History makers in the making: 10 African-Americans contribute to science

It's Black History month and I wanted to highlight the contributions of African-Americans to science. While searching for information to share with you, I found this website, TheGrio.com, which is an excellent resource for learning about and catching up on the latest African-American-centered news. In honor of Black History month, TheGrio.com features 100 African-Americans who are History Makers in the Making. Of these 100, 10 are making extraordinary contributions to science, including Charles Bolden, Robert Bullard, Dr. Agnes A. Day, Tony Hansberry, Lisa Jackson, Shelton Johnson, James McLurkin, Derrick Pitts, PhD., Jerome Ringo, and Beverly Wright.                                     Video featuring Tony Hansberry 
Because of my interest to get more young minorities involved in science, I was excited to learn about 15-year-old Tony Hansberry who "developed a project that showed how to reduce surgical time for hysterectomies, and has "people in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida are calling him the 'next Charles Drew'." Full article.

More about TheGrio: TheGrio.com is the first video-centric news community site devoted to providing African Americans with stories and perspectives that appeal to them but are underrepresented in existing national news outlets. TheGrio features aggregated and original video packages, news articles, and blogs on topics from breaking news, politics, health, business, and entertainment, which concern its niche audience.  

Thank Goodness It's Friday???

Ah, tomorrow is Friday. I should be excited that it is the last day of the week and the weekend is almost here. Uh, no.  My Friday is crammed. I have to give the lab meeting tomorrow at 9am. (And yes, after making some easy-to-fix cloning mistakes, I did get the data I mentioned in an earlier post.) I committed to attending a networking event at noon. I jumped at the opportunity to give a short talk about my research to recruits for my graduate program at 3pm.  I will play school bus and shuttle my daughter from her elementary school to her ballet school before 4pm and then pick her up by 5:30pm. Somewhere in all this chaos, I will get a few experiments done. Oh yeah, I will eat at some point. This is my life, my life as a single parent pursuing a PhD. No complaints, just feeling a wee bit stressed. And oh yeah, tomorrow night will be a Papa John's night! I will let you know how things go.

STEM careers, how do we appeal to our youth?

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers are failing to attract today's youth.  Why? This concern is briefly explored in the January 27, 2010 Herman Trend Alert, STEM Grads and Competitiveness, which says that,

"our youth (seem) to revere the accomplishments of sports celebrities and rock stars, while our scientific geniuses (go) virtually unrecognized. More recently, United States President Barack Obama at his Whitehouse summit for youth echoed Kamen's words, himself promoting the study of the STEM topics as a matter of competitiveness." 

Competitiveness, eh?  So STEM careers have to compete for the admiration of our youth against Kobe and Beyoncé??  Oh boy, that is a tough battle.  So, I prose two questions:

1. To STEM professionals, what can we do to get our young people interested in STEM careers?

2. To young people, what can STEM professionals do to get you interested in STEM careers?

I am going to take a stab at Question #1 myself. I know from personal experience that young people do not exactly view STEM careers as "cool," UNTIL they learn more about what STEM professionals do either through presentations or hands-on activities. So, I believe that exposure is the key.  Unfortunately, young women and minorities are less likely to be exposed to STEM careers.  I was not exposed to careers in STEM until I was a junior in high school through an outreach program that allowed me to shadow a clinical lab researcher at a local hospital.  Until that experience, I did not know any scientists or what their jobs entailed.  This experience greatly influenced my current career path as a biomedical researcher.  From experiences like this Bottom line: Exposure MUST happen sooner.

Want to learn about STEM careers? Then check out these links below!

Browse Occupations Find details like wages, education requirements, and job demand. Create an Occupation Profile by selecting “Explore Careers” and then “Browse” under “Occupations.” 

O*NET’s STEM Occupations View the full list of STEM occupations. Select a job title to learn more.  

Career Voyages Explore career options and education requirements in emerging, high-growth industries and in-demand occupations. 

What Do You Like? Learn how your interests and favorite school subjects match careers. This Web site can help you make informed decisions about careers, education, and training.

Links courtesy of CareerOneStop.