Omaha Links chapter promotes education, STEM fields in summit
November 1, 2024
Article originally published by WOWT and John Chapman
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OMAHA, Neb. – For the first time ever, the Central Area Summit of the Links Incorporated is being held in Omaha.
The Links is a social and service organization of prominent black women. The group proudly claims Vice President Kamala Harris as one of the group’s members.
More than 200 women participated in the leadership conference, and also focused on education.
The Links’ summit took them to Omaha’s summit of interactive teaching and technology.
Dozens of students witch lunch in hand, making their way into Omaha’s Luminarium.
“So, for the luminarium to open up its doors in the way that it has for us to bear witness to what they’re doing, is phenomenal,” Links National President Ethel Isaacs Williams said.
More than 200 members of the Links incorporated are in town for a leadership summit, and to promote and focus on education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
“We know the careers of the future are primarily focused in that STEM area, but I dare say, as a lawyer, STEM touches every profession,” Williams said. “So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, a scientist, or a lawyer, or a teacher, there’s some part of your work experience that STEM is going to have a direct impact.”
“We literally tell our kids you can be whatever you want to be, but you have to dream big about it, and you can always make that dream bigger or smaller depending on what you want to have out of life,” Links Central Area Director Dr. Sheila R. Brown said.
Dr. Brown tells 6 News they want to help make those dreams come true, by handing out STEM kits and promoting learning after the event.
“It’s like Legos, the Legos of STEM,” Dr. Brown said.
The Links will hand out more than 300 STEM kits, giving young students a hands-on opportunity to work on STEM-related projects, and to keep those big dreams alive.
“We have often tried to make sure our children can still dream, and so a lot of times they don’t get the opportunity when they are in the environment they grew up in, so this to me is more like a Disney World of STEM,” Dr. Brown said.
The Omaha chapter of the Links was chartered in 1950, making it the 6th chartered chapter of the Links’ 298 chapters.
The leadership summit runs through Sunday.
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