CULTURE

Interview: LA Promise Fund CEO, Veronica Melvin

Leroy Hamilton for LA Promise Fund’s Girls Build LA Summit

We chatted quickly with Veronica Melvin, CEO of LA Promise Fund, and asked a quick power question on her advice for women entering the fields where they are a minority and loved her advice. We ran into her at a GIRLS BUILD LA event.

 

Leroy Hamilton for LA Promise Fund’s Girls Build LA Summit

GLITTER: The LA Promise Fund has empowered so many young women in STEM, a field normally dominated by men. What would you say to some of the women entering these fields in which they are a minority? 

VERONICA MELVIN: “So 25% of the STEM field is female, which means that 75% is not, and when we look at that cut from a female of color perspective it’s even lower. But we also know that we can totally expose that when we expose girls at a young age to STEM careers—it’s as easy as that. It’s as easy as saying, ‘Here is a career that you should consider, here are some activities that you can do, here is someone in your life that is a female engineer or computer scientist.’ If they have exposure, I think their change of entering a STEM field are the same as males. That’s what we love about this day.”