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Coverage, interviews, analysis, and Family First updates from the communities and institutions helping shape what comes next.
The Future of Urban STEAM: Bridging the Digital Divide in Los Angeles
As technology reshapes the global economy, local initiatives are ensuring that Los Angeles youth aren't just consumers of tech, but its future creators.
Analysis
Education
By Marcus Sterling
October 24, 2026
STORY-TYPE LABELS — TRUST IN ONE LINE
NEWS
— objective reporting on current events and local trends.
INTERVIEW
— Q&A or profile built around a named subject.
ANALYSIS
— evidence-based interpretation, clearly distinguished from straight news.
COMMENTARY
— a named author's perspective or argument.
FFF UPDATE
— Family First announcement, program story, or organizational update.
PARTNER UPDATE
— clearly attributed information from a partner organization.
Standards of Trust: These labels appear above the headline or beside the category on every story in consistent small gold and navy type to ensure full transparency for our readers.
Never make commentary look like neutral news.
ANALYSIS
The STEAM Bridge: Closing the Digital Opportunity Gap in South LA
EDUCATION + TECHNOLOGY
A new partnership between Family First and local robotics labs is creating high-tech pipelines for students who have traditionally been left out of the aerospace boom.
By Marcus Sterling
Published October 24, 2026 | Updated October 27, 2026
Students at the South LA STEAM Hub test their latest rover prototype. (Photo: Elena Gomez / Family First)
The landscape of South Los Angeles is shifting. Beyond the new stadiums and commercial hubs, a different kind of infrastructure is taking root: a digital one. For decades, the 'digital divide' has been a buzzword for lack of access, but at the Family First Base, it's being treated as a solvable engineering problem.
Building a Tech Pipeline
Last month, the foundation launched its most ambitious tech initiative to date. The South LA STEAM Hub isn't just a computer lab; it's an aerospace-standard robotics facility where high school students learn the same software used at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Marcus Sterling, director of program development, says the goal is parity. 'We don't want our students just learning to use tools; we want them building the tools,' he explained during a tour of the new lab.
Beyond the Screen
The program integrates physical engineering with advanced coding, ensuring that students understand the full lifecycle of a technological product. By partnering with local aerospace firmware companies, students gain access to mentorship from professionals who look like them.
Sources + Related Links
- 2026 Urban Opportunity Report
- Family First STEAM Hub Curriculum Guide
- LA28 Aerospace Employment Forecast
About Marcus Sterling
Marcus is a veteran journalist and educator who has spent 15 years covering the intersection of technology and social policy in California. He serves as lead correspondent for the Family First News Desk.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the specific software used in the robotics hub. It has been updated to reflect the use of JPL-standard firmwares.
Related Stories
The Family First News Desk covers the people, institutions, and ideas shaping opportunity for young people in Los Angeles and beyond. Our contributors bring experience in education, community leadership, sports, technology, and youth development.
Richard Awni
Senior Olympic & Sports Correspondent
Beat: Olympic legacy, Los Angeles professional sports, athletics and education/community opportunity.
Richard Awni caught the Olympic bug in 1984, in his own backyard, and it never let go. Four decades and multiple Super Bowls,
World Series, Olympic Games, and World Cups later, he brings that same firsthand obsession to Family First News Desk, covering Olympic legacy, Los Angeles professional sports, and the place where athletics, education, and community opportunity meet. He founded Family First Foundation in 2000 and has spent more than 25 years building youth programs at that same intersection. An Eagle Scout, Richard has always believed the biggest lessons in sport happen off the field as much as on it.
Disclosure: Founder & Chairman, Family First Foundation; Co-Founder & Executive Director, Artificial Intelligence Institute.
Brian Taylor
Senior NBA & Basketball Athlete Development Correspondent
Beat: professional and Olympic basketball, athlete development, sport and leadership.
Brian Taylor knows what it feels like to walk out under Olympic-level pressure, he lived it as leading scorer and captain of the 1971
Pan-American Games team. A Princeton graduate and former professional basketball player, he's carried that competitor's eye to
Olympic Games he's attended since, and now brings it to Family First News Desk, covering professional and Olympic basketball and the role sport plays in building leaders, not just athletes.
Disclosure: Director of Sports & Education, Family First Foundation; Co-Founder, Artificial Intelligence Institute.
Lea Ubas
Contributing Writer, Youth Development & Community Sports
Beat: youth development and community-building through sport.
Lea Ubas has spent her career in the rooms where youth policy actually gets decided, 24 school boards' worth, as Glendale Council
PTA Executive Vice President and District Council President. As President of Family First Foundation, she brings that ground-level view of what actually reaches kids to Family First News Desk's coverage of sport and community.
Disclosure: President, Family First Foundation.
Dr. Russell Knight
Contributing Writer, Sports Technology & Performance Science
Beat: technology, data, and performance science in modern athletics.
Dr. Russell Knight spent nearly three decades building systems for NASA that couldn't afford to be wrong. As Co-Founder and President of the Artificial Intelligence Institute, he brings that same rigor to Family First News Desk, breaking down the technology and performance science reshaping how modern athletes train, compete, and win.
Disclosure: Co-Founder & President, Artificial Intelligence Institute
Isaac Jean-Paul
Contributing Correspondent, Paralympic & Adaptive Sports
Beat: Paralympic and adaptive sports.
Isaac Jean-Paul jumped into Tokyo with the world watching and no fans in the stands, and walked away with bronze. Four years
later in Paris, in front of a roaring crowd, he turned that bronze into silver. A Paralympic world record holder in the high jump and
five-time NCAA Division II All-American, Jean-Paul brings the view from the runway itself to Family First News Desk's Paralympic and adaptive sports coverage.
Disclosure: none beyond his role as a contributing correspondent
Alexander Awni
Youth & Next-Generation Sports Correspondent
Beat: Los Angeles sports, athlete technology, the next generation's view of LA28.
Alexander Awni grew up in the stands, not the bleachers, Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers, Rose Bowl Saturdays he helped run himself,
marching his own Boy Scout troop and football teammates through the gates. Now an aerospace engineering student at Penn State, he covers Los Angeles sports and athlete technology for Family First News Desk with a question his generation is uniquely positioned to answer: what does the LA28 legacy actually mean to the people who'll inherit it?
Disclosure: Richard Awni's son. Named here directly rather than left implicit.
Derek Strong
Contributing Correspondent, NBA & Community Sports
Beat: NBA, community sports, athlete life after competition.
Derek Strong spent ten NBA seasons proving himself against the best in the world, six teams, over 3,000 points, a run through the Lakers and the Clippers both, after being drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1990 out of Xavier University. Then he did something no other NBA player has done, walked away from the hardwood and built a NASCAR ownership career from scratch. That same restless drive, plus a career spent showing up for children's hospitals and inner-city kids, now shows up in his basketball coverage for Family First News Desk.
Disclosure: none beyond his role as a contributing correspondent.
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