07/20/2025
Women In History Month Spotlighting Black women(And Black Teenage Girls)Meet Alena Analeigh WickerBorn November 19, 2008. She begin reading chapter books as a three year old toddler. As a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, in elementary school, along with being bullied and mocked for her seriousness and intelligence by her fellow students, she was also told by her Teacher who is White, that she would never get all A''s because of her skin color. It was then that her parents made the decision to have her home-schooled.
As a 5th grader, she returned to public school, different one from before and she continued in an advanced curriculum. Alena graduated from her high school near Fort Worth, Texas at age 12, after
which she began attending Arizona State University. She initially double majored in Astronomical and Planetary Science and Chemistry, hoping
to one day be a NASA Engineer.
When asked about her intelligence, she says: I don''t want to say I was different, I was just thinking about the different possibilities of what I could do and when it came to education, I was like why not move forward if I have the chance to do so? I think I was just thinking or going and doing things that no one else had done before.
It was while completing high school, Alena noticed the racial and gender disparities in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
fields, which led her to develop the Brown STEM Girl website. She
imagined using BSG to create this culture of Brown girls in STEM. Through encouragement from her Mother, she developed a business plan and
contacted business people to get the foundation started.
BSG provides scholarships, mentorships, internships
and other support to girls of Color pursuing education in STEM. BSG also offers opportunities for girls of
Color to study abroad in Singapore. Wicker founded Dorm Room Makeover as part of her First Year College Initiative for first year girls of Color majoring in STEM Fields.
After a trip to Jordan with the Brown STEM Girl Foundation, she became
interested in Viral Immunology and switched her major Pre Med. On May of 2022, The University of Alabama at Birmingham''s Heersink School of Medicine offered Alena admission in 2024, through the school''s
Burroughs Wellcome Scholars Early Assurance Program. In this program, which partners with several HBCUs in Alabama to offer students early acceptance as they plan to enter medical school. She
accepted the offer later that summer, having graduated at the age of 15. She''s also studied at Arizona State University.
Her advice to Black girls: Don''t let your race, your gender or anyone tell you who you are and who you can not be. Make it happen for yourself.
Alena Analeigh Wicker, a beautiful example of Black Girl Magic. Black women and teenagers are legendary, long live Black women.
