Philosophy
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.”
The needs of the 21st century are larger than the human resources to fill those needs. Many of the people who have the potential to solve problems, find cures, and develop new technologies are not being given the opportunities to develop skill sets to operate in those fields. Low income people of color are often left out of the conversation about science. Furthermore, efforts to help people of low income are often designed to provide for their care without making them care takers. Solutions are being provided without understanding the nature of the problem.
Our organization seeks to make low income students leaders in technology rather than contemporaries. It has been observed that necessity is the mother of invention. Our students have the highest degree of need. We, as educators, want to be bridges from socio-economic problems to help students be the solutions to the problems of their communities. The solutions they create for their communities will become scalable to a global level.
Yet, teaching children in low-income areas is challenging. The schools that service these children are over-crowded and under-sourced. Students come from home environments that are apathetic towards education if not antithetic. Students deal with academic and cultural illiteracy, hunger, abuse and crime. It may seem that these challenges are greater than our hopes for our students.
The purpose of the Apollo Program is to be a network of Science educators and administrators who are familiar with the problems in low-income environments, and who are devoted to setting policy that will prepare our students to provide solutions, support, and innovation in the 21st century. Our students should also be able to use their skills to solve problems in low income areas. We seek to go beyond competence and achieve supremacy.
We will do this by cooperative problem solving. Sharing our experience and solutions to make a difficult task more effective and efficient. We will create a specialized set of best practices that will transform Science education in low income communities and as a result, transform the communities themselves.
