UC Davis Hosts Inaugural Ujima Day
On September 2, 40 Black/African American middle and high school students and 10 staff from across Northern California visited UC Davis for Ujima Day—the culmination of the first year of the Ujima Girls in Robotics Leadership (GIRL) Project.
The Ujima GIRL Project is a mentoring collective that aims to address the significant challenges of inclusion and equity for Black/African American middle school and high school girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Professor Harry Cheng's C-STEM Center, the program uses hands-on coding and robotics within a culturally-relevant environment to support Black girls’ development as leaders in STEM. Ujima Day at UC Davis is the annual capstone of the summer programming.
“Ujima Day is an opportunity for students to reunite, meet other Ujima girls from different cities, and learn about UC Davis and STEM research,” said Program Manager Marcella Grant.