“My main goal, and the focus of Fab Lab Miami, is to reach the
youth of our communities to expose them to the world of STEM.”
Meet 2024 Chevron Fab STEM Fellow Angel Johnson
Before joining Fab Lab Miami, Angel served as the Community Manager at Miami Children’s Initiative in Liberty City. As the Community Manager, Angel was responsible for product distribution to residents, resident engagement, community outreach, and community activities. Angel has vast experience working with all age groups, including grade school students needing academic support and adults in need of educational and career resources. He was also a facilitator of S.T.E.P., a parenting program in Liberty City where he provided parenting training and led children and parent activities. Angel is also a recipient of the 2018 Molina Health Care Community Champion Award. He earned this award for his hard work and dedication to his community. Angel’s dedication to uplifting others stems from his own experience growing up in poverty where access to resources were limited. Witnessing such challenges firsthand, he became determined to make a difference. Fueled by a curiosity for technology and digital fabrication, Angel began his journey to empower his community. Through support from his own network of resources, he strives to bridge the gap between underserved communities and those who have the desire to see such communities grow. This is being accomplished by providing access to education, opportunities, digital fabrication tools, and sustainable solutions that uplift and serve those in and around the community.
Winning Lesson
In July 2022, Fab Lab Miami created and implemented a lesson for students 6-12th grade to create 3D homes using digital fabrication. Being that the students of our program live in or near the underserved area of Liberty City in Miami, FL and many in government assisted housing, we found this to be an innovative way to expose them to state of the art designed homes. Students were able to conduct research such as the geographical layout of their neighborhoods, research homes that are similar to what they would desire to create and consider what they would want to obtain as their future homes. From using Basswood to create the structure of the homes to using circuitry to create electrical functions such as fans and lights, students created various designs that depicted their vision of their dream home.