Mission Statement
S.O.L.I.D.S. will expand the growth of young minority leaders within the S.T.E.M. realm by providing a self-developing curriculum and real life experiences to teach leadership through the structure of S.T.E.M. disciplines.
Vision
S.O.L.I.D.S. aims to invest in young minority S.T.E.M. students so that they learn to mentally invest in their own talents and abilities; producing a fearlessness in them, that they may be able to obtain their goals and achieve their aspirations.
Our Story
Students Obtaining Leadership by Innovative Developmental Styles Inc (S.O.L.I.D.S.), started off as a series of social test experiments in 2010 by the founder Dante’ Freeland amongst his college peers to pull out the leadership qualities needed to maximize the growth of young professionals on campus. Being an engineering major, Mr. Freeland used many Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.M), concepts and platforms to run the experiments. The experiments had very startling results. There appeared to be a large disconnect in the beliefs of where an individual’s confidence and vision for themselves can take them through their lives. Students were running from opportunities to make a change because of lack of confidence within themselves, shortsighted vision of their goals, and an overall sense that their voice was not big enough to be heard. This was an alarming discovery to find in our leaders of tomorrow and needed to be addressed. Soon afterwards Mr. Freeland would start to develop a curriculum based off these social test experiments to truly tap into the mind of these individuals, with the end goal being to have each individual leave with a new sense of pride and leadership within themselves. Mr. Freeland believed that “leadership is 50% understanding yourself and 50% understanding others.” The thought behind this was, the more you can understand and embrace your own flaws in order to grow the more you can do it for others as well to help them in their growth. From these concepts and experiments grew S.O.L.I.D.S. An organization built to help the youth of tomorrow embrace themselves and leadership through the guidance of S.T.E.M.
Our Team
Chief Executive Officer/ Founder
Dante’ Freeland was born in Washington, DC and raised in Prince George’s County Maryland. Early on he showed an interest in STEM, which later led to him testing into the Science & Technology Program at Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale, MD. Upon graduation of High School, he chose to attend North Carolina A&T State University where he received a B.S. in Architectural Engineering and a M.S. in Civil Engineering. While at North Carolina A&T two career paths were birthed: a career of engineering and a career of helping the youth. After graduation in December of 2013, Dante’ secured a job as a Mechanical Engineer and has been working as an engineer ever since. He was not satisfied however with just working a 9-5 job and wanted to help the youth in the DMV area he grew up in. This led to formation of the organization S.O.L.I.D.S. which helps teach its students leadership and self awareness by using STEM as a teaching tool.
Secretary
Toni Freeland has six years of experience in research and healthcare services working for Children’s National in Washington, DC. In her current role she secures funding for the department of Genetic Medicine Research which includes assisting with proposal development for research grant applications. Toni graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 2012 and currently she is pursuing her Master of Science in Research Administration from the Johns Hopkins University.
Director of Operations
Ashlee Jenkins was born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland, graduating from Charles H. Flowers High School in 2011. Soon after she attended and graduated from Fayetteville State University with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice in 2016 and obtained dual Masters Degrees in Criminal Justice and Public Administration in 2019 from the University of Central Florida. She currently works as a Program Analyst with specializing in strategy, planning and project management.
Community Service Chair
Zachary Canady was born in Fairfax County, VA and raised in the small town of Middleburg, VA (about an hour west of the beltway in the Northern Virginia area). He attended Loudoun Valley High School and was a tri-athlete during the school years participating in Football, Basketball, and Track & Field in their respective seasons. After high school, Zachary attended North Carolina A&T State University, thanks to the blessing of a full academic scholarship, and graduated in May of 2014 with a BS in Architectural Engineering. After graduation, he immediately went into the workforce and started with Forrester Construction while pursuing a Masters of Engineering in Project Management (which he received in December of 2017) at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. Zachary is also a musician and when he is not wearing his hard hat he is hard at work creating songs and playing the guitar.
Agricultural Activity
Committee Chair
Kimberly Marshall graduated from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University with a degree in Biological Engineering. She has 5 years of experience in environmental consulting. Kimberly specializes in Erosion & Sediment Control and Stormwater Management. She is currently working alongside project managers and construction managers on a roadway project in northern Virginia.Outside of work, you can typically find Kimberly getting creative in the kitchen or at a local nursery. As a certified herbalist (Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine) and women’s health specialist (Steamy Chick) she uses her skills and knowledge to teach other how incorporating more plants into the diet can positively affect one’s mind, body, and emotions.