UPFRONT
Dzijeme Ntumi (front) and students and teachers from last summer’s group gather for a field trip in Portsmouth that included a boat tour of a new dry dock being built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to learn from the lead engineer overseeing the project.
STEAM Power
THE DINAH WHIPPLE STEAM ACADEMY GIVES STUDENTS AN EXPLORATION OF PRE-ENGINEERING AND THE BLACK EXPERIENCE
D
inah Whipple founded New Hampshire’s first school for Black children in Portsmouth circa 1806. While the formerly enslaved Granite State native became a leader in the community and advocate for education, she was also an inspiration for future generations, including the
n BY EMILY HEIDT 10 603Diversity.com | August 2022
Dinah Whipple STEAM Academy (DWSA). The immersive educational program explores science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STEAM), as well as the Black experience. “The goal of this program is to help funnel underrepresented demographics into the STEAM orbit so they can see firsthand what they can be,” says DWSA program lead instructor and curriculum
designer, Dzijeme Ntumi. “By partnering with the University of New Hampshire (UNH), we are able to start kids at 12 or 13 years old and take them through high school. Students learn about basic engineering principles and disciplines by completing a variety of hands-on activities like building their own windmill or creating a scale model of the Three Gorges Dam, which grades 7-10 will be able to
