Althea Ganaway is a program manager with the Additive Manufacturing Program in the Ideation Station at Cuyahoga Community College. She holds four degrees and is investigating a fifth on her quest to be one of the nation’s 500 African-American women architects.
“STEM is everywhere around us.”
What is Your Educational Background?
I actually have four degrees, two undergrad from Kent, one in history and one in architecture.
And then I also have two masters degrees from Cleveland State, one in history and one in urban planning, design and development. And then for the additive manufacturing portion, I actually hold the Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals Certificate given out by ESAME.
And I’m going to look into getting my PHD, probably in urban studies and then another in order to be a registered architect. And just because I like to do milestones, there’s only 500 black women in the United States that are registered architects.
What does STEM mean to you?
So when I think of STEM, it means everything to me. Sometimes people try to limit it and put it in this little box and say it only applies to engineering…It applies to people who are in any type of field that requires math or science. And that’s not necessarily true.
What about a person who’s into arts that wants to do it a different way? They want to 3D print their art? For me, STEM just means that we are looking at how we collaborate multiple different subjects and how those all work together and how we integrate them, so it’s not about one thing in one area, it’s about how we take everything that we do. Because at this point what isn’t run by a computer? I mean, think of all the apps on your phone, call your house, close your windows. I mean, what can’t you do?
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