From isolation to inspiration

Darlyne de Haan is changing the face of STEM, one student at a time

- BY JOHN KELLMAYER

Darlyne de Haan was just 12 years old when her family moved to New Milford, N.J. Raised by a single mother in a low-income household, the move represented more than just a change in scenery — it was a cultural shock. She had grown up attending schools filled with African American classmates. In New Milford, her family was the only Black family in town, and Darlyne became the only Black student in the school district.

Despite the unfamiliar surroundings, one thing about Darlyne never changed: her love for science and math. A naturally curious student, she enjoyed taking things apart, figuring out how they worked, and putting them back together. Science gave her a framework for understanding the world.

But there were things she couldn't make sense of — things like racism. And that's where her real education began.

A HARSH AWAKENING

Darlyne’s first painful lesson in New Milford was that racism wasn't just a word in a textbook — it was real, and it was personal. She couldn't understand why classmates treated her differently, or why teachers looked the other way when they did. “I couldn't take racism apart like a science project," she said. “There was no logic to it. No formula to fix it.”

Though she came of age during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations — a time when landmark civil rights legislation was reshaping the country — school culture lagged far behind. Racism was alive in the hallways, in the classrooms, and on the long walk home.

She remembers being followed by groups of white students after school, taunted with racial slurs. She remembers teachers doing nothing when classmates shot spitballs and paper airplanes into her afro, a hairstyle she wore proudly during the disco era.