
By Tinesia Conwright, Founder & Executive Director, DETOUR Empowers
DETOUR has partnered with Our Genetic Legacy for an inaugural “Thrive Outside” trip to Africa this November for a group of local girls interested in STEM fields.
This weeklong trip will focus on learning about drones and using advanced geospatial technology to map historical sites significant in the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) histories. Our Genetic Legacy creates projects like this to help expose and publish lost family legacies of BIPOC Americans in order to diversify, correct, and expand the current history of America to include all Americans.
The youth will become digital historic preservationists as licensed drone pilots to help identify and tell culturally relevant stories.
“Taking the girls on this trip and exposing them to their history is an important piece of helping them understand their identity and strengthen their self-confidence and self-esteem,” said Tinesia Conwright, Founder and Director of DETOUR. “This drone pilot certification program teaches high school girls from ethnically diverse low-income communities to build, repair, and fly drones, which is how we expose our girls to priority-sector career STEM fields paying livable wages.”
DETOUR, which stands for Depositing Empowerment Through Outreach and Urban Renewal, is a local nonprofit organization in southeast San Diego that has supported hundreds of teen girls of color for over 14 years. Their mission is to increase access to education and employment opportunities for girls through their Focused And Naturally Confident Youth (FANCY) leadership programs.
Their evidence-based curriculum includes lessons on:
- Confidence-building
- Personal growth
- Leadership skills
- Accountability
- Workforce development
- Self-awareness
- Social and emotional learning skills
- Team building
- and more
To Learn more about DETOUR and this life-changing trip to Africa, visit: www.detourempowers.org