Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine LeFlore.
Hi Jasmine, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up in Flint, MI, As a very inquisitive kid and a constant tinkerer, I remember looking up to the sky asking my mom, “what’s keeping planes in the air”. Instead of giving me the answer (which she probably didn’t know), she just said, “maybe one day you’ll have a job where you’ll know how to answer that question”. She worked in early childhood development so I like to think she was just using all these test cases on me when I was growing up. I soon connected the dots on a college tour in the 9th grade that becoming an aerospace engineer would be the career for me to learn about planes. And then, I went to learn how to get on that path by involving myself in any and everything (such as FIRST Robotics, a pre-college engineering program, an engineering graphics class and an internship) so I could to secure my identity as an engineer.
Also at a young age, I often remember my family referring to me as “the puzzle wizard” or “jazz-o-matic”. I did a lot of puzzles with my grandmother and was always making games, doing arts and crafts or taking things apart and building them. My kindergarten teacher realized I was really smart but she noticed I never actually rose my hand to speak. Instead, I would whisper the answer to my friends and they would answer the questions. She told my mom to put me in some activities to get me out of my shell. I soon was in multiple activities at once that set the trajectory for how I kept pace with a lot of things at once. I was in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop classes, church choir, modeling and them some.
My granddad was a navy guy, he always had these little sayings. Two, in particular, I always held true was “Don’t complain about anything you can change”, and “A winner never did quit, and a quitter never did win”. Those words, along with my gained inquisitive thinking and them telling me I could accomplish anything, made me think I actually could.
My parents divorced when I was nine. Everything changed about my life changed after that. I went to a new school and had far and few visits with my dad. The financial stability of our home suffered to the point where my mom and I were evicted several times and we even lived in a women’s shelter for a while. Around this time, I just yearned for a life with normalcy. Learning about how planes worked wasn’t only just a childhood question to answer, it also meant financial stability to create a life I could control and be proud of.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There’s obstacles in both how I got into my engineering career and starting my organization. I was discouraged multiple times from pursuing my career path. It was almost as if as soon I was going into the real world (a.ka. going to college), that’s when I felt the doubt. In Flint, MI I was a big fish in a little pod, and my family made me feel like I could accomplish anything along with the grades and the extracurriculars to match.
Since the 9th grade, I wanted to become an aerospace engineer. I went on a college tour to the University of Michigan (U of M) and after I saw the wind tunnel area in the aero department, I knew that aerospace was what I wanted to do, and U of M was where I wanted to go. Coming from an inner city school in Flint, Mi with a subpar curriculum, I felt I was not the most qualified applicant. However, I applied anyway. Unfortunately, I didn’t get in, but who was I kidding? This was the number 1 aerospace school in the country. Although I did not get into the College of Engineering, I was accepted into the College of Literature, Science and Arts. By then admission counselor told me to attempt a cross campus transfer. However, when I got to the University of Michigan, I had to do a summer bridge program – where I took supplemental classes because U of M didn’t think my high school prepared me enough. My then-college advisor told me I’d never get into engineering since my ACT score was low, I came from a bad school and I was black and female. She essentially told me I should get a degree in general studies and have fun. I told her I rather flunk out trying to achieve a goal I wanted before I got a degree in something I had no interest in.
Unfortunately, this cross campus transfer took about three years to complete. I was not doing well in classes, I was working two jobs, sending money to my mom and my brother and ultimately, not having fun. I felt like I was wasting so much time trying to do something that just simply did not seem attainable. Naturally, I was questioning if studying to be an engineer was worth the risk. I was destined to find out, so I spoke to the department chair of the aerospace program about wanting to transfer and he told me to just take an aerospace class and see how I did. But I wasn’t doing well in the classes, I was still over my head trying to balance everything. On top of my external responsibilities, I experienced tragic loss when my mom unexpectedly passed away my junior year of college. A month later my grandfather passed away, followed by my grandmother eight days later. This was the worst thing that ever happened to me. But what was I going to do, just drop out? As the first person in my family to go away to school, they were proud of me for making it this far. At this point, I put all my emotion and pain into my schooling and keeping busy helped me cope.
I snuck into an invite only event to get my first engineering job. I spent the beginning years of my career feeling like I wasn’t meant to be in the work environment I was in. Partly because I felt that I didn’t technically meet the standards to get in, but partly because it seemed like people were so interested in me because I was different and I was trying to stay under the radar. I would get questions on why I was working so hard and internally I was thinking because I’m technically not supposed to be here. I finally stopped feeling like an imposter about a year ago when I realized my adversities are what has carried me to be so successful. I’m finally at the point where I am realizing my adversities are contributors to my greatest strengths, and I no longer am afraid to stand out.
With starting the nonprofit, there were naysayers as well, mostly because people thought I was just making another STEM program. Also, some people didn’t see the value in teaching business concepts to kids. I realized it was a disconnect to most people who didn’t have a business mindset, which made me have to do a better job at sifting through the people to ask for advice from.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Nonprofit – Greater Than Tech. I co-founded Greater Than Tech (GTT), a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating the next technology business leaders of the future by teaching girls of color the intersectionality of engineering and business.
I teach engineering entrepreneurship education to middle and high school underserved students with a specialization in middle school girls of color. My goal is for underserved students to know they can define their own path in tech, meaning they can learn to code and become an engineer AND use that same skillset to start a business.
GTT instills the importance of self-efficacy, teamwork, and an entrepreneurial mindset in all our STEM programming. Students learn the engineering design process and a high-level version of the business model canvas. At the end of each program, there is always a Demo of the tech the students created, as well as a business pitch.
I believe what holds the key to a child’s potential is their confidence, and what breeds confidence is exposure. I feel that exposure at a young age is so important because it can lead you to certain paths in life. What you don’t know is what you don’t know and if you never really knew what engineering was or what entrepreneurship was then you probably wouldn’t learn about it until your adult life. The opportunities I had as a kid really shaped my interests.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Technology is and will continue to be the future. I aim to make the tech industry more equitable and accessible for underserved students. Not to mention, there is this burst of entrepreneurial energy from the younger generation and I want to capture it and apply it to tech. As technology keeps advancing, I think it’s more important than ever to give underserved students the tools to use STEM to bring their ideas to life. There are various emerging technologies that do not yet have a well-established educational pathway so I want to expose these students to state-of-the-art technologies to not only help bridge the digital divide but also give them the opportunity to build their novel ideas into a level playing field.
On top of that, I think the educational landscape is changing. I have a dual master’s in engineering and business and a degree in aerospace engineering but I think experiential learning will become the standard of higher education in the future.
Contact Info:
- Email: jasmine@greaterthantech.org
- Website: www.greaterthantech.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthantech.sd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greaterthantech
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/greaterthantech
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuuCz5NCEmbOad8VrK3IznA
