{"id":2191,"date":"2015-01-28T19:58:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T19:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cucsj.org\/?p=2191"},"modified":"2015-01-28T19:58:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T19:58:31","slug":"underrepresented-minorities-in-stem-fields-what-ive-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/2015\/01\/28\/underrepresented-minorities-in-stem-fields-what-ive-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Minorities in STEM Fields: A Student Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Preston Zhou, Irvington High School Student Guest Writer, with Jeanette Ramos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think oftentimes, people don\u2019t realize just how drastic the underrepresentation of<\/p>\n

women and minorities in science and technology really is. According to the United States<\/p>\n

Census, over 75% of all STEM jobs are held by men, and over 90% of tech jobs at big<\/p>\n

companies such as Google are held by workers of Caucasian and Asian racial backgrounds.<\/p>\n

The effects go beyond just discrimination against minorities, it also excludes a major<\/p>\n

proportion of people from contributing their own ideas, experiences, and perspectives to<\/p>\n

the field. Especially because we live in the Silicon Valley, underrepresentation is a<\/p>\n

close-to-home issue that affects many Bay Area citizens daily.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"EngInAct<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the Fall 2014 Engineering in Action after school series, I was able to see how San Jose State<\/p>\n

University students were able to encourage elementary school children of color from<\/p>\n

Third Street Community Center to participate in science and technology activities. The<\/p>\n

main factor that I noticed aligned with what I found during my research as well\u2014the<\/p>\n

experiments were heavily focused on hands-on, application-based activities, which has<\/p>\n

been shown to be better than merely explaining the theoretical and experimental<\/p>\n

findings of science. In addition, the presenters were a diverse and multicultural group,<\/p>\n

which according to Professor Ilumoka of the University of Hartford, increases the<\/p>\n

interest level of racial minority children.<\/p>\n

\"teaching\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think some solutions to this problem would have to lie in popular media, especially in<\/p>\n

convincing people to portray scientists as women and people of color, rather than just men of<\/p>\n

an overrepresented race in STEM fields. We should fund more programs to increase<\/p>\n

representation across the board, and actively encourage and foster children and people of<\/p>\n

color\u2019s interest in science and technology at an early age. Because we live in the central hub of<\/p>\n

technology, companies in the Bay Area should lead the vanguard and serve as a role model for<\/p>\n

other companies by integrating more women and minorities in STEM fields.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Engineering In Action is collaborative project with CommUniverCity San Jose, 7 local after-<\/p>\n

school programs, and San Jose State University College of Engineering\u2019s Material Engineering<\/p>\n

Department. The program was founded by Dr. Stacy Gleixner in Fall 2010 and is a<\/p>\n

continuation of Inquiry in Action which began in Spring 2006. The project has helped SJSU<\/p>\n

Material engineering students to share their passion for engineering and science through<\/p>\n

hands on experiments with \u00a0local after-school students. The program continues with the<\/p>\n

support of Dr. Jared Tuberty, Dr. Michael Oye, Dr.Christina Peters, Dr. Raj Venkatesh, and<\/p>\n

their Material Engineering courses (MATE 25 and MATE 153)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Special Note: Thank you Preston for your help in assisting with Engineering in Action in<\/em><\/p>\n

Fall 2014. It is very motivating to see youth and future scientist like yourself working with<\/em><\/p>\n

communities of color. Because of your compassion, motivation and advocacy, I know<\/em><\/p>\n

that the future will better in including more people of color in STEM fields. Best of luck in<\/em><\/p>\n

college! \u2013J. Ramos<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Preston Zhou, Irvington High School Student Guest Writer, with Jeanette Ramos.   I think oftentimes, people don\u2019t realize just how drastic the underrepresentation of women and minorities in science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217679849,"featured_media":2809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cucsj.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/7fc15-engineeringgirls.jpg?fit=269%2C244&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdKLrT-zl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217679849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}