During a Cold, Snowed-in Week, Gamma Pi Covers Two Bases for the Community: Meeting with Our Lawmakers and Leading Students to STEM

During the week of February 9, when the DMV was still plagued with the aftermath of a heavy snowfall, a slew of Brothers from Gamma Pi Chapter were out and about in the snow navigating the challenging roads to make an impact in the local community. One group was helping to introduce young students to STEM during a group visit to Amazon's Headquarters in Arlington VA.  Another group was at the State Capitol in Annapolis representing the community in a series of meetings with our state legislators. This is how Gamma Pi Chapter does it -- The Super Chapter often pulls "double duty."

On Wednesday, February 11, Gamma Pi's STEM chairman Bro. Aaron Ajani along with Bro. John Wilson and several other chapter members arranged for approximately 95 students from Oxon Hill High School and Bowie State University to visit Amazon's Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. 

The visit was an activity of Gamma Pi Chapter's two-year-old STEM inititive, which is designed to introduce more Black students to the tech fields. Bro.Wilson works at Amazon as a Senior Sales Manager for Startups.

Gamma Pi STEM, started in November 2024, has sponsored previous visits to the DMV Amazon headquarters in the past couple of years. The highlight of the recent visit was an onsite demonstration involving a fully automated robot who greeted the group upon arrival.

In addition, the students learned about GEN AI, Amazon’s Sustainability (data centers) program, career opportunities, scholarship opportunities sponsored by Amazon. The keynote speaker was Delta’s very own Phylicia Fant who is the Director of Global Music Culture with Amazon Music, who spoke on staying ahead of market, and AI disruption in the music industry.

STEM is a major priority of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. across the Fraternity. Gamma Pi's new STEM program has three components:

• Mattaponi Elementary School STEM Initiative: Focused on elementary education by introducing students to Robotics, Science Club, and the Science Bowl. The Science Bowl is a program where students tryout to be part of a 5-student team that competes against other elementary students on a televised show to answer science-related questions.
• AWS STEM Partnership Program: Collaborating with the tech giant, Amazon (AWS). In addition, the students learned from a collective group of amazonian that looks like them, exposes students to the vast possibilities for them within the STEM industry. It includes visits to Amazon HQ. In 2025, it included an internship for one of the participants.
• Prince George’s Area Science Fair (PGASF): The Gamma Pi STEM Committee participates in the PGASF by judging several science categories and sponsoring the awards for some of the categories

For information on Gamma Pi STEM and how students can participate, visit gammapi.org and leave a messsage for Bro. Ajani and the Gamma Pi STEM team.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The next day, Thursday, February 12, the Super Chapter numbered several Brothers among about 100 or so Omega men who participated in the annual Ques in Annapolis visit to the Maryland State House.  The event is for Second District Omega Psi Phi members.

Led by Second District Representative Bro. Amir Shareef, the Brothers spent several hours meeting with state legislators and staff about key issues impacting the communities we serve. The event included a chat and photo with Gov. Wes Moore.

The focus for this year's Ques in Annapolis was Senate Bill 0078, the Prostate–Specific Antigen Testing (Protect Our Prostate Act), which calls for certain disclosure requirements before testing to inform men of certain activities or substances that can artificially inflate PSA scores, possibly leading to unnecessary medical procedures. Brothers were able to sit in and watch a sub committee vote on the legislation.

Ironically during the Omega visit, the Buddhist Monks, who are on a 2,300 mile walk-for-peace across the U.S., passed through the venue, allowing the Brothers to be in the right place at the right time to capture and be a part of some history in the making.