Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Haystings.
Hi Nicholas, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in South Sacramento, and that is where my inspiration for serving community and social entrepreneurship stemmed from. Initially, I had dreams of becoming an engineer but once crossing this goal off the list, I came to realize that it did not matter if I as an individual became successful if those coming from similar backgrounds did not have the opportunity to reach similar heights. A few years after achieving my lifelong goal of becoming an engineer, I pivoted to commit to my community work with Square Root Academy full-time; a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring all youth had the opportunity to pursue STEAM regardless of the socioeconomic position they were born into.
Since then, the avenues for service splintered as I came to realize our team had the ability to impact systemic inequities in other realms beyond the sciences. This passion along with a dedicated team of compassionate individuals allowed us to serve in multiple sectors with the development of entities such as Lab 7 Coworking, Uncommon HAUS, Scholars’ Playground, 5000 Watts, Hack the Park Festival, and other civically learning endeavors.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the biggest challenges we faced as a team was a lack of guidance and a substantial blueprint in our immediate community to help us move the work forward. As we pursued these endeavors birthed from passion and lived experience alone, we had to lean on previously acquired transferable skill sets to be successful in our service to community. With a little resilience, and lot of creativity, jointly we leaned on each other, peer mentors, and those in similar areas of service to guide us; but we had to do our due diligence to find these individuals. This proved challenging for a group of 20-somethings but in staying the course, we went from serving a few dozen a year to a few thousand through our community-serving entities.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Square Root Academy is a 501c3 organization dedicated to ensuring all youth have access to high-quality STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Mathematics) based activities and learning experiences. All programs are no cost and are implemented in the communities we hope to impact in order to lower the barrier for entry with regards to these career fields and pursuits.
What matters most to you?
As it stands, the fields that makeup STEAM in a professional and higher education regard are largely lacking in diversity, with a starking absence of women, people of color, and those that reside on the wrong end of the wealth gap. An absence that keeps our most vulnerable populations in their current dilapidated social and economic standing while missing a huge opportunity to improve and diversify our workforce. Within the next few years, the large majority of jobs will require some level of technical competency and there will be holes if we do not extend the opportunity to participate to all of our residents. It is important from an economic perspective. It is important from a social perspective. It is important from a moral perspective. This matters simply because it is the right thing to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.squarerootacademy.com
- Instagram: @lab7coworking
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Squarerootacademy/
Image Credits
@CREATEHERDREAMS
