Education Week - May 1, 2019 - 19

COMMENTARY

The Hidden Barriers to STEM

By Emilio Pack
eisi Cruz was the hardest working
kid I'd ever met. Shy and stoic, when
she wasn't studying, she was working
at a restaurant to save up money for
college. After graduating as the valedictorian from the South Los Angeles
high school that I founded, she enrolled at the University of California,
Berkeley, where she planned to major in business and
economics. A few months later, she told me she was considering changing majors.
"Why?" I asked.
"Econ. is too hard," she explained, adding that her college guidance counselor had advised her to switch to a less
demanding major. He suggested Chicano studies. When I
asked Deisi why she was struggling, she confessed that she
was uncomfortable being one of the very few Latinas in her
major, compounding the stresses of an already challenging
course load.
It was a pivotal moment for both of us. Deisi was discovering the discomfort of racial and cultural isolation in an
academic field dominated by white men. I was discovering
the ways in which I'd underestimated my responsibility as
an educator.
When I founded STEM Prep Schools, a K-12 network
with a science, technology, engineering, and math focus,
I was determined to create professional possibilities for
kids like Deisi. Between May 2009 and May 2015, STEM
occupations in the United States grew by 10.5 percent compared with 5.2 percent growth in non-STEM occupations,
and at more than double the rate of non-STEM jobs, according to a 2017 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. The report also found that the national average
wage for STEM occupations was nearly double the national
average wage for non-STEM occupations. But it is not an
inclusive industry. Just four percent of STEM professionals
are Latino men and three percent are African-American
men. Women of color make up only 12 percent of STEM
professionals.
By providing kids of color in one of Los Angeles' most neglected communities with a rigorous STEM education, I believed I was setting them up for success in a fast-growing,
high-paying field.
But even as we celebrated graduating nearly 100 percent of our first two senior classes-most of whom have
gone on to pre-declare STEM majors in college-Deisi's
experience showed me that we weren't doing enough. Our
kids might arrive at college planning to become engineers
or economists, but after wrestling with particularly difficult coursework, surrounded by people who look nothing
like them, they might choose a less challenging path. The
problem with that path is that it's a lot less likely to lead
to prosperity.
The reality is that not every diploma offers the same opportunities. Some diplomas might get you a walk across
the stage and a handshake from your dean, but they won't
get you a job.
I didn't want Deisi to choose a fallback degree, enter the
job market, and then experience a rude awakening. She'd
worked too hard, and she was too passionate about building a career in business and economics, to quit when the
going got tough. It took a few phone calls and even a few
visits from me and some of our school's assistant principals and counselors, but we persuaded her to stick with
her major. We helped her make better use of her professors'
office hours. Perhaps most importantly, we reminded her
that she belongs wherever she truly wants to be.
That kind of intervention is not a scalable or sustainable
solution for the millions of kids of color who reach college
and then grapple with alienation and insecurity. Our country's K-12 system needs to confront this challenge head-on.
We need to make sure all of our students internalize the
conviction that they deserve to pursue competitive careers.

Getty

I was discovering the
ways in which I'd
underestimated my
responsibility as an
educator."

How? We have to help students from low-income families make informed decisions about their financial futures.
Students who know that 93 percent of STEM jobs guarantee above-average income, according to the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, might be more resolute about succeeding
in those fields.
But most importantly, we have to introduce young students, especially those who live on the margins, to the
professional world. Internships are a luxury that most
students can't afford or can't access. Even those who can
usually don't begin them until college. But students from
disadvantaged communities are the ones who most need
firsthand exposure to the daily work of scientists, engineers, and doctors-and they need it before they reach college so they aren't thrown off course when they hit bumps
in the road.
In the years since Deisi was a student, STEM Prep has
begun to partner with companies like Boeing and Kaiser
Permanente, which offer internships for some of our students. But given today's highly competitive global economy,
programs like this should be the rule, not the exception. If
our nation's public schools embrace this idea, next time a
guidance counselor tells a young woman with dreams of
becoming a physicist or an astronaut that she might have
an easier time majoring in English or sociology, she'll tell
him where she really belongs. n
EMILIO PACK is the founder and CEO of STEM Preparatory Schools,
whose mission is to ensure young men and women of color can access
and thrive in the STEM fields. He is a 2019 Education Week Leader To
Learn From.

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