Mary J. Blige Teams Up With NASA

Mary J. Blige waves to the audience after performing at the Ariston theatre of Sanremo on February 20, 2010. The singer is teaming up with NASA to encourage young women into science, technology, engineering, and maths. (TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)

Mary J. Blige will be teaming up with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to encourage young women to follow the paths of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The award-winning R&B artist, also founder of the charity Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN), will be working with NASA’s “Summer of Innovation” program to provide different learning projects over the summer.

Summer of Innovation helps middle school students and their teachers using many different challenging and interactive courses that will help improve their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (referred to as the acronym “STEM” in the program) skills.

“Mary’s presence can help NASA make the STEM message more appealing to these communities and increase the pipeline of underrepresented students going into these disciplines,” said Leland Melvin, a veteran NASA Space Astronaut.

High school girls in the campaign will be teaching Summer of Innovation content to middle school students at the New York City Housing Authority Van Dyke Community Center and the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy.

They will also be able to support Summer of Innovation during the fall session at York College of the City University of New York (CUNY).