Airdate: March 28th, 2023
According to Pew Research Center, people of color and women remain underrepresented in STEM fields.
Another recent report stated that women and students of color drop out of STEM courses or leave STEM fields due to uninviting atmospheres, difficult weed-out classes, and STEM courses that do not show their relevancy.
Dr. Sue Mukherjee, chief student success officer and chief information officer at Cheney University, Dr. Bilita Mattes, executive director of STEM-UP Network at Harrisburg University Science and Technology, and Oluwatomilola Taiwo, medical biotechnology student at Harrisburg University joined us on The Spark Tuesday to discuss the importance of diversity in STEM fields and how local universities are working to support that.
STEM students, specifically women and people of color, are deterred from pursing STEM fields due to feeling a sense of isolation, lack of support, unconscious biases, math intimidation, the fear of some STEM jobs becoming automated due to artificial intelligence and more. Dr. Mukherjee and Dr. Mattes, said the mentorship opportunities, diverse faculty and the Harrisburg University STEM- UP Network helps women and people of color to overcome some of those challenges.
“The reality of the tragedy is that we lose 50% of those who go into STEM professions in the first ten to twelve years of their career,” Dr. Mattes said. “And it’s often for research reasons that we can do something about at the individual level. So that’s how we develop our programs. That’s the point of our community.”
For more information about STEM-UP Network visit hut3st.harrisburgu.edu/stemupnetwork/.
0 Commentaires