Sasha Alston reflects on her experience of the years of the Obama presidency, and discusses her encounters with President Obama and other Obama administration officials, including Obama's February 2009 visit to Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., where Alston was a student. Alston shares memories of Obama's presidential candidacy and election in 2008, and recounts the developmen t of her interests in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math) and technology entrepreneurship. She describes formative internships and early-career professional experiences at technology companies, and speaks widely about the underrepresentation of women, and especially women of color, in STEM fields and the tech sector. Alston also provides details about her motivations for writing a series of children's books about empowering girls of color to pursue STEM education and entrepreneurial activities, and outlines the significance of professional and social networks of women of color active in STEM fields. Also discussed are the Obama administration's commitment to STEM education; Obama's visit to Capital City; Alston's participation in the December 2014 White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony; and the 2009 publication in the Harvard Educational Review of an essay she wrote about the impact of Obama's election on her education
Presidents--United States; Women in science--United States; Women in technology--United States; Women in engineering--United States; Women in mathematics--United States; Women authors, Black; Alston, Sasha Ariel; Obama, Barack
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2022
Physical Description
28 pages
Note (Biographical)
Sasha Alston was a student at Capital City Charter School in Washington, D.C. in 2009, when President Obama visited the school for his first presidential visit to a school. Alston went on to become the author of the Sasha Savvy book series, a collecti on of children's books written to empower girls, particularly girls of color, to pursue educational and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, and to embrace entrepreneurship. A 2020 graduate of Pace University's Lubin School of Business with a degree in information systems, Alston is the founder and CEO of Sasha Ariel Ventures
Note
Interviewed by Terrell D. Frazier on April 1, 2022. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Sasha A. Alston, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023