Latinos in STEM at Cornell

After looking at the title of this article, you might be asking yourself what STEM is. So let’s get that cleared up before we go any further; STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. STEM is usually used to reference careers and college programs in these areas. STEM is an area that the United States has had issues with – not many people in these fields, and not as many people pursuing these areas in their education.

Over the past few years the United States has prioritized STEM careers and STEM education, offering many specific programs and incentives to increase the numbers of people in these careers.

Latino Progress in STEM
Even with incentives and programs to increase STEM careers and degrees, Latinos are still a group that is largely underrepresented. According to a report by Excelencia in Education, Latinos earned only 8% of STEM certificates and degrees earned in 2009-2010. There are Latinos in the STEM fields, but they’re usually in lower paying professions. That being said, the majority of Latinos that are earning degrees in STEM fields are receiving bachelor’s degrees, and they’re attending some of the top institutions. According to the same report, 60% of the STEM degrees earned by Latinos from 2009-2010 were bachelor’s degrees, and 47% of all STEM degrees conferred to Latinos that year were from the top 25 institutions in the country.

Cornell Diversity Outreach
Despite being underrepresented for the most part in the university setting, there is some remarkable outreach going on at Cornell University, which is a top 15 institution. According to the earlier mentioned report by Excelencia in Education, “Latino/a students represent over 20% of the participants in the engineering program operating at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels to facilitate the outreach, recruitment, retention, and success of underrepresented groups in engineering.” Cornell is increasing their Latino involvement in these areas and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Hopefully this trend will continue at Cornell as well as other universities.

Cornell University is dedicated to diversity and minority outreach, especially in their engineering program.

A Bright Future
With outreach like Diversity in Engineering at Cornell University and more and more Latino students pursuing STEM degrees and careers, the future looks bright for Latino involvement in these fields. STEM jobs are growing and there are some very fulfilling and good paying jobs in these fields. So when you’re thinking about your major, explore majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – there are good opportunities in all.