Tap low-income students for careers in STEM

By Kathy Glampe, August guest blogger

During the past year, I have heard many warnings in the news, at conferences and even in Readers Digest, that the U.S. is losing its competitive edge in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Whether it is the number of engineers the U.S. graduates compared to China, India and South Korea or the investment that U.S. companies are making in research and design, the message is clear—we are losing ground. The U.S. must take very seriously its ability to compete in STEM if it is to remain a global leader.

An important part of maintaining our competitive edge is preparing the virtually untapped pool of low-income students for study and careers in STEM. According to the Louis Stokes Institute for Opportunity in STEM Education, for every 10,000 low-income students starting 9th grade, only 30 will earn a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field and only 1 will begin graduate school in a STEM field the year after earning the bachelor’s degree. We need to invest in this vast pool of potential scientists, mathematicians and engineers not only to boost the U.S. ability to compete on a global basis, but because it is the right thing to do.

What can we do?

• Encourage your legislators (both at the local, state and federal levels) to support and expand initiatives that assist low-income students to pursue and succeed in STEM fields (i.e. TRiO Math and Science Upward Bound programs, SMART grants to encourage low-income student engagement in STEM, NSF funded S-STEM programs, etc.)
• Support and expand non-federally funded programs (i.e. Pipeline Summer Camp Programs)
• Support and assist K-12 educators to expand the pool of students prepared for STEM fields
• Reach out to students you know and suggest science and math

I would love to hear your ideas for what can be done to address this important issue!

Comments

[Matt Richey]

Excellent points Kathy. It is particularly sobering to think that only 1 in 10,000 low-income kids will go on to a graduate degree in a STEM field. This is a shame and it holds all of us back, not just the kids involved. Thanks for pointing out the things we can do to help make the situation better.

[Heather Campbell]

Kathy:
I know that STEM initiatives have been receiving attention lately due to some increased funding and grants. I think that TRiO programs like Upward Bound Math/Science and St. Olaf's Young Investigators' program which encourage students to consider the sciences directly are a good start, as are programs for low-income and first-generation students who are in college. Unfortunately those programs may occur too late; we need to start much earlier with STEM education because so many students count themselves "out" of science and math early. I know that for many of my friends who did major in STEM fields, the "love" of science was often instilled by enthusiastic K-12 teachers (for me, it was a Chemistry teacher in high school!).

Unfortunately, this issue with students pursuing STEM careers is also seen in teaching; there are shortages of Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Math teachers across the country. If K-12 students (particularly students enrolled in under-resourced schools) don't have enthusiastic, highly qualified teachers in STEM, then how can we expect them to pursue careers in STEM?

So what to do? While major initiatives are needed, I also think that simple ideas can also have large impacts. For example, I know that the Chemistry Department at St. Olaf College periodically goes into the surrounding elementary schools doing "cool" science demonstrations and allowing elementary students to meet college students interested in STEM. Helping young students to see how fun science is helps them to also see how accessible it can be.

I hope that you get many posts with good ideas about increasing the number of students considering careers in the STEM fields.

--Heather Campbell

[Kathy Glampe]

Matt and Heather,
Thank you both for responding. I agree that we are all held back when we aren't preparing all of our citizens for careers that are so important for the economic health of the United States. Heather is absolutely correct that we need to support and encourage students to consider STEM fields early. If anyone has other ideas or knowledge of program models for encouraging our elementary children for STEM fields, please comment.
Kathy

[Janet]

Great blog topic! I attended a consortium of IT professionals working on ideas to attract new students to the IT field and they echo what you say about a need for new workers. There will be a tremendous amount of turnover in the IT field and they simply do not have enough young people (or slightly older adult retrainees) coming along.

So in addition to working with TRiO programs such at the Upward Bound Math/Science programs, one could reach out to adults who are attending college for the first time, or are making a career change and need financial supportt as well as personal and career support and counseling. The EOC, also a TRiO program focuses on adult learners. This project has received flat funding for 6 out of 7 years while the numbers of adults needing services has grown.

I think we need a major investment in our workforce in terms of education, and retraining. TRiO programs need to be expanded to serve more students. Financial aid needs to be drastically increased and the formulas must be adjusted for real costs of living and the sharp increases in tuition costs. When I attended college, the costs were low in proportion to other expenses and federal grants covered 80% unlike the 20% available now.

Business needs to do more as well. Paid internships, scholarships, work experiences, etc need to be made available to students and potential new hires.

[Kathy Glampe]

Janet,
All great suggestions! Not only do we need to encourage our elementary, middle and secondary students to consider STEM fields, we need to assist adult learners to re-enter college and pursue these critical fields. Affordability of postsecondary education is becoming a very serious issue, as is the level funding of many educational programs--TRiO being an important example.
Kathy

[Kim]

I know this is plenty after you posted, however when I came across it, I couldn't help but reply.
Encouraging students to attend college, and especially encouraging them to explore a major in STEM, is very important right now.

A couple items that are being done in addition to TRIO, are Project Lead the Way (http://www.pltw.org/) and a program at Normandale Community College, the Normandale Academy of Math and Science, which provides student support to students in STEM.