One girl’s social transformation via Verizon Innovative Learning

Initially, Cora Joyce “C.J.” Parker didn’t want to attend Verizon Innovative Learning. “It took a little convincing because I’m not really a social person,” she says, peering through boxy black glasses. The seventh grader is busy snapping wires and sensors together from a littleBits program.

Her dad, Mitchell Parker, wasn’t about to let his daughter off the hook without offering a bit of wisdom. “I told her this program would only help her in the future,” Mitchell shares, before taking C.J. home for the day. He cited the program’s focus on technology and science, two subjects the A-student really loves. Reluctantly, C.J. agreed to give Verizon Innovative Learning a try, but with one caveat. “If this doesn't work out, I'm leaving,” she recalls telling her father.

When C.J. arrived at the three-week program held at Roane State Community College’s Cumberland campus, nestled in the rolling hills surrounding Crossville, Tennessee, she immediately made friends. The girls clicked with C.J.’s interests and shared her sense of humor. “You could have this really, really girly girl and this super tomboy girl,” she says, enthusiastically describing her fellow participants, “and they could bond over their love for math or their love for building.”

C.J. cleans up a model puppy created in the 3D printer lab. (Photos: Michael J. LeBrecht II)

Being bullied at school

Verizon Innovative Learning knows this is a crucial time to reach girls. One of the program’s goals is to connect middle school girls in under-resourced communities to new opportunities and bridge the gender gap, by nurturing their love of STEM. Studies show that middle school is when kids give up on STEM if their interest isn’t encouraged. Verizon Innovative Learning is combating that by providing hands-on STEM learning experiences with cutting edge technology such as devices, 3D printing and augmented and virtual reality.

Also, program director Holly Hanson uses Verizon connections, and some from her time in the aerospace industry, to introduce the girls to engineering professors, NASA employees and founders of tech start-ups.

For C.J.—who already looks like the animator, editor and voice actor she aspires to become with her short jet-black hair and ripped black jeans—Verizon Innovative Learning has been transformative. When she came to the program last summer, she says she was at the bottom of the social hierarchy at school. Her father, an attentive man with a bushy beard whose love for his daughter shines bright, reveals that C.J. had become reserved because she was getting bullied at school. “They’ll make fun of her because she’s smart,” he says, but thanks to the confidence she gained in the program, “the way she's presenting herself, the way she's addressing people” has changed.

C.J., Emily Cooper (center) and Morgan Parsons head to class. (Photos: Michael J. LeBrecht II)

Learning to rock public speaking

The change is evident as C.J. walks down the sun-drenched halls at Roane State on her way to design coding class. She laughs with friends. She appears confident and happy, at home in her skin. The 12-year-old credits some of her new vibe to learning presentation skills for the program’s final project. The girls team up to create an invention or solution to address one of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals and present it to everyone, including their parents. Prior to improving her public speaking, C.J. mumbled during demonstrations.

She’s from a rural area where it’s quiet and “almost nobody in Jamestown talks loud,” she says, but “dang, did [the teacher] get into our skulls that we could not mumble. When I talked, I did not turn my head away. I kept eye contact and I made sure they understood what I said.”