using impediMENTS TO GROW

This project of mine has consumed me into making it my lifestyle. The nerve of it, right. It has taken a life of its own and I am just the vessel to bring it into everyone else’s life. It brings me joy to share my passion and the love of my life. In memory of my brother, Ahmad Akim, I am setting out to curate an iSTEAM school for individuals with impediments. Each of us have our fair share of impediments or figments of our imagination that could potentially be stopping us from pursuing our passions; for whatever reason. Whatever your impediment is, it is used as leverage within our iSTEAM camps. Nothing is blocking your growth when you enter into our campgrounds. Individuals with disabilities might have obvious scars of war and have an inability to cover up their differences to the world. Individuals with impediments can share the disabling qualities as those with disabilities, however they might have the ability to disguise their scars; thus trying to fit into a world where you are considered weird. The curation of the iSTEAM camps is solely to make everyone feel comfortable in their skin and allow anyone with impediments – which we all have some – to feel comfortable as they learn at their level.

Using the impediments to grow is the main concept to helping individuals to remember who they are away from this makeshift world of perfection. The camps are infused with agriculture to allow individuals to experience a farm in a whole new light while it shines within them. iSTEAM is the concept that we can use our impediments to grow within while harvesting plants for their tea. Yes, there is tea to go around. It is, you guess it, a tea farm made into an iSTEAM camp feeding the inner kids in us all. I love a hefty pair of scissors to clip my herbs for tea and to manicure the plants in the Freight Farms for inner city dwellers. The acronym still offers clarity of the concept of STEAM when dealing with Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.

Within our culture music is the soul of our being and it is infused throughout our camps along with creative writing. You got it. It is a creative arts science tech camp that allows each individual to learn at their level and create scientific engineering concepts at their level. Lessons in solar energy and taught with turbine kinetics. Physics is the core of the camp so the scissors will allow us to model the forces of deformation and fracture. Scissors are simple vital machines, so we will relish with the importance of the fulcrum and levers in use. I have so much joy to think about using the scissors to cut the ribbon at the camp’s grand opening. This is not at all a figment in my imagination. It has become my blood, sweat, and tears in addition to why I am competing to raise money for it.

Agriculture is important for African descendants to understand. It is a part of our culture we have been far removed from. While serving as a curriculum developer for a prominent afterschool provider in Chicago, it was clear in a lesson that the students did not have a clue as to where their produce was coming from. Being raised in the inner-city without having access to rural knowledge is hindering our culture and posing a threat to our nation. This is my efforts to pay respect to my beloved brother and to help reconnect individuals of African descent back to the land to promote more black farmers.

Individual with impediments tend to be overlooked or made to feel less then due to their differences. Individuals that appear normal might not ever experience a sense of abnormalcy and might be unable to gain the perspective enough to relate. Even if you can’t relate or understand; you can support anyone regardless to their differences. My brother Ahmad Akim was born with severe cerebral palsy and could not walk or talk however we enjoyed life to the fullest. He brought joy to everyone he was around and I believe my camp will offer the same cadence as his soul.