The PATHS BIPOC STEM Storytelling Program supports approximately eight participants — including high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and professionals — in a heterogeneous, scaffolded cohort per year in developing digital narratives that address personal struggles, triumphs, and sources of purpose. Participants use multi-modal knowledge production approaches and learn media production tools to create digital stories.

Our model of STEM storytelling is culturally sustaining and empowering for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) participants. Our goal is to uplift BIPOC voices, foster visions for change, and promote BIPOC leadership within STEM pathways. Our storytelling model builds on 20+ years of sustained commitments to knowledge co-production with BIPOC populations, research and documentation, and archival development. We create video products with participants through a labor-intensive co-production process.

Sessions include: reflective writing, visual mapping, script development, storyboarding, basic photography and videography, audio recording, and video editing. In addition, participants will partake in storytelling circles, discuss issues of importance related to engineering education and careers, and interact with industry partners.

Participants work closely with the Digital Storytelling in Asian American Studies Team supervised by Dr. Shirley Tang at UMass Boston which provides expertise, mentoring, support, and guidance to all participants throughout the co-production process. The Digital Storytelling in Asian American Studies Team members include Ammany Ty, Kim Soun Ty, Nia Duong, Asa Peters, Ivy Bui and Parmita Gurung. For more information about Dr. Tang’s Digital Storytelling Lab, see: https://www.umb.edu/directory/shirleytang/