By Dianne Anderson

Robots are the latest craze, and as helpful as they are right now in taking over most of the lower-paying grunt work, they can’t yet fix themselves – for the most part – but technology is changing.

Now that they’ve mastered hamburger-flipping jobs, they have their glowing robotic eyes on the next level of low-skilled opportunities.

Kim Calvin said that, to some degree, it’s already happening.

Amazon and other warehouses are replacing human pickers, those who place products in boxes to ship out to customers. Still, she feels the young scholars at Akoma Unity Center can achieve so much more.

“Those jobs are already outsourced,” said Calvin of the nonprofit Akoma Unity Center in San Bernardino. “We need a crossover in educating our scholars. Until they create the robot that is repairing the robot, we want to make sure our scholars are learning that portion of the industry.”

Coming up at Akoma, new programs will give youth and parents an edge in the job market by learning robotics, automation, and STEM in a state-of-the-art lab. Without this opportunity, she feels that local youth won’t be able to compete.

“With our city being identified as a logistics city, and I’m sure [logistics are] going to grow, we wanted to make sure we prepare our youth to compete in these in-demand jobs,” said Calvin, Chief Executive and Co-Creator of Akoma Unity Center.

On Saturday, April 19, Akoma hosts its robotics and automation workshop from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at 1367 N. California St., in San Bernardino.

“We’re launching aeroponics, aquaponics, and hydroponics, where scholars will see how fish help keep the water clean for plants. There’s a lot happening,” Calvin said.

The new lab will be accessible to parents and youth ages 12-17, or to age 18 if they are still in high school.

Back in 2019, Akoma’s robotics program was also a success, but this time, Calvin said it’s an entirely new lab. Big corporate and nonprofit partners have stepped up in support, providing curriculum and certification.

She gives a lot of credit to their board of directors. She is also very grateful to Isaac Nash Vey, an engineer with 30 years of experience at Epson, who works closely with scholars and programming.

“It’s a safe space. A Black man teaches the class, and he’s worked for Epson for decades. Yaamava generously donated $25,000 at the ribbon-cutting for the project, which you’ll see in the room. The robots they are building and everything they’re learning—it’s as if they’re in a true lab,” she said.

Akoma has been on that trajectory for a while. For the past eight years, they have also served as a vendor with SBCUSD.

But for all students, she worries about how many will get left behind if they are not introduced to technological job markets beyond traditional academic settings. About two years ago, she took parents and scholars to see the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Orange County, where she noticed other districts were also bringing their scholars to learn about robotics.

“They had 3D imaging, podcasting, and they were working on college and career readiness,” she said. “It was a really cool space. We thought we can definitely emulate this at Akoma. We’ve been working for the past two years. What we’re about to launch is something great.”

Getting scholars tech-savvy is the goal. She sees her program as a gateway into the world of industrial automation and robotics. And when it comes to technology, conceptualization is better than memorization.

“We offer this hands-on learning experience that demystifies complex tech, because children of color often shy away from this area. We can play video games, but we notice when it comes time to read an enormous amount of directions to repair or fix something, we begin to see the challenge,” she said.

While not everyone wants to get into tech as a career, they won’t know unless they try. One Akoma scholar told her last year that she had never looked into a microscope while in traditional school. Akoma now has access to microscopes for their kids.

Several of Akoma’s programs have expanded, including their youth-led Drug and Alcohol Prevention Program, which partners with five San Bernardino City Unified School District sites and two charter schools, reaching about 1,200 scholars over 2.5 years.

Their Sankofa Saturday Learning Center also offers tutoring, breakfast, and lunch, and Anne Shirrells Park Beautification includes refurbishing basketball courts, improving landscaping, and creating a Zen Garden.

Best of all, those without transportation in the community can easily access the center.

“Anyone living across the street from Akoma, you’re able to enroll in a training program. Once you leave, you have the opportunity to take that certification to a company with hireable skills that they’re looking for. It’s more than a job, it’s a career,” she said.

For more information or to enroll, visit https://akomaunitycenter.org/