Meet the 2024 BestColleges Black Women in STEM Scholarship Winners

Women account for almost 30% of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. However, the majority (66%) of those women are white.

To help improve diversity in the field, BestColleges, for the second year in a row, is awarding $6,000 each to five Black women studying STEM fields to help fund their education.

“After starting this scholarship last year, this second cycle did not disappoint, and we received more interest from high school students, undergraduate and graduate students at different points in their education journey,” BestColleges Managing Editor Cobretti Williams said.

“It shows not only the understated number of talented Black women in STEM across the country but the continuing need to offer financial support so these women can pursue their passion and make a positive impact on society.”

Meet the 2024 BestColleges Black Women in STEM Scholarship winners.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Inayah Entzminger took a course in the art of science communication, learning how to easily communicate complex scientific terms from their research to the layman without sacrificing the facts.

It turned out to be good timing. Right after the course, COVID-19 vaccines started rolling out, and Entzminger used their skills to talk to older Black women about any hesitations to get the vaccine.

“I tried to explain to them why I knew the science was accurate and why I believed it was important for them to get the vaccine — keeping themselves and their families safe,” Entzminger said.

“I don’t know for sure, but I feel like this information coming from another Black person helped these people feel like I cared about their well-being and wasn’t trying to cynically get them to take untested medicine.”

Today, Entzminger is entering the sixth year of their Ph.D. program at The Graduate Center, CUNY (City University of New York). They hope to go on to communicate scientific topics to the public at a science magazine like the Scientific American.

Dayana Allison is a first-year honors student at East Carolina University, majoring in pre-med psychology. She plans on becoming a healthcare practitioner specializing in pediatric and neonatal medicine.

However, Allison is also committed to advocating for patients seeking healthcare in rural areas. While doing volunteer work, she learned hospitals in rural areas are often underfunded and struggle to serve patients.

“Most patients — including children — are malnourished or have the unhealthy nutritional habits typical of those who live in food deserts,” Allison said. “Some patients were simply uneducated about making healthful choices and decisions — so much so that I, a 17-year-old girl, had to provide dietary suggestions they could incorporate into their daily lives.”

Allison hopes to utilize her undergraduate research to study mental health resources for rural and urban populations.

As an undergraduate student, Faith Twinamaani became fascinated with plants — specifically climate change’s impact on crop production.

Twinamaani became a horticulture major to eventually develop tools aiding challenges farmers face. She said she was discouraged by the lack of Black women in STEM and plant science, but her undergraduate research advisor convinced her to stay.

“Although I was passionate about my work, the lack of Black women in horticulture made me question if this path was worth pursuing,” Twinamaani said. “My advisor consistently reminded me that as frustrating as this was, it only takes one person getting their foot in the door to pave the way for others.”

Now pursuing her Ph.D. at Cornell University, Twinamaani plans to help increase diversity in STEM and agriculture. She said failing to do so would be a disservice to global communities relying on scientific advancements to sustain their futures.

“Increasing diversity in STEM and agriculture isn’t just about providing opportunities for talented young scientists — it’s about ensuring that the next generation of problem-solvers has the breadth of knowledge needed to address the complex issues facing the agriculture industry in the coming years,” Twinamaani said.

Growing up in Philadelphia, JaNiece Watters saw the homeless community’s lack of access to clean water and knew she wanted to work toward a solution. She said she sees STEM education as a way to gain the knowledge and tools to tackle this issue.

Among other projects, Watters worked with an engineering team in Ghana to develop a water filtration system for a village of 300. She’s now going into her first year as a biology major at Clark Atlanta University.

One day, Watters wants to open her own company that promotes clean water access for all communities.

“I want to use my knowledge to develop innovative solutions that can benefit communities both locally and globally,” Watters wrote in her essay. “By pursuing a STEM degree, I hope to inspire others, especially young Black women, to see the possibilities within STEM fields.”

Family members’ health issues — and the lack of quality care for them — led Theresa Oluwatobi Uwe to want to become a physician very early on.

As a master’s student at Meharry Medical College, Uwe is studying health sciences before heading to medical school. She plans to utilize her education to promote health equity and social justice.

Uwe said mistrust in the healthcare system leads patients to being back-seat drivers in their care plans. Discrimination by healthcare providers, such as minimizing the pain of Black patients, leads patients to mistrust the healthcare system. Uwe wants to combat this during her career in family medicine serving multicultural and diverse communities so her patients have a better chance of improving their health.

“I aspire to use my medical education and life experiences to gain my patients’ trust in order to heal their physical wounds and alleviate the pain life has inflicted on them,” Uwe wrote in her scholarship essay.