Forge News and Updates |
As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread and impact the lives of people here in Birmingham, we remain committed to serving our Forge members and their businesses. In order to do so in the most responsible way, we have made some changes to ensure a safe environment for our members to conduct business.
To minimize cross contamination, we are temporarily closing our kitchen and ask that all members refrain from using the kitchen, Forge mugs, dishes, silverware, serving utensils, refrigerator and microwave. We suggest that Forge members bring their own water bottles or mugs. We are no longer serving coffee, using our normal water dispensers or providing communal snacks. We ask that our members minimize the use of paper goods as they may be difficult to replace over the next few weeks.
As a staff we will regularly clean work surfaces. We will be following the CDC prescribed bleach cleaning solution on all work surfaces, chair backs, door handles and light switches. The Forge staff will wear single use disposable gloves while cleaning.
In order to promote social distancing, we are removing some of the chairs in our open work areas. We also encourage all meeting room bookings to adhere to suggested room capacity.
We ask that anyone who has traveled to a highly infected area or is experiencing (or has come in contact with a person who is experiencing) possible symptoms of COVID-19 to follow the CDC suggested two week self-quarantine- the CDC’s Travel Guidelines.
As recommended by the CDC, please wash your hands regularly and avoid touching your face. Your personal hygiene and recognition and action regarding symptoms not only impacts you but also those around you.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. We know that small businesses will be impacted during this outbreak, but we are taking every measure to help our members conduct business as usual.
Sincerely,
Kim Lee
Founder and CEO
Forge News and Updates |
We’ve been daydreaming about all the fun we had at our International Women’s Day Celebration on March 6 at Forge. Mimosas, coffee, breakfast, door prizes, networking and goodie bags all made for a fun event! Forge member Kelsey Weeks documented the party- so all the photo credit goes to her.
Our panel consisted of:
Kitty Brown of White Arnold & Dowd, Dr. Adrienne Starks of STREAM Innovations and Kerry Schrader of Mixtroz.
Kitty is an attorney, mom of two and very involved in the Birmingham community through YWCA and Junior League.
Kerry is the CEO and Co-founder of Mixtroz, a business networking company that increases engagement and collects data. Kerry and her daughter closed a $1M round of funding, making them the 37th and 38th black females to ever close a $1M+ round of funding.
Adrienne is the Founder and CEO of STREAM Innovations who equips students from under-valued and under-served communities to explore and develop their passion for Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STREAM).
Our panelists shared stories of their career journey and the surprising twists they encountered along the way. Kim Lee, our panel moderator, also asked what our panelists think about the culture of women in business in Birmingham. Ashlee of Mixtroz shared a story of meeting with an investor who disrespected her and dismissed her in their initial meeting. After Ashlee was able to have an honest conversation with him, they are actually friends now! The investor apologized for mistreating her and grew from the mistake.
The transition from employee to entrepreneur was also a topic of conversation- along with how to balance being a full time working mom with young kids. We hope our panel inspired and encouraged fellow women from Birmingham! We loved celebrating the many achievements of women in our city and learning how we can support one another.
The first 100 attendees received goodie bags filled with items and coupons from women owned businesses around Birmingham. A huge thank you to all of the businesses who donated goodies and coupons for the attendee bags! Check them out below!
We ended the IWD event with a Mixtroz mixer! Attendees downloaded the Mixtroz app and answered a short questionnaire then everyone was divided into groups and provided prompts to get to know each other. People loved this portion of the event and were able to make new connections and friends through Mixtroz.
We are so thankful for our sponsors who made this event possible: Ashley Mac’s, Hightower Somerset Advisory, Gatehouse Law, Chase and Nourish Foods.
Member Spotlight |
Dr. Adrienne Starks of Stream Innovations works at Forge (Bham Now)
Bham Now recently wrote this story about Forge member Dr. Adrienne Starks of STREAM Innovations. Read on about the amazing work she is doing!
You can’t spend any time with Dr. Adrienne Starks without realizing she’s on a mission. Part of that mission is to help turn Birmingham’s young people on to the thrill of discovery. She’s doing that through STREAM Innovations, a nonprofit she founded in 2015 to bring science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math to students in her hometown of Fairfield and beyond.
Read on to find out how she’s making a difference here with STREAM and across the globe with a new ambassadorship.
1—Dr. Adrienne Starks was just named one of 125 IF/THEN ambassadors for women in STEM .
Getting selected for this ambassadorship is no small feat. This rockstar cohort of 125 women from across the country includes two women from Alabama, and Dr. Starks is one of them.
Before she came home to Alabama, she worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) doing cancer research comparing African American and European populations, and before that she did genetics research.
In her new role, she gets to represent Alabama and serve as a role model and source of inspiration for middle school girls.
Find out more about If/Then. Contact Dr. Starks at communication@streaminnovations.org about speaking engagements.
2—Why STREAM Innovations?
When I asked Dr. Starks what led her from doing cancer research at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) just outside DC to starting STREAM Innovations here in Birmingham, here’s what she said:
“Students in underrepresented or underserved communities don’t get the same level of expsoure that students in other places get. This includes Alabama as a whole, compared to what students on the East coast or West coasts get.
It’s important to see people who have the same passion you do. It gives young people courage to say ‘I’m gonna try something I’ve never seen anyone here do. That can take you places you’ve never imagined.”
Learn more about STREAM Innovations.
3—Science is the best travel plan.
Dr. Starks, as a triple minority in many spaces within the scientific community—meaning a woman, US-born and African American—discovered that science is the “best travel plan.”
For her, it’s been amazing to have the opportunity to network and develop collaborations with people anywhere around the world on the basis of shared passions. “You get to go to some of the most amazing conferences all over the world doing the thing you love.”
She loves helping to open doors to these types of opportunities to young people in the Birmingham area.
“Science removes a lot of barriers. Society tries to seprate us in a lot of ways – gender, class, race, exposure, what country we’re from. But if you have a paper in Nature, Science or another journal, your Southern drawl doesn’t matter.
Fellow scientists will look over accents, whether it’s a really heavy German, Nigerian, Dutch or Southern accent. They want to hear from you because you’re the person that came up with something they’re interested in. That’s the beauty of it, in my opinion.”
4—Dr. Starks’ journey from Fairfield into scientific spaces.
“I always wanted a microscope as a kid for Christmas. When I got a microscope, it gave me the opportunity to see something new, first from prepared slides, then from my own slides. From there, I did summer science programs at UAB. There weren’t a lot of people from Fairfield in my programs.
Once I did the first program, I knew there were other programs like this. I did a program just about every summer.
When I graduated from Fairfield, I went to Alabama A&M on a full scholarship. I have two younger siblings and wanted to make sure there was no issue for them scholarship-wise. Now my younger brother, who was always building with Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets is an architectural engineer, and my sister, who was always taking care of anyone who got hurt, is an RN.”
5—Dr. Starks’ nephew was the inspiration for STREAM Innovations.
“When I moved back to Birmingham in 2014, my nephew would say ‘auntie is a scientist.’
But one day when he was six, he questioned my credibility as a scientist because he never saw me at the bench; he only saw me at meetings.
So I went and bought a bunch of chemicals and put together a notebook for age appropriate experiments he could do with me. I was there to make sure he didn’t burn himself, but he was allowed to do things wrong. I wanted him to see real science is not perfect.
This turned into the prototype curriculum for STREAM. I pressed on him the importance of imagination, because imagination is a huge part of science.
That same nephew is now engulfed in space. He loves all things NASA, universe, planet.
So when he’s building Spaceships with Legos, I ask him what his spaceship needs to work. We play imaginary games where he has $1 million create what he thinks is necessary to put on the International Space Station. Then I look at it and ask “well, what about this, how will you eject from it, how will it connect to different things” and I send him back to add more pieces.”
6—Imagination is everything in science.
Dr. Starks is passionate about the importance of imagination, and indulging young people in the thing that sparks their interest. She gets great joy from doing this with her nephew—and now with the young people who are a part of STREAM Innovations.
“We start with students in the third grade, because we want to be able to throw a little bit of everything at them. The world they’ll be growing up in will be different. We want to help them be open to new things, to be creative and able to articulate ‘yes, I like this. No, I don’t like engineering (or whatever) and here’s why.’
I want to support kids in finding the things they love to do. The love of that first microscope carried me all the way to grad school and postdoc. That muscle memory I developed as a kid working with microscopes made it second nature to spend hours focusing. I don’t get frustrated, because I have the muscle memory to do the thing I love.”
7—STREAM Innovations helps young people think in new ways
“I run a nonprofit called STREAM innovations. We add Reading and Art to STEM because we wanted to show students what they could do with those as well. We combine disciplines and passions with whatever’s coming next in our world.
While I definitely try to connect careers to that, I also always try to leave a window open for students to think of things we’ve never seen before, by using technology or know-how of a particular industry to innovate for what we need next.
We intentionally partner with libraries and rec centers in underrepresented and underserved communities. Transportation to get to places like the McWane Center or UAB can be cost prohibitive.”
Here are some of the topics STREAM Innovations has done:
- Robotics and tech.
- Plants and agriculture, germination and hydroponics.
- How we power our world: solar, wind, water, electricity.
- How the human body works: where are the organs and what do they do?
- Bridge building competition.
- Physics with Lego derby challenges: kids build a lego car and race it multiple times on a 38-foot ramp.
This last one really caught my attention because my kids have done the Pinewood Derby at Cub Scouts. What’s cool about the Lego derby challenge is that they get to understand the physics behind why their car is dragging behind or winning, and they can continue to rebuild and race as much as they like. A true scientific process.
8—Who teaches at STREAM Innovations?
“We call our instructors Champions because they serve as a ‘champion’ for their success. We have a mix of volunteers and paid staff. Many are from local companies, and some are individuals who want to support students to learn something new.
We encourage the champions to support with a ‘hands-off’ approach so they have the opportunity to fail safely and delight in the process of figuring out how to get it right.”
9—STREAM Innovations runs three key programs.
Library after school programs
- 3rd-6th graders
- Open to anyone
- 3:30-4:30 one afternoon a week
- In previous years, June, July, August and September
- STREAM swag for students to take home (microscopes, Legos, cool things to inspire kids to keep learning)
Also, librarians pull books related to the topic and encourage parents and students to check them out.
STREAM Saturdays
- Saturdays, 9:30AM-1PM
- In previous years, June, July, August and September
- $50 fee per student
- Want to take as many as 100 kids
- From across Birmingham and Jefferson County
- Breakfast and lunch provided
- Yoga for mental and physical health
- 2-hour round robin to different stations
- STREAM swag (something connected to the topic)
Kids also get to take home whatever they were working on during their time there.
Previously, these programs operated in Ensley, West End, Inglenook and North Birmingham. STREAM is looking for new communities to serve.
Both the library and rec center programs were funded last year with a grant from UAB’s Community Health Innovation Award.
Coding bootcamps—6 week summer programs
1st year:
- Web design, with HTML, CSS, jQuery, JavaScript.
- Leadership development, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
- Friday field trips to local tech companies so they can see what it would look like to potentially work in a company or start your own company.
- Yoga.
2nd year:
- Python.
- App development.
- AI via Google AI kits.
3rd year:
- Computer Hardware repair.
- Comptia A+ Certification prep
The recent 3rd year graduates are eager to start a student-run business building off of their 3 years of computer and tech experience. STREAM Innovations is looking for people who would like to help them with this project.
To get in, rising 7th and 8th graders apply online.
All programs are open to anyone who would like to attend. Coding bootcamps draw kids from public school, private school and homeschoolers. Essays are required with applications to show genuine interest in coding.
STREAM is currently fundraising to run these three programs this year.
If you think STREAM Innovations is as awesome as I do after spending an hour with Dr. Adrienne Starks, and you want to learn more or get involved, we’ve got all the details for you right here:
STREAM Innovations
IF/THEN Initiative
STREAM Innovations is headquartered at Forge, a fabulous coworking space on the second floor of The Pizitz. Social entrepreneurs like Dr. Adrienne Starks get to create what they love in the company of other movers and shakers in a shared space that’s a cross between a library and a coffee shop. Schedule your tour today.
Social Media |
One Degree MMM is a full-service marketing firm that provides marketing strategy, services, and coaching for businesses, brands, and organizations. Forge member Jacqueline Jones of One Degree MMM wrote this blog post that we loved so much we wanted to share it with you too! Read on.
Social media is a neccessary yet complex aspect of running a business these days. Unfortunately, we’ve come to a place where we can’t simply overlook it. Keeping up with every social media platform’s changes can be extremely overwhelming when you aren’t a marketer by trade. Even if you choose to outsource your social media management, like many do, it can yield minimal results if your content manager isn’t keeping up.
It’s best to simply to stick to what you know best, you.
RULES CHANGE. YOU SHOULDN’T.
Normally platform changes are rooted in some discovery of people acting more like bots and less like humans. It’s important to do the foundational work of defining and developing your brand’s tone, voice and persona. Doing so will allow you to maintain consistency in your content. That consistency in your message will save you from having to worry about the latest changes because your relationship with your audience is authentic.
LET YOUR COMPLEXITIES SHOW.
Not only do algorthim rules change, features come and go. Do yourself a favor and don’t overthink the use of new features. If you want to try it and it makes sense for your brand and audience, do it.
If it works for you, awesome! If it doesn’t work, you tried.
AVOID TOO MUCH 3RD PARTY INTERACTION.
Outsourcing management of your platforms is not the 3rd party I’m referring to. I’m talking about the platforms that do things on your behalf to fake authentic engagement. The truth is, no matter how “normal” you try to make the fake comments look, it’s obvious that they are fake.
Again, authenticity is the easiest way to elude being affected by the every changing aspects of social.
It’s easier said than done to be totally engaged in your audience regularly and authentically. But, it’s what we choose when we desire to give our audience attention as a means to grow a loyal and engaged tribe.
One Degree MMM is always dishing out excellent marketing advice on her blog and across her social media accounts! Check out her Instagram here.
