Described as Hogwarts-meets-Wakanda-meets-coworking space, Vancouver-grown Ethọ́s Lab is breaking ground to inspire a culture shift in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through youth education.

The non-profit, founded by Anthonia Ogundele, aims to power safe, accessible, anti-racist, technology-forward youth spaces created from the imagination of the Black community for all youth.

Currently, Ethọ́s Lab has launched a fundraising campaign to help fund operations, programming, and a flagship location for the creative innovation academy–just in time for Black Futures Month (perhaps known to some as Black History Month).

Loose Lips Mag caught up with Ogundele–who helms the lab along with Engagement Director Joan Wandolo, Program Director Nigel Amenu-Tekaa, and Cultural Curator Ndidi Cascade–to learn more about the program and its social VR world, Atlanthọ́s.

Tell me about your dream and desire to build something like Ethos Lab. How exactly will this work? 

I’m a mother to a 13-year-old. When she was 11, I realized there was a gap in programming, particularly in [STEM] that allows them to experiment and play and really connect in an organic way, in terms of accessing spaces of innovation. 

A lot of co-working spaces and hack spaces are geared towards adults, there wasn’t anything like that for children–scheduled programming, going to community centres. So I thought: “What might it look like if we created a space that young people could plug into at any time? What if they could access the tools, skills, emerging technologies, and a network really centered around supporting their personal development and growth?”

I looked at the need for STEM education and the need to have greater diversity in that space by black youth, and [I] also [noticed] there were not many girls. It dawned on me to say, “Why don’t I create this space?” because I didn’t really see something out there.

I was interested in it being co-created and designed by young people. The first step in creating a co-operative is building the community first, which is what we’re doing, and then starting to look at different leadership capabilities to allow for young people to co-create and truly drive what this actually looks like.

How do they access it, exactly?

I’ll keep it simple: Ethọ́s Lab is actually an afterschool program that kids access between 4:30 and 6 PM on Tuesdays, and then on Thursdays from 4:30 to 6 PM and from 1 to 2:30 PM on Saturdays. At this time, there’s no cost to participate, but we will have a membership fee starting in June to ensure that we have a sustainable organization. We’re hoping that people jump into the community early as we have programming, mentorship and events that are family-focused to help bridge the digital divide.

You left your job at Vancity to pursue this. Why is it important to dedicate yourself completely to this work?

Other mommies have babies and then they start mommyblogs. I had a child and I saw this as a good opportunity. It was actually quite urgent because I saw the scale of the need when I was talking to other parents and I heard and understood their challenges in terms of being able to access programming.

All young people have access to STEM because they go to school, but innovation in STEM isn’t something you have access to unless you’re gifted or enriched.

If “average” kids had access to things that gifted kids have, then who knows what could come out of it?

Having my own daughter and seeing the limit to access–access to information, access to network, regional or [geographical] access, affordability access issues–I thought, We need to address this, the world is moving fast, technology is moving quickly. 

It was urgent and I felt the need to do it.

I think it’s so awesome that you’re making space specifically for youth to sharpen or hone skills, but can you explain why 13-18 specifically?

These are not your typical STEM kids, per se. They don’t have a direct propensity towards it, but they haven’t had the access or opportunity to play around with AI. It’s just about giving them the tools to play around with it in an accessible way, in a community that supports them.

Will in-person workshops work in a time of COVID? What measures are being put in place? 

We just don’t do any in-person [events, at the moment]. Everything is all virtual: we use Zoom, we use Discord, and the youth have designed their own virtual reality arena called Atlanthọ́s which we also use.

Tell me more about that.

We launched this idea February 28, 2020, shortly after COVID hit, and then we had a March Break Camp scheduled, which was cancelled. After that, Microsoft said “Let’s start a hackathon with the kids.”

Four different teams–much like Hogwarts–all came together and hacked out different ideas and the winning idea was Atlanthọ́s, so we spent the summer doing 3-D modeling, sketching workshops, coding workshops to build this space out, and now we have this virtual space that you can play in and fly around in and go to concerts in. It’s pretty awesome. 

It’s like Minecraft but cooler.

In your bio on the Ethọ́s Lab website, you ask the question: “What might place/space-making look like when you centre the Humanity of the Black experience?” Can you help us imagine by answering that?

What I say is: When you design for underrepresented communities, you’re actually creating a better space for everyone. So, when you’re centering the humanity of the black experience, you actually take into consideration the whole person and see each young person where they are at. Someone might say we need to centre a person’s experience, or a Black person’s experience [but] my experience is very different from another Black person’s experience, and vice versa. But when you talk about humanity, you’re really cutting across all cultures and you’re allowing people to see them as they are.

We asked some of the youth about their experience and they said, “Ethọ́s Lab is a place where I can do things I never thought I could.” 

That’s what we’re trying to do here: allow for Black youth to feel that way, and if Black youth feel that way, then you’re creating a great place for other youth to feel that way.

Join Ethọ́s Lab tomorrow (Friday, February 19) for Creative Collabz and Conversations: #RepresentationMatters, followed by a digital open house and a tour of Atlanthọ́s, and musical performances. 5:30 PM PST- 7 PM PST.If you would like to help Ethọ́s Lab reach their $100,000 fundraising goal to foster Black youth in STEM, please give to their Patreon.