All right.

Three, two, one. It is time for the MISSION Story Slam Podcast brought to you by PWP Video. I'm Michael Schweisheimer. I'm the executive producer at PWP Video, MISSION Story Slam, and I am a poll worker. It is not too late to sign up to work the polls for the May 19th Pennsylvania Primary. And one week before that primary, on Tuesday, May 12th, you will find me at Philadelphia's only certified B-court brewery, Triple Bottom Brewing, where I will be polling the audience at MISSION Story Slam 14. And the theme that night is going to be no judgment. Yes, ironically, there will be a panel of judges judging no judgment. We will muddle through. We're going to open the doors a little bit early this time, at 5.30, keeping stories at 7. We're including food with your tickets. So I do suggest getting there a bit on the early side. The PWP crew is a ravenous bunch, and they could put quite a dent in the buffet. There is still a cash bar, but I will buy you a drink if you volunteer to tell a story, whether or not your name is drawn. I will buy you a beverage. Another reason to be on time is schwag, and who doesn't like good schwag? So our new sponsor is the Energy Co-op, and not only will they be there to offer renewable energy options, but they'll also be giving out some of their schwag. And I saw them last week at a Be Local Philly event, and they brought some baseball hats and t-shirts, and I will say they're quite nice. So show up early and get something cool. And I would be remiss if I didn't shout out our media partner, the Philadelphia Citizen. And when I think about it, it is all starting to add up. The Philadelphia Citizen, the Energy Co-op, and Triple Bottom, all coming together to welcome the MISSION Story Slam community. You could call it a trifecta. Something else that adds up is Atiyah Harmon's story from our 13th Slam, where the theme was braver today. Atiyah shared her bravery with the story of how she founded Black Girls Love Math. Let's take a listen.

So does everyone here know what call and response is? Yes. All right. So we're going to do a call and response. I am brilliant.

I am brilliant.

I try my best. I try my best. I am confident in my abilities. I am confident in my abilities. I am my sister's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. I love to learn. I love to learn. I love to grow. I love to grow. I am a beautiful Black girl. Insert your identity marker there. So I am a beautiful Black girl and I love math. So when I wrote that creed July 2nd, 2020, after I took a leap, leaving a principal job and a central office job in Brooklyn, New York, that was the first thing that I thought we should do as Black Girls Love Math. We started in with the creed to create a space that gives the girls the audacity and the comfort to feel like they belong in math. I didn't know when I wrote that creed that I was also writing for myself. Fast forward, 2020, we started. Someone already mentioned everything that happened with Black Death and all the things. So everybody was pouring money into DI. So we got into 15 schools in the Philly area, Camden. We were doing great work. And then the ESSER funds slowed down, but I took a leap of faith. Oh, I was a principal. Oh, I ran a central office. I can do a non-profit close, but not the same. Fast forward, I've been at a lot of events, and I was called January 2024. I was nominated to Maris Parker's Education Nominating Panel. Yay, me. How did I get this call? I was like, oh, my goodness. So I was working for a company, working with another company at the time, and they didn't like that I was appointed because they thought it was a conflict of interest, which wasn't true. But I was brave enough to walk away, and I was adult enough at the time to have three months safe. So I respectfully declined and walked away because when I moved back to my hometown, it was for the kids in Philly, and I wanted to serve on this board to help nominate the school board as opposed to work for a company where I was in hell. Fast forward, I get another job, I'm in hell again. So I gave six week notice this time and December 5th, 2024, I took a bet on myself, I bet on Black Girls Love Math and me. And I've been full-time contracting ever since. And shout out to that. So as part of the work, we have been around five years of impact. We just celebrated November 1st at Gerard College. I know the owner of this place is Gerard College alum, so hell Gerard. Also, we have been awarded different scholarships and grants through the state, through the city, through the DA's office, and also a gang of supporters. I was Philadelphia Citizen of the Week, and we predicted the Eagles win on CBS National News. Go Burtz. So with all of that, the thing that I'm most brave about though is using my voice. You see, in early 1990s and 5th grade, I was the class of valedictorian. However, because I stuttered with no speech therapist, I wasn't allowed to speak and give the speech. So yeah, won't won't. Right? So doing this, I used to like to be behind the scenes. I can do the work, I can work with the girls, but I've been forced to use my voice to advocate. I have to speak on behalf of Black Girls Love Math for the little Atiyah in fourth grade that was a math whiz, that was in citywide math competitions, that I didn't know to do anything as to how to be an accountant, and I didn't want to do that. Right? So here birthed Black Girls Love Math were five years later. And just thinking about the bravery that I showed up, but I think about the women before me and the girls after me. Right? If there was no bravery in Katherine Johnson, we wouldn't have landed on the moon. If there was no bravery in Gladys West, we wouldn't have GPS and how many people use GPS every day. But if it was throwing bravery at Atiyah Harmon, there would be no Black Girls Love Math. We are an organization, a mission, and a movement to exponentially increase the number of Black girls in STEM. We bring Shuri out of the Marvel Universe, out of Wakanda into fully schools, organizations, and communities. So as I stand here today in front of you with a quiver in voice, I just want to say I am a beautiful Black girl and I love math.

I love it. How do you feel listening back to that? You said it had been a little while?

Yeah, it's been a little while, probably right after you all sent the video. I mean, it still rings true. And to hear the quiver and to remember how I felt in front of the audience, it was like, no, that was a very real feeling. Yeah.

By the way, sorry. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Glad to be here.

I really actually like the fact that you owned your nervousness about public speaking and made it part of your story. But you're also clearly really an accomplished public speaker. Like this is something you're doing a lot. So do you like own your nervousness when you speak often, or is that a strategy for the story slam? Like how do you push through the nerves? How do you deal with it?

It was real, but it was also part of the story, like I said. I was really good at being number two, and people are like, you have to be number one for Black Girls Love Math. I told my niece because she was asking, she had to speak publicly and I'm like, I take a deep breath and I say, I can do this. And I don't self-identify as Christian, but there is a Bible verse, Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me. And then I'm just like, go, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. And I was like, even if you mess up, your message will be stronger than your little like fumble. So you can just keep talking.

The best storyteller, the best public speakers, there are verbal flubs. We use little tics, we use little ums and ahs sometimes. I was trying to remember earlier and I realized our mutual friend and PR guru, Adele Howland, is the one that got you to come and tell the story, right?

Yes, she did.

Does she do PR for Black Girls Love Math also?

Yes, we've been working with Adele since 2021, and she's been a godsend for us for so many different ways. She's so tapped in to the mission and telling the story, but also prepping me like, okay, Atiyah, say this, say this. I have people coming. This is what you should say. Make sure you emphasize this point, and it's just very helpful. I told her last year specifically, I'm like, I need to be pushed more. And she was like, I think MISSION Story Slam would be really good for you. And she had to pull my leg. I was like, okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. So it was really good to have her there. So I was like sitting at support.

She is such a warm person. It's nice to look out from the stage and see her in the audience. She always has a smile for you. So did you forgive her yet for making you come out?

No, I forgave her that day. I was just like, okay, it's done. And she was like, you did good. She was like, it's just really the story you always tell. And I was like, yeah, it just had to do with those bright lights.

Not only that, I have to say, I think you might be the only person from that edition of the slam that actually stuck to the five minutes. Are you someone who writes out exactly what you want to say verbatim, it memorizes or practices? Are you more of an outline storyteller? Which is your approach?

There is a blend. There is a blend. So also I used my Apple watch to time myself for the five minutes when I was on stage. So I did do that to make sure. But I wrote down everything I wanted to say. I read it a couple of times, edited it, and was like, okay, what is the gist? Like I circled the sentences that I absolutely wanted to say. So then if there were some variants, I was okay. But I knew what I wanted to land on.

So was that quivering voice line we talked about? Is that one of the ones you wanted?

Yeah.

And then what about the Shuri line? I like that one too.

Yeah. The Shuri line was fun because it's like, how could you not like Black Panther? Well, kind of, but yeah.

I do not know. I had no idea how you could not like that and love that reference too. It's perfect for what you're doing. So I was looking, I do a little research, and I was looking at your LinkedIn. How many master's degrees do you have?

Just two. Just two?

Just two? But then there was something else at Penn, like an exec ed?

Yeah. I did the executive certificate and social impact strategy.

School of Public Policy and Practice?

Yes.

Oh, boy.

I should know that.

I feel like I should know that too.

Yeah. So I did that, what was that?

Okay.

It was because I just dove straight in to run in a nonprofit. And I was like, I think I need to learn some more of the background, you know, taking a class here or there. But to do the whole arc, it was like eight months. And I had to rush and do everything before it was due December 31st. But having that fresh in my mind was good to start off as full time ED in 2025.

You were doing that while you were expecting?

Well, no, no, not expecting.

Oh, I thought you said you were due December 31st.

I was like, what? No, no, no, all of the assignments were due December 31st. No, you're fine. That makes sense. All of the assignments were due December 31st. Like I had till 1159 and I probably uploaded everything at 702. But it was good to have fresh in the top of my mind when I started full time.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

But by the way, if there's a way for me to embarrass myself ever, I will find it. It's a very specific skill.

No, you're totally fine. You're totally fine. All right.

I think in your story, you mentioned like going around with the idea on your iPad. Like how did what? So you were a principal in Brooklyn, a school principal?

Yeah, I was a school principal. And then I worked at like central office for a charter network organization. And I was over math, science and testing. It's a small charter. So December 2019, my close friend who was on my board, we were just having the educator red wine conversation. I was just so frustrated because girls would know the math, but they would just check out and I'm like, what's happening? And I'm a middle school person. Most educators have a great band that they love. I'm a middle school person. And I was just like, I don't know what happens. All these people in school say they're not math people. That's not good. And he was like, we need to do something. Black Girls Love Math. So that night, I woke up in the middle of the night, I searched the hashtag. It was fewer than 100 posts. And I said, we have something here. And that was December 2019, the world shut down in March 2020. And we had all that time. And I was like, I don't want to go back in schools with this virtual stuff. Had a lot of deliberation and decided to leave my job in June 2020. That's my mom's birthday. I talked to a dear mentor. I was still in Brooklyn. I think I went into his like, do it, incorporate now. So I incorporated in Pennsylvania. And then I drove to Philly for my mom's birthday. Like, you know, June 30th is my last day of my full-time job. July 1st, I started Black Girls Love Math.

Wow. And so help me understand the decision to bring it to Philly, because you were established in Brooklyn at that point, right?

To take a year off, I did a lot of contracting, like curriculum work and contracting. I didn't want to do DoorDash and Instacard and everything else. So it was cheaper to move back to Philadelphia to get that started. Our goal was never just to be fully local, but I wanted to start it here and it made more sense.

Yeah. New York really has a way of making you work more than you want to, just to hit a baseline, doesn't it?

Yeah.

I was thinking like that original idea, where you like thinking about just applying it in your school, and it became obvious to be an organization. But it sounds like you always wanted it to be a freestanding.

Yeah, I always wanted it to be freestanding. And accessible to multiple schools and community partners. We do closed enrollment and open enrollment. And then we are now partnered with Mission-Aligned Organizations to offer our program. And so I always wanted it to be supplemental. My first two degrees are in Human Development. I know like the power of what girls need based on like identity and peer group. So that's why we do 15 to 1 max for our instructors to students ratio. So you can feel safe to be this person. So that was always important to me to not just be like normal school hours based.

So middle school is your band of time that you like, but you're starting with kids earlier than middle school, aren't you?

We do K through 12. We've had a couple of four-year-olds sneak in.

Seriously?

Yeah. And her mom's like, she's really smart and she'll be fine, but she's already in kindergarten and we love Collie. So it's like, okay.

That's crazy. That's cool.

It's cool. And she's like super numbers, like we'll take breaks and do like games and stuff. She's like, no, she wants to add and do her work.

I was looking at like impact reports and stuff like that. So I thought the high school portion was about having graduates from the program come back and mentor the younger kids. But there's also a high school curriculum as well or?

There's a high school curriculum as well that's focused on data science because that is a trending map, if you will. In lieu of Algebra II, they are offering it as an elective. And it's like the way the math world is going with data analytics. We struggle with implementation because a lot of high school girls work or high school kids don't fully work. So what we do is offer the internship where they are tutors. They do a social justice project like how to use math to solve a problem in your community. And then we'll do like a college tour. But once they do their 20 hours of an internship, they're guaranteed a Macbook air for college. Wow.

That's awesome.

I remember like when I went to college, it was a computer lab. I didn't have a computer. But also the Chromebooks they give at schools, they're just not college level.

They have their place and they do a thing, and I'm glad they exist.

Right. Let me not say that, but we want to set them off and get them up for college.

So you were a principal when you started all this, and it seems like you said you studied human development, all of that. Little Atiyah was a Black girl who loves math. Did you think about being a math teacher at any point or did you always want to do like education design and like that higher level work and leadership?

Then I think I would be a math teacher until I became a math teacher. I went to Gerard College. I came home and worked at Gerard, while I was at Penn for grad school. I was like a residential advisor context, if it's like Mrs. Gerard, if you watch Packs of Life, but a little more structured than Mrs. Gerard. And it was for sixth grade girls. And then I start tutoring on the weekends, math, and all the kids were like, I wish you were my math teacher. And I'm like, so then there was this thing called Foot Off Your Teaching Fellows by TNTP. And it was like they're found in cohort. So I looked into that, became a teacher in a district. I actually didn't start off as a math teacher, but I got there, started off as a gym teacher. Apparently, that was a high need subject in the district. There was a long term sub who was chronically absent. So I would have to take over the class all the time.

Wow, okay, that'll happen.

Yeah, full time sixth grade. And I fell in love with it. Whatever reason, they couldn't switch me out of gym to elementary math. So I went to a charter and started teaching math that way.

So I'm going to be totally honest, I missed that you actually became a math teacher at some point on the path of stuff. I thought you had done all the degrees and became a principal. I didn't realize there was-

Yeah, no, I was a math teacher for seven or eight years.

I think I've had this conversation before. I'm always amazed by people that love middle school because I hated middle school. The idea of wanting to be there with those kids in beast mode, I'm like, why? But I'm glad you're there.

I think people either hate it or love it. And that's why I'm like, no, I'm a middle school person. And I think it's so funny when you start and they're like tiny boppers. And then by the time they leave, they're like with these voices and all of that. So it's fun to see the trajectory.

So you never thought you're going to be a math teacher until you became one, but you seem to have always been on an education trajectory. Like how young were you when you figured out that education was your thing and that's what you wanted to study and do?

That's a good question. I would say, honestly, in college I wanted to do policy. So when I went to college, at first I thought I was going to be a guidance counselor. And then taking all these classes, my major was Human Development and Family Studies. And I was like, I don't want to be a jaded social worker, I want to do policy and change it. So I thought I was going to do policy, then I went to Penn to further human development. So my masters, every other school outside of Penn was already for policy. And I was like, I'm going to learn more about child development first so I won't be one of those people to just like talk about policy in a theoretical sense. So I still didn't think I would be a teacher until literally when I worked at Gerard, I was like, okay, this is cool, but this is a means to an end. Like I love it. Then all my friends were like, duh, you have a natural teacher's personality. So I was like, I guess. My mom worked in education, she wasn't quite a teacher, but she wasn't in Paris. So of course, from there, the coolest thing was that I knew teachers first names because I went to school with her. But I was like, nah, I don't want to be a teacher. I don't want to be a teacher. And I will say, one of my biggest identities that I still share now is that I'm a teacher. Classroom changes, but I'm a teacher.

That's awesome. And you identify more as a teacher than a nonprofit founder and leader?

Depending on the day. But I would say probably yes, honestly.

It's hard to run an organization and not have days where you just have to run an organization.

Yeah.

All right. So speaking of that, I'd like to learn a little bit about Black Girls Love Math's mission because that goal of increasing the number of Black women in STEM careers from 2% to 8% by 2035. What I'm interested in is a couple of things. One, is it Philly or national for you when you're trying to make that impact?

It's definitely a Philly goal. It's harder to find the concrete number in Philly. So 2% might not be Philadelphia exclusive, but that's the national number.

Okay. And then that's, it's not doubling, it's not tripling. It's quite, that's a quadrupling. Like I'm, I am very in favor of stretching, stretch goals. But why did you choose an exponential goal as opposed to a doubling or tripling? Because tripling would be pretty amazing. Just saying.

Yeah, tripling would. If we exponentially increase, it would be cubing. So it would be two to the third power, would be the 8%. So that's why I say it.

Okay.

But I think I just want to make sure that we're aiming at something that kind of keeps us, I want to say aggressive, but like urgent, if you will.

I don't think aggressive is wrong. I think you've got to be, if you're going to get anywhere close, you're going to have to be aggressive.

Like our mission, but I don't think it's our mission alone. So it's like, what do we need to do? I guess Black Girls Love Math, this is our mission, but involving ourselves with other equity support or other support, just trying to bring the foot of your workforce, period. How can we use all of those resources together? It is our vision, but I don't think we're going to achieve it alone.

And you know what, it's interesting. As I was preparing to talk to you, I was thinking about this fully and solely as an education program and an education mission. I didn't actually think, and it's stupid, but I didn't actually think about it as a workforce development program. And I guess that probably opens a lot of additional opportunities for you and a lot of additional partnerships to have that workforce development side to it. Like, how do you bring together, particularly when you have such a focus on elementary and middle school kids, and I know high school as well, but how do you bring together that employment side and the workforce development world when you're dealing with earlier childhood education type of goals?

We've done some research on what are the trending STEM roles and then mapping backwards to who's already doing similar work and who in Philadelphia is doing that type of work that the girls can talk to, and then what is the, I guess, the pathway of math classes. The girls need to do that, if that makes sense. So we have an initiative this year specifically called See Her in STEM. So a big part of, like I said, the representation for myself was I didn't want to be an accountant, but who knew about all the other things that you can be in STEM. So in Philadelphia, we're being very intentional with finding women that do STEM jobs that can talk to the girls because just talking to us is not going to get you the real life experience of, hey, I'm an engineer or I'm a chemist and this is what I do day to day. So we've been really trying to make sure that they can see women. Like we do a lot of research online. We do a lot of presentations on sheroes, but we want them to like touch, see, feel people in the cities. Does that mean that they're doing internships in high school? What does that mean to help push the pipeline through?

I'm exhausted having conversations about how AI is going to change the world. Because we're still going to be humans for at least a few years before robot overlords eliminate us. But in a more pragmatic sense, because you seem like a pragmatic person, like you talked about really looking at what are the STEM careers that are not just in demand today, but will be in demand. I'm really concerned about kids that are like in college now or rising up towards college because I feel like we're eliminating so many entry-level jobs. And math seems like something well suited for computers, but I feel like you talked a lot about like data analytics being different. Like where does humanity and science intersect to you? Because there are things that computers are not going to be able to do for a long time, but I am interested like where your thinking is on that.

Yeah, it goes back and forth. I think for the girls specifically, something we like to teach is like collaborative problem solving. Of course, AI can get you to a number, but now are you solving a problem in a way that involves multiple people? And maybe this is just my ignorance, but I have not seen like a group of people use AI collectively at the same time to solve a problem. But I think for the human part of it, how are we pushing ourselves to think bigger, to think more analytically, to connect dots that maybe we couldn't connect before because we were so busy just trying to solve problems or trying to solve equations. So I look at it like that as excitement on what it could do.

I was lucky enough to work on a documentary that a professor of mine from Temple did called Top Secret Rosies.

My documentary, you're late, so tell me more.

I think you can find it on Netflix. I think she also got it into PBS. You should absolutely check it out. I think it's one hour, not two. But I got to meet all, like so many of the women that worked on the differential analyzers with Eckerd and Mockley doing the differential equations for like ballistic trajectories in World War II. That led those gentlemen to then build ENIAC and the first actual digital computers. Yeah. Solid state, but tubes and all that fun. But so I got to meet some of these women that their job title in the Army was computer. That's how we got that because they were running all the equations, and then they're running these crazy machines. It's not like the creation of the calculator eliminated the need for mathematicians. It's just made it changed the ability for us to do different types of creation. Yeah. I'm not saying we shouldn't be worried about AI on some level, but are you thinking about starting to put any element of AI into your curriculum and pedagogy, or is that not that interesting? I guess it wouldn't be as interesting maybe for the little kids, or would it make math even more potentially accessible and exciting for some of the little kids? I don't know.

So we are still grappling with that in terms of our programming. I think one thing, even for me, as long as I'm an employee of Black Girls Love Math, we will not do virtual programming. So AI is different than virtual programming. But two years ago now, when we were in Brooklyn, Sierra, she was in second grade, and I was asking her some crazy algorithm problem. And she was like, yeah, we don't need that chat GPS. So I was like, I think that kids also, depending on the population of kids, they don't want to use the AI necessarily that same way, but trying to help them see the benefit of it, and not just a cheat code, if you will.

If you don't know what's happening under the hood, you can't check your work. Have you ever read Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series at all?

No, I've heard of it, but-

This is a crazy comic series of novels. It's a four-book trilogy. Like, he's nuts. It's great. But in that story, they build a supercomputer that crunches on stuff to come up with the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, and it says it's 42. And that's the answer. Like, after years and years of crunching, it says the answer is 42. And then everyone's like, what does that mean? And they're like, oh, would you like the question? And then it goes into another, like, thousand years of crunching to figure out what the question is. That gets you to the answer of 42. And I think that there's probably a lot of stuff we're doing. It's kind of like that right now. Where we can get you a piece of data, but if you don't know what the question was legitimately in the first place, what are we going to do with 42?

Exactly.

I know you're focusing on Philly First, which is great. And I love that. But I also think I was reading in your Impact Report and on the website. Are you starting to do some Teaching the Teacher? Are you starting to spread the model?

We are. And we expanded our program model to Brooklyn in 2024. So that's been going really well. We've been in Camden and Delaware, but we are looking now to license our curriculum and then teach people how to use it, because the pedagogical model isn't the typical school day model. But also part of it, there's a need for teachers to feel comfortable teaching math. Everyone doesn't feel comfortable teaching math, so we want to help prepare on that end, too.

Just because you can get the certification and add that to your teaching repertoire doesn't mean that it's your favorite thing to teach.

And then we've been noticing some people can't get the certification, so how can we help there? But they can teach it, so it's like, the practice test is incredibly difficult. I felt it the first time, by one point, but it was incredibly difficult.

Well, I mean, I wouldn't want getting a certification to be like a nothing, like you want to make sure someone knows what's up. But yeah, if you're having trouble getting through, then maybe there's things to look at. I don't know.

It is definitely.

You're leading a nonprofit. You're a teacher. You're doing a lot of things. Anything we can do for you personally to make sure we help you keep running the marathon.

I appreciate the question word anything. Honestly, that felt really good. I think like the story slam is really good just to see like you're not alone and you're trying to do the work of especially to better the city. I don't know if this is like a universal thing. Like founders, it's okay to not have all the answers today. It's okay to not have met your mission today. And I don't know what that looks like from something. Maybe it's just us telling ourselves that, but it's okay. Yes, you have this big ambitious goal and you're working toward it. And it's okay if you don't have it. But also I feel like there's a teacher appreciation week. There's a bosses week, whatever. Is there just like a non-profit leader day or something? Maybe we can get honored that way too.

You know what, I would not put it past. Somewhere on the web, there's a calendar of all the months and all the days and all the weeks. It could exist, but if it does, no one is talking about it. So we need to figure out what day that lands on and lift it up a little bit. I like that idea. And I agree with you. I think that it is camaraderie amongst people, not just founders and executive directors, but people that are leading teams within this sector. I think it is, to your point, like some days you're just doing admin, and you know what? It's still what needs to get done if you're going to get to the goal.

Right. You have to be okay with that. Like this is part of the work.

Absolutely.

All right.

Is there anything coming up in the world of Black Girls Love Math that you'd like to promote? Any events or things that we could shout out?

Sure. I would say we are now recruiting for our summer camp, which will be the third week in July for middle school girls. So rising sixth graders to eighth graders. We're very much looking forward to that. It will be five days of STEM and fun. STEM-ing in the summer, we call it.

STEM-ing in the summer is cool. I like that.

Yeah. And then we're looking for school partners for next year. We have a limited availability, but if you know a school leader or a school that wants to partner with Black Girls Love Math, then let us know. We're excited for next year.

That's awesome. What's the best way for people to find you or to find Black Girls Love Math or both?

Our website is blackgirlslovemath.org. That is our Instagram. That is our Facebook. That is our LinkedIn. That is our TikTok. And then if you send a message on the website, it'll get to me.

Okay. Great. Any other thoughts before we close out? Was there anything that you thought we were going to talk about today that I just blew off or blew past?

What I will love to see, and this is like a whole different conversation, but as we come to the Philadelphia Sisters next year, how can we bring that math data to Black Girls Love Math and support women's statisticians and all the things like that will be helpful for women in sports and women math careers in sports, if that makes sense.

Atiyah, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate your...

Absolutely.

I'm glad Idel convinced you to come tell the story. And I'm glad you were willing to come on the podcast. It was a lot of fun to talk to you.

Yes, thank you. I had a great time.

Thank you again Atiyah for joining us on the MISSION Story Slam Podcast. And thank you to our audience for being here. Have I ever mentioned we're trying to build a community? Is that something I ever say when I'm talking about MISSION Story Slam? Because it is true. We are building a community for all of us doing the hard work of doing good. And by definition, community cannot happen alone. So that means we need you, our missionaries, to do the supportive things. So that could be reading and reviewing the podcast. You can direct people to our website, missionstorieslam.org, or suggest having them follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok. I'm assuming you all have already done these things. And if you haven't, yeah, that's a good time. And when you're visiting the website, make sure you grab your tickets, which are now available for MISSION Story Slam 14, No Judgment. It's happening on May 12th. And do remember, it's a good idea to have a story at least half ready because everyone who volunteers to put their name into our coffee can of destiny will get a free drink on me. So check that SEPTA app, pull up the aforementioned GPS, whatever it is you need to do to remember we're going to be at a new venue, Philadelphia's only B Corp certified brewery, Triple Bottom Brewing. I cannot wait to see you there. MISSION Story Slam 14 is going to be sponsored by our friends at the Energy Co-op. PWP Video and myself have been members of the Energy Co-op for about two decades, and it gives us access to 100% wind and solar generated electricity, as well as renewable natural gas. I want to thank our media sponsors at the Philadelphia Citizen, and I want to thank our podcast producer Dave Winston, as well as our editor James Robinson. The MISSION Story Slam Podcast is brought to you by PWP Video. We are video with a mission. You can find us at pwpvideo.com. Until the next episode, I shall remain Michael Schweisheimer, and I do look forward to sharing the next story, behind the story, with you soon.