Taking part in like a lady doesn’t make you comfortable; it makes you a winner.
After combining her consciousness of sports activities and its constructive correlation with schooling, Play Like A Lady founder and behavioral scientist Dr. Kimberly Clay’s efforts have led to a partnership with the Nationwide Soccer League, pushing her mission to help the following era of Black girls in STEM.
Dr. Clay shared her journey towards closing the gender hole in schooling in an interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE.
Inform me slightly bit about your background in STEM.
[I] started [my] profession in public service as a program analyst in persistent illness prevention and well being promotion on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. I later earned a Ph.D. in public well being, which established me as a revered behavioral scientist and revealed writer, funded by the Nationwide Most cancers Institute for my pioneering work in most cancers survivorship analysis. Previous to taking over the CEO function at Play Like a Lady full-time in 2010, I served as a tenure-track professor on the College of Georgia and Morehouse College of Drugs.
As a Black girl in STEM, how have you ever labored towards closing the gender hole in schooling?
Regardless of being essentially the most educated demographic in America, Black girls stay woefully underrepresented in science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM) fields. Over the course of my 20-plus-year profession, I’ve labored to create a extra equal taking part in area for women and individuals of colour. This has included intentional efforts to be a visual function mannequin in environments the place Black girls are underrepresented, equivalent to increased schooling.
As a tenure-track assistant professor, I skilled and educated the following era of Black girls in STEM at a predominantly white establishment. At present, by means of Play Like a Lady, I fund scholarships for younger Black girls pursuing a STEM diploma at traditionally Black faculties or universities the place they will simply discover a group of supportive college and friends they should guarantee they attain their full potential.
Why is it essential to spark ladies’ pursuits in sports activities from a younger age, and what methods do you implement to get ladies to take part in sports activities?
A 2018 research carried out by Ernst & Younger discovered that 94% of girls who maintain C-suite positions are former athletes. Success within the enterprise world calls for a degree of depth and competitors that’s uniquely discovered by means of sport. But, ladies immediately drop out of sports activities at six instances the speed of boys by age 14, forfeiting the pure advantages of sport participation.
Women merely don’t obtain the identical constructive reinforcement about sports activities participation as boys. One of the simplest ways to maintain ladies taking part in is to encourage them and allow them to know that they belong and have causes to play that reach far past the taking part in area. Play Like a Lady has created a constructive social setting that deliberately fosters a way of belonging, which is integral to protecting ladies within the sport.
What’s the correlation between sports activities and STEM that may increase their bodily and psychological talents?
‘Sport’ performs a big function at each stage of girls’s lives, from ladies to C-suite executives. With their problem-solving expertise and team-building experiences, girls who’ve performed sports activities are uniquely positioned to guide within the company world—particularly in aggressive, male-dominated fields like STEM.
Ladies athletes symbolize an typically untapped management pipeline within the office. They’re, by nature, excessive achievers, influential leaders, and crew gamers who’ve super worth for enterprise.
What kinds of character-building traits from sports activities might be transferred to government management?
Ladies athletes have the arrogance, management expertise, and team-building talents that may’t be taught within the classroom. And once they enter the board room, they’ve a singular benefit rooted in a powerful work ethic and their deep ranges of competitiveness and dedication coupled with an unmatched capability to bounce again from failures and losses.
Please elaborate in your partnership with the NFL, the way it helps your nonprofit’s mission, targets, and values, and what’s subsequent for Play Like a Lady.
Play Like a Lady has partnered with the NFL Gamers Affiliation (NFLPA) to degree the taking part in area for women and girls since 2019. Along with funding to help sports activities and STEM packages for center college ladies, this partnership has afforded Play Like a Lady the distinctive alternative to align with present and former gamers who assist us make good on our mission. Play Like a Lady is thrilled to accomplice with the NFLPA and NFL FLAG to carry STEM schooling to the Professional Bowl, Tremendous Bowl, and FLAG Championship video games in February 2023.
