Pour Into the Pipeline: Lawrence's STEM NOLA Fund

Twelve years ago, a New Orleans engineer-turned-educator named Dr. Calvin Mackie made a decision that would change the trajectory of an entire generation. He decided that the children growing up in the same neighborhoods he came from — kids dismissed too early, underestimated too often, written off too quickly — would have hands-on access to the science, the technology, the engineering, and the mathematics that shape modern economies and modern lives.

He called it STEM NOLA.

Today, as Chief Administrative Officer of STEM NOLA and STEM Global Action, I have a front-row seat to what that one decision unleashed. In 2025 alone, we engaged 34,054 participants across 12 states and 28 cities. We placed STEM kits in the hands of 9,017 K–2 children, 11,941 third through fifth graders, 8,689 middle schoolers, and 4,178 high school students. We deployed 2,666 college students into classrooms, labs, and weekend events as near-peer mentors — living proof that the path is real and reachable. And we earned the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, signed by President Joe Biden himself.

But the numbers, as powerful as they are, don't tell the whole story.

The whole story is the seven-year-old who had never held a circuit until a STEM Saturday — and now insists she's going to be an engineer.

The whole story is the eleven-year-old boy whose mother told me through tears that her son finally had a place where being curious was cool.

The whole story is the high school senior who walked into our STEM Fellows program unsure of his place in the world and walked out with a college acceptance, a scholarship, and a paid internship.

This is what your gift makes possible.

GiveNOLA Day is one of those rare moments when our city can do something extraordinary together — when small gifts pool into something transformative, and when every donor becomes a stakeholder in a child's becoming. I'm asking you to stand with me, with Dr. Mackie, with our team, and most importantly with the thousands of young people who will walk through STEM NOLA's doors this year expecting to be exposed, inspired, and engaged.

Here's what your generosity does:

• $40 puts a STEM kit in one child's hands • $70 sends one student to a STEM Saturday experience • $200 equips a small group of five • $400 sponsors ten • $700 carries one student through an entire year of STEM NOLA programming

Every gift counts. Every gift compounds. And every gift sends a message to a child somewhere in this city — and across this country — that someone believed in their genius before they had a chance to doubt it.

Pour in with me. Let's build the future they deserve.

— Lawrence Jackson, Jr., M.Ed., Ed.D. (ABD)Chief Administrative Officer, STEM NOLA