Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Efrem Jernigan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Efrem, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)?

I have grouped this story under internship / apprenticeship, but it is more realistically an affirmative action opportunity that happened in 1987 as a entered the Chemical Plant industry.

As I left the Air Force, I went to the employment office on a Monday and was told that there were no jobs. As I walked out, someone stopped me and asked me if I was ex-military. (He said my walk stood out) Well my walk opened a door that the others had closed and a few days later I was in an interview. Furtunately, I was the only African American I saw being interviewed and I obtained the job. Needless to say, the days / months later revealed a real problem in our world.

As a fast forward, 13 years later I became a part of our hiring process and noticed that my employer did not even look / recruit in communities of color. Therefore, I created The STEM Foundation as a weekly program to introduce inner-city 3rd-12th grade students to STEM and STEM industries. (Once a week there would be presentations from industry professionals and once a month, we would take the students on field trips to see STEM in action. (Then their light bulbs would come on)

Needless to say, over the last 13 years, we have taught and provided scholarships to well over 64 students. (5 of the students are college graduates and 2 are working with the program presently)

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Since I have already shared how I was lucky / blessed to have entered the Chemical Plant industry through affirmative action, I sought to become an agent of change. I wanted to ensure that my community of people of color were aware of the opportunity to leave poverty and enter a career of success and financial wealth. In most cases, we are a victim of our society and if nothing changes to expose us to another way, we become trapped. Being a spiritual person, I presently view myself as the biblical character Joseph. Just as Joseph’s brother placed him in a pit, he eventually got out of the pit and went on to save / be an advocate for his people.

While creating The STEM Foundation has allowed hundreds of youth to have hope towards not being in a pit, we have broadened our approach towards the entire communtiy. In 2019, The STEM Foundation program allowed us to be a part of a team that was awarded the opportunity to build a 50MW Solar Farm in my birth community of Sunnyside. For the last 3 years, we have prepared the community for what is coming through installation of a roof-top application of solar, we built our Solar Outdoor Classroom to showcase / teach, a Community Garden right in front of a low-to-moderate income apartment complex with a Solar tracker to draw their attention to teach them. Our mission is to “sow seeds of success” and we have done our best.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Just like the unfairness in the hiring process of our country, there is also a problem in the funding of non-profit organizations trying to better our communities. Example: A grant opportunity will say it is intended for organizations bettering minority communities, but the organizations that actually obtains the funding is normally not of color. Once you see this problem, it take resilience to overcome.

Our approach has been to prove that we are doing the work. This proving requires the expenditure of our personal funds to showcase our ability to perform. In the Sunnyside community, we feel our being awarded the Solar Farm opportunity was given because we financially laid the groundworks through the home application and Solar Outdoor Classroom.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

While we are now in the creation of energy arena, the resilience must continue as the funding problem is still an issue.

Another example:
The present Build Back Better funding opportunity spoke of helping America, but it specifically only funded training and no infrastructure / building projects. Most organizations need funding to train and employ people to better our communities. Ironically, the larger predominately White organizations are now trying to find minority organizations to facilitate an aspect of the programming they were funded to perform. Once again, the wealthy will trickle down some crumbs to the communities in need of economic development.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.southunioncdc.org
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/southunion_stem
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/southunioncdc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efrem-j-67386021/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SouthUnionCDC
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/EfremBJerniganSouthUnionCDC