Actress Malinda Williams is opening up about her natural passion for supporting STEM programs for women at historically Black colleges and universities.
Since launching her Arise And Shine Foundation in 2023, the “Soul Food” star has helped lead young women at HBCUs toward careers in technology through a coding boot camp. The program is modeled on Williams’ personal experience, going from a working actress to a tech professional who learned how to build websites out of necessity.
“As a successful actor, people didn’t wanna hear my story of adversity. They don’t wanna know I know how to code or build websites,” she told Afro Tech.
“They just wanted to know when my next movie would be. ‘Yeah. That’s nice, but when’s your next TV show?’”
“So, I really did,
and still do, have to push through that imposter syndrome of what I think people expect from me versus what I know I’m capable of. And that’s partly what we incorporate into this HBCU coding boot camp; it’s those hard skills of learning to code but also the soft skills of pushing through adversity and showing up in the world 100% authentic.”According to Williams, she has always been “an engineer at heart.” But a “spiritual” trip to a bookstore inspired her to tap into her natural skillset in tech.
“I set out on a continuation of my spirit spiritual journey, but I also went to the bookstore, and that’s where I find a lot of my spiritual material, and a book called ‘HTML For Dummies’ fell off the shelves,” she recalled.
“I had tinkered around a little bit with technology. I am an engineer at heart. My dad is an engineer, and my mom is a creative. So I think I have an equal amount of both of them within me.”
After reading the book, “The Wood” star taught herself how to code at a time when the technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now. The challenges she faced helped inspire her future coding programs for young women.
“I taught myself about four different programming languages at the time, which was about 15 years ago. So there were no modular programs that allowed us to just kind of stack, drag, and drop,” Williams explained.
“You had to know the code. You had to know how to build using these coding languages, and I learned that.”
After teaching herself to code, Williams started building websites for her friends for free and used YouTube to reach the audiences she wished to connect with on a new level. She saw the shift that was coming to the content space and wanted to help motivate other Black women to get ahead of the tech trends.
“I amassed a pretty decent following on YouTube, just making hair videos… When you make that shift, when you make that change, when you take that leap, everything starts falling into place,” she shared.
Williams eventually launched Arise And Shine Foundation Inc. with her sisters, Leslie Williams-Dunn and Lisa D. Williams-Sorensen, to connect and educate underserved and underrepresented women and girls. The foundation’s coding boot camp kicked off May 31 at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. It taught students how to build their own applications, coding activations, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) training, and Apple programming language.
“It went above and beyond our expectations,” Williams said of the program, which received devices and learning support from Apple as an official partner. “The young ladies came and blew our minds.”
“We had things in place for them to celebrate them, to make sure they felt valued, to let them know they matter, and to let them know that this is an exchange,” she continued.
“We’re offering you resources, but you are also a resource to us… That really built trust in a very short period during that kick-off weekend, which was subsequently followed by a four-week virtual coding camp where all the students learned to build apps. Some knew nothing about technology or coding before they got there.”
After a successful pilot program, Williams will continue the coding boot camp in 2025 and plans to bring the initiative to more HBCUs throughout the country.
“Our goal is to impact every single HBCU,” she
shared. “Next year, we will be doing a different school. And ultimately, I want to do a tour. I want to be at an HBCU near you… I want us to hit the ground in all these different regions and be present and available for women who want to be empowered.”RELATED CONTENT: Charlotte Teen Lands ‘STEM Enhancement In Earth Science’ Internship With NASA