to just be able to come to the event. It's so cool. They don't really have things like that where she lives in Egypt. So it was cool. And we're like, oh man, that's gonna be like four weeks. And we were trying to like do the timing, and then we just we were just I just bit the bullet. I went on ahead and got her ticket. I was like a worst case, so I else can take it. And she had the best time. She was so she was friendly, she wore the war, she wore that little uh gift certificate that day. I was like, look at her.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

We want to give them like the best time, so it's good to hear that we are doing that. Yes, especially as we're like in our new wave of things, we're really big on workforce training and because we feel like we've done exposure, but we're now like consistently working with the same girls. We're starting to see the boys too, like the boys are showing up. Who knows? The shout out to the boys, and for us, it's about we build the portfolio. Now it's like, how do we make sure that these kids are set up where they have all this under their belt and they go into the workforce and they are just ready, and so that's kind of where we're transitioned to. So it's good to hear that people are still like loving the vibe of where we are now, passport. And I'm excited too. We have a lot of great things, new things that's outside the box planned for them this year. So it's good to hear that we're doing our part and that our early correspondence is working. Shout out to the early correspondence to keep you all before you're able to plan out this.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

So I you are definitely a mom because you said, let me send this out before the end of the school year so that they can plan for August.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

I know, I know how busy parents are, how our kids are doing a ton of things. Yes, and so I just want to make sure people can plan accordingly.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

I was like, a mom definitely did this because it is most definitely.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

And then my daughters are in the room, and I tell people, I'm grateful to do it for other people's children outside of my own. Yeah, and so it's just been a lot of fun doing all that. So it's good to see that we're doing our part, having you give advice to parents to feel comfortable, whether it's our programming or finding the right programming that suits your child, but I can most definitely say they need to be in some type of STEM program. Absolutely. Because this is the world, this is what we are today. We think it's STEM learning education, especially for my parents. We have a lot of parents that like they don't know what that is, or they don't know where to start. Yeah, and so it can be a simple search in your internet engine. A lot of us are using resources like Chat GPT or whatever, put those questions in to try to get you some answers because I believe every child needs to be exposed at least once to this type of programming that can be life-changing. Yeah, so good to see. And you have consistently came back. So this is why I love my parents, like they consistently are a part of us, and I appreciate it because I get to watch your children grow up, yeah, and it becomes something beautiful. So I am so happy that we're doing our part, and thank you for your advice of parents. So, is there anything in particular before we wrap that George children just love? Like any activity in particular that they love for the programming.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

So they, you know, the one they really love the most, and they actually did something very similar to it then here recently for a tech project that they had was the one with the pizza box where they had to put the foil on. The solar oven. Yes, yes, the solar oven. So they retrofitted that idea. My daughter's project was create something that because her person was a mad, no, sorry, it was an educator, but she had to create something that could be used to help other people learn something. And then my son was another, was a scientist who helped with oh like signals and things like that. So he created this like box thing that had the had foil on it and it had a satellite on it. So they've taken some of the and it was just as, you know, one of the things that I like is it was just as basic as a box. And they knew what they saw, they knew, and they and I told them, I was like, yo, we don't have to be a part of this because that was the instructions from the teachers. Parents, you don't need to get really involved. So I tried to, we say we did say actually pretty hands-off, and then it was just really if they can explain it. So my daughter created a keyboard, she put, you know, letters on the keyboard little pieces, and that was her project. So I feel like it came through in a way where that they are now more confident in their ability to put put together these types of projects. And they when they said they didn't want our help, I was I literally, I was out of town. I called my husband, and I'm like, so you're just sitting on the couch? Like, they said they have it, and they did. It was I and then when I looked at other kids' projects, it was right there in alignment with what they were doing. I was like, this is awesome. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

They're great critical thinkers, yeah. They can take it anything and make something out of it. So I'm happy that they have that skill set. Yeah, yeah, the filler heaven is normally a hit. I think I know for my children when they get home and put the s'mores in there, it just rocked their world.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

They were like, Wow, this works. I stayed around my house for months. I was and I kept asking, I was like, Can I throw this away yet? And they were like, No, we still want to use it. I was like, Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

They were quick eating all their treats in there. Right. Okay. From that, they were able to continue to build on that. That is cool, and that is most definitely something that everybody right now is trying to do more of putting those satellites up there. So he is he's on to something great. So kudos to him. This has been great, Tiffany. Thank you so much for joining me.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Thank you for saying yes to my. I was like, I was excited to see the podcast start. I was like, I have a great topic for you.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Um I've had so much fun with this conversation and to see all the great work you're doing in industry and your consistency as a mom, but also with your STEM learning for your children and trusting us to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. And yes, I would just encourage all parents, and literally I do mean all parents. This is this type of learning is will be invaluable. It is absolutely invaluable, and they're gonna have fun. Absolutely. That's the best part. The fun doing it.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

So Tiffany's perspective is such an important reminder that preparing our children. Children for the future of them isn't something programs do alone. It's something families and communities deal together. When parents are informed, engaged, and supported, soon as show up with more confidence and clarity. If you're listening as a parent, know that you don't need all the answers. You just need access, partnership, and the willingness to support your child's curiosity. Thank you, Tiffany, for sharing your story. And thank you for listening to the Black Girls to Engineer podcast, where we build confidence, community, and futures in STEM. To learn more about Black Girls to Engineer, visit us on our website at www.blackgirlsdoengineer.org or email us directly at info at blackgirlsdoengineer.org.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

All the young thoughts on the world.