A Donation for STEM NOLA
Boeing has given a $1 million dollar donation to STEM NOLA’s new project the New Orleans East science education building. The $15 million project is headed by Calvin Mackie who is STEM NOLA’s founder and CEO. 
STEM NOLA was founded in 2013 and has expanded since its beginning in Mackie’s, a former engineering professor at Tulane University, garage. Mackie began the program with $100,000 of his own money. Since then, there have been several who have made donations to help the project grow and run. In fact, the US Department of Defense has granted $2.79 million so that the group can reach students across the Gulf Shore that are military connected.
The group now reaches kids from all around the New Orleans metro area providing them with weekly science tutorials. The groups will meet virtually, at parks in the area or during and after school programming. So far, the program has helped 125,000 students since its conception.
“We have to get our kids tinkering, building stuff with their hands, critically thinking, asking why it worked, why it didn’t work….. that’s gonna give rise to the mindsets and skills that are needed in the 21st century,” Mackie said.
The new science building will be built on property that was given to the STEM (acronym for science, technology, engineering and math by Oschner Health. The building will house classroom space and tons of up-to-date technology. So far STEM NOLA has not set a date for the groundbreaking.
So far, along with the $1 million from Boeing, the STEM group has been given $1.25 million from WK Kellogg Foundation, $1 million in CARES Act omey and $2 million in state capital outlay funding. The funds given from Boeing has helped with starting the process of fundraising for the building.
“For the children of New Orleans to have access to this type of space, and the type of equipment and this type of technology hopefully from cradle to career. I think we could change the trajectory of many families, if not the community,” says Mackie.