02.17.2023 –
In honor of Black History Month, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division’s African American Employee Resource Group (AAERG) hosted “Black History Month Jeopardy!” for NSWCPD personnel on Feb 8, 2023.
“We know about the traditional famous figures whom everyone is taught about in school, but do we explore beyond the information we are presented? I’m looking forward to this event because it gives me a chance to learn something new today,” NSWCPD Special Emphasis Program Manager Edwin Rosa said as he helped kick off the game.
The event consisted of a slightly adjusted version of the standard Jeopardy! game show format that has existed since its television debut in 1964. This take entailed two teams of NSWCPD personnel answering one round of trivia questions on African American history ranging from 100 to 500 points in five different categories such as “Black History Month Sports” and “Black Inventors.”
Some of the featured questions asked were, “This book and movie profiled four women whose work as mathematicians played an important role in the U.S. space program,” and “In 1997, he was the first African American professional golfer to win the Masters Golf Tournament,” with “What is Hidden Figures?” and “Who is Tiger Woods?” being the answers respectively.
“I started working at NSWCPD in 2016 and I was on the board of the AAERG pretty much since I was brought on, so my involvement with the AAERG was well documented. So, I was approached, and they said ‘hey, we love your energy and everything, would you mind doing the Jeopardy! event?’” NSWCPD Mechanical Engineer and the host for the Black History Month Jeopardy event, Jabril Muhammad said.
Muhammad added, “I didn’t mind so I said, ‘let me get in my Alex Trebek mindset’ and I really enjoyed it.”
Muhammad’s energetic personality shined in the game show host role, and he made sure the event continued running smoothly as it was well received by both the enthusiastic participants and the engaged audience. Whispers of audience members playing along could be heard with every question throughout the crowd.
“We wanted a kick-off event for Black History Month that would be exciting and fun for the NAVSEA community to get involved with. We thought this would be an interactive event that everyone would participate in, whether you were sitting on a team or if you were silently participating, anyone could participate. So, that’s how this Jeopardy! event came into mind,” NSWCPD Chemist Jasmine Richardson said.
She continued, “It [the event] turned out way better than we imagined. We had great participation and energy in the room, and a lot of support joining in on [Microsoft] teams. I’m glad that everyone enjoyed the event and enjoyed the questions that were posed.”
NSWCPD Technical Director Nigel C. Thijs continued the sense of informative fun in the event’s closing remarks while advancing the discussion on looking deeper into African Americans’ contributions to building America.
“That was a lot of fun. It was great to see the teams come out to have some nice, healthy competition, and to learn a lot of facts about African Americans who contributed to our country’s success…Those stories are not always told, so it was important to see and be refreshed of some of the names here…It’s really important to review our history and realize that Americans from all backgrounds helped build this Country into what it is today,” Thijs said.
Highlights from the “Black History Month Jeopardy!” event can be found at the following link https://www.instagram.com/reel/CofoPOYgM9W/.
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and material for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.