Calvin Mackie: Steering Kids Into STEM Careers

Calvin Mackie, 57, grew up in a house with no books in New Orleans’ working class Lower 7th Ward. But when he was 9, he built a working car from an Erector set his uncle gave him.

“My uncle jumped up and said, ‘That boy’s going to be an engineer!’ ” Mackie says. “I didn’t know what that was — I never met one — but from that point in my life, whenever somebody asked me what I was going to be, I said I was going to be an engineer.”

The experience planted a seed, and despite many obstacles, Mackie earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996, one of just 11 African Americans to receive the degree that year. The lack of people of color in the field has bothered him.

When his own 9-year-old son came home from school one day and said he didn’t like science, Mackie started spending Saturdays with him in the garage, conducting experiments and building things. “Before you know it, kids from all over the neighborhood were coming into the garage,” he says. “I realized that we were doing something that was really helping them. The question became: How do we get this to the larger community?”

Filling a workforce shortfall

That’s how Mackie came up with the idea for STEM NOLA. Since it was founded in 2013, the nonprofit has brought STEM-based activities, programs and events to more than 160,000 students. Mostly underserved and low-income kids get an interactive, hands-on learning experience that allows them to deepen their knowledge in science, technology, engineering and math. It also helps them gain confidence in their abilities and chart a course for pursuing a career in STEM fields.

The need for more scientists and engineers has never been greater, Mackie says. “For the last 20 years, the number of engineers we have been producing in the U.S. has flatlined, if not declined,” he says. “But the possibilities for careers in these areas have been increasing by up to 30 percent a year. We are not producing enough people with STEM backgrounds to satisfy the needs of society generally, but importantly for the nation’s defense.”

Mackie says he believes that breaking down historic barriers of race and gender in STEM fields is essential to meeting the demand. “When you look at the number of African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos and women going into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, we’re not seeing the rate required to get the numbers that we need,” he says. 

Widening its reach

STEM NOLA sponsors a variety of programs, including advanced immersion camps and school-based activities. It organizes STEM Saturdays, when volunteers in technical, engineering and medical fields teach children and provide critical role models.