Empowering Black Women in STEM through Dance

Empowering Black Women in STEM through Dance

Yamilée Toussaint grew up dancing and watching her father, a mechanical engineer, at work. She always loved mathematics and earned her undergraduate degree from MIT, where she was one of only two black women in her graduating class. While teaching in Brooklyn, she saw how young women of color believed that STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – was not for them. So in 2012, she created STEM From Dance, a nonprofit program where girls of color choreograph dances and incorporate STEM elements into their routines. Toussaint and her organization have empowered more than 2,000 girls across the United States.