STEAM & Dream, a program created by the Milky Way Tech Hub that prepares BIPOC students for careers in STEM fields, recently launched a national city tour to Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago and Phoenix.
The Milky Way Tech Hub is a Milwaukee group founded by Nadiyah Johnson to support community, entrepreneurship and science, technology, arts and math (STEAM) education. It developed STEAM & Dream in partnership with American Family Insurance and Connect Business Consulting.
Madison-based American Family Insurance provided a $50,000 donation to help start STEAM & Dream in 2019. The group operates out of Sherman Phoenix, a community-focused space located in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood that houses about 30 businesses largely owned by Black entrepreneurs.
STEAM & Dream’s national tour hosts “summits” at cities that include programming ranging from the fundamentals of coding to a venture capital academy for students. It will conclude with the final summit in Phoenix in October.
The venture capital academy teaches students venture capital basics like how to invest and what term sheets and valuations are. It is intended to provide investment education not usually found at the middle and high school levels in the U.S., Johnson said.
Academy cohorts usually last four weeks and conclude with students pitching business ideas to judges like venture capitalist Rashaun Williams for the chance to win $1,000, Johnson said. Past students have pitched ideas like an e-commerce bookstore that helps youth get into reading and a way to create bags out of recycled items.
“VC academy is really a great example of what it looks like for corporate and community partnerships to amplify and accelerate community in a direction where tech is headed,” Johnson said.
Johnson said local investors are following American Family’s lead in supporting tech and innovation hubs, including Northwestern Mutual and Milwaukee Tool who joined the Milky Way Tech Hub as corporate partners.
JoAnne Sabir, co-developer of Sherman Phoenix and inclusive excellence adviser at American Family Insurance, has played a key role in connecting the Milky Way Tech Hub with people like Williams to enhance the STEAM & Dream national tour, Johnson said.
Sabir said that while STEAM & Dream and its national summits are designed to increase participation in science fields, they also work to provide students with a holistic learning experience.
“We’re not just focused on some of the practical applications of science but really looking at the whole child, the whole entrepreneur, and the ecosystem in which they live to endeavor to solve and provide support in areas that may currently be challenged,” Sabir said.
That approach includes mentorship, coaching, yoga and how to think about financial literacy, Sabir said.
STEAM & Dream hopes the national tour will lead to permanent investments in the cities the program visits.
“AmFam is taking that investment model to these different places in Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix and hopefully not just hosting the summit in these locations but also finding ways to continue to invest in similar community spaces and replicating the model we’re building here in Milwaukee,” Johnson said.
The Atlanta summit ended on May 14. The tour will now move to Milwaukee for a summit on July 30 followed by Chicago and then Phoenix.
