School celebrates Black History Month by highlighting inventors

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Students at Rachel Freeman School of Engineering in Wilmington are getting some extra lessons during Black History Month thanks to a faculty member lending some inspiration.

Ernie Faison is the in-school suspension coordinator. He put his figurine collection of famous black people on display but didn’t stop there.

Everyday after morning announcements he has a student announce on the intercom and highlight a famous black inventor, since Freeman is a STEM school.

Faison says highlighting these inventors helps encourage students to try harder and make inventions of their own.

“When they see other black people who’ve done amazing things and have impacted the world in such a positive way, it motivates, it inspires and it encourages them to also want to do just as well as the other black people throughout the years have done,” Faison, ISS coordinator, said.

Some students have taken the lesson to heart with one group making a table for a classmate in a wheelchair.

Faison says this is just the beginning of the school’s black history month activities.