"As a black woman Cynthia Chapel in STEM used to photo opportunities

When Cynthia Chapel is asked to help with a photo of a research professor and her team, she assumes you'll do it the person doing it, the picture. The professor will use the image to apply for a scholarship.

Chapel, then a chemistry researcher at an American university, did not work directly with his team and minimal face-to-face interaction with them. So when he came to be photographed, he was still pulled in front of the camera with the crew. Confused, he smiled at the image before feeling uneasy.

He looked around: the research team consisted of white men, and she was the only black woman in the picture.

"This is an example of the diversity of Photoshop, where black women are used for photo opportunities," she told the BBC. That isn't very comfortable for me. " The 31-year-old grew up in a downtown neighborhood in downtown Chicago.

Growing up in a large family of seven siblings, his entire universe was within a two-block radius. As a result, Cynthia's school, her extended family, and all her friends are only five minutes away, and they spend their evenings exploring the neighborhood.

In 2015, Cynthia Chapel came up with  ​​a club that would attract more women like her to the world of science. As of 2018, Black Girls Do STEM has become an after-school community.

"I will make a list of environmental improvement opportunities," he said, "I will count the number of [liquor] shops or vacant lots in the area and write suggestions on what can be replaced to improve the area. I collect data."

"Sir. Estes is a young black teacher I want to admire. It was my introduction to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)."

He gets to know the summer science camp and extracurricular club through her and falls in love. "There's not a lot of STEM activities to do in my neighborhood. So I found myself leaving my church on the South Side and going elsewhere - to do certain activities.

But leaving South Chicago didn't mean he found more women interested in STEM. Even when he studied chemistry at Purdue University in Indianapolis, he felt he was a minority. 

"I was one of two black students born in America," he said.

When he graduated and became a research chemist, he noticed another trend that he couldn't see women of color, especially black women, rising to the higher echelons of US academia—especially in STEM.