Connecting Efforts to Support Minorities in Engineering Education: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023)
Chapter: 4 Roadmap of Existing Programs Supporting Students of Color in Engineering Pathways
4
Roadmap of Existing Programs Supporting Students of Color in Engineering Pathways
Carmen Sidbury (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, NACME) started her remarks33 by presenting the vision of NACME, of an “engineering workforce that looks like America.” She explained that the council works “through partnerships with like-minded entities, primarily providing scholarship supports,” and that it has funded over 25,000 students since 1974. She cited a current “partnership with Virginia Tech with a small NSF grant where we’re looking at students’ experiences as interns as they enter the workspace.”
She reported progress since the 1970s in closing the gap between the percent of incoming college students from historically minoritized racial groups who express an interest in entering a STEM field and White or Asian students who express that interest. Research shows that students from historically minoritized populations who attend “very selective colleges across the nation are thriving and graduating at rates comparable to what we see for White students.” Although these institutions are not highly diverse, the research suggests “that once students are in the right environments with resources, certainly they can thrive,” although she recognized that there is “a challenge still in the open access arena,” as graduation rates for students from historically minoritized populations are in some cases under 50 percent.
Indeed, while there has been much progress in STEM more broadly, when it comes to engineering, Sidbury acknowledged that “the mission is unaccomplished.” She reported that, despite changes in the diversity of the overall US population, the percent of engineering BS degrees earned by Hispanic/Latine individuals increased from 3 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2019, but the percent earned by Black/African American individuals remained at 4 percent, and the engineering workforce remains less diverse than the US population. In 2019, 56 percent of the engineering workforce was White men and 12 percent was Asian men, while Hispanic/Latine men (8 percent) and Black/African American men (4 percent) were underrepresented in the workforce (Carnevale et al. 2021). Sidbury also noted large differences by race in the engineering workforce’s 16 percent of women (Figure 4-1).
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33 Sidbury’s commissioned paper is available at https://www.nae.edu/254905/Resources#tabs.
SOURCE: Presented by Carmen Sidbury on March 30, 2022 from data analyzed by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.34
Turning to alternative pathways to enter technology and engineering spaces, Sidbury talked about computing certifications as an entry ticket, although most individuals who receive them are White men, with lower numbers for men of color and even fewer for women. She suggested examining the data more closely to understand “the barriers that are really impeding women who are receiving computing certifications.”
She went on to describe the importance of “early interventions, because we’re finding that for many students, they fall out of the pathway for engineering or computer science as early as fourth grade, primarily due to lack of access to math training.” Once that occurs, college access suffers.
Sidbury also described how NACME finds potential partner organizations that work in the early intervention space to increase access to education. They first determine “who has a national presence” and then “drill down a bit to those specifically focused on race and ethnicity. And then, to be even more specific, we went to the engineering and computer science space.” She added that the many organizations in this space reach some 3 million students, and a lot of their work aims for early exposure to spark interest in these fields.
Of organizations targeted to middle school students, Sidbury said, “two of the three focus on girls. We know that middle school tends to be a place where a number of girls have the aptitude, certainly, to do engineering and computer science, and to follow that through to high school and college, but many choose not to.” She listed organizations working to develop content and programming to keep young girls connected to engineering and computer science.
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34 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), 2009–19.
At the high school level, she mentioned “a number of organizations focused on honing skills, some offering access to courses and some offering tutoring.” In addition to preparing students for college, she said that “some organizations, like P-TECH,35 are preparing students to enter the workforce after high school.”
Moving to the college-level landscape, Sidbury reported that engineering societies such as NSBE,36 the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE),37 and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE),38 as well as more broadly focused STEM organizations like the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)39 and MESA40 are “key players in helping students build community,” including through mentoring programs. She also pointed to alliances of these organizations, such as the 50K Coalition, that strive to scale efforts and “share best practices across the organizations.”
In discussing the workforce, Sidbury mentioned organizations that provide training in computer science, programming, and coding to help people prepare for 21st century workforce needs. She also noted organizations that attend to racial disparities in the workforce, such as “OneTen,41 which [aims]…to have 1 million Black families have sustaining careers,” particularly in technical fields.
Ending her remarks, Sidbury commented that efforts to integrate “research and practice with an intentional focus on addressing systemic issues” help “students be the best that they can be.”
DISCUSSION
Planning committee member Shayna Begay (Sandia National Laboratory, SNL) moderated the discussion session. Relaying a question from the audience, she asked, “Did you find any evidence of these programs at the different educational levels working together? If so, how?” Sidbury answered that although programs do work together and share resources, most focus on “presenting the opportunities for students” to encourage interest in engineering.
Sidbury was asked to comment on how experiences before the senior capstone project, such as internships or undergraduate research, can encourage students to continue on to graduate school. She said that “Many REU42 programs mention grad school as an opportunity for students to think about,” and added that repeating the messages may help students consider graduate school. “There is no straight path” to graduate school, she continued, and some students may take industry jobs before transitioning to graduate school, so “we have to be innovative and open-minded about where we identify talent and then support [students] on their journey.”
Begay asked Sidbury to expand on the OneTen initiative, specifically how university professionals can work with the group. “It is a fairly new endeavor and it seems to be growing
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42 Research Experiences for Undergraduates: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/research-experiences-undergraduates-reu.
momentum in bringing on partners,” but currently “it is primarily corporate and community-based.”
Asked about differences in outreach efforts across racial groups, Sidbury remarked that the work should be culturally relevant and that many students are interested in doing work that has an impact on society. “How do we think about sustaining our culture, even as we lean into technology, understanding some of the principles that have to align with nature as well,” she said.
Last, Begay asked how NACME engages with tribal universities to try and boost their information on tribal and Indigenous communities. Sidbury answered that “we are in a strategic planning phase, looking at extending our partner list of schools. As we look at our overarching mission of really thinking about a workforce that looks like America,” NACME wants to have a presence in many institution types.
