In the journey to increasing diversity within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields, minorities have come far but they are not there; and only by providing the resources, mentoring, and including everyone will the United States become No.1 in STEM worldwide.
That was the message panelists delivered Thursday at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., after the screening of Crystal Emery’s film, “Black Women in Medicine.”
“We don’t want you to give it to us, just open up the damn door and we’ll get it ourselves,” said Emery.
One of the panelists discussing the film, Sarah EchoHawk, CEO of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, said the United States has not fulfilled its promise of providing Native Americans an education in exchange for land. “We’re not getting the resources that we need, we’re not getting the funding that we need, the challenge is there,” EchoHawk said.
According to collegehorizon.org, a nonprofit that focuses on higher education for Native Americans, only 5 percent of Native Americans attend four year colleges directly after high school, and only 10 percent graduate within four years.
“We really need to continue to funnel resources into Indian country to train more Native teachers, to look at updating curriculum and making it culturally appropriate because when native students do that and they receive that they can be more EchoHawk said.
EcoHawk said that based on her experience as a Native-American child, students should be aggressive and find their own mentors and ask questions to open doors and opportunities. Dr. Eugene DeLoatch, founding dean of the school of engineering at Morgan State University, and Jill Houghton, president and CEO of U.S. Business Leadership Network, agreed that mentoring played a major role in their path to STEM.
