The Problem
Increasing equity and supporting historically underrepresented groups in STEM through transformative, peer-to-peer education is a cause near and dear to my heart. Because of the fact that I didn’t have such informative and exciting access to engineering growing up, my passion for the field grew into a passion for making sure that all underserved students receive the exposure to STEM that they deserve. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of STEM jobs grew 13%, but this boom is clearly leaving out a diverse set of individuals. Only 26% of people in STEM are female. White workers make up 70% of the science and engineering workforce while Hispanic, Black, and American Indian/Alaska Native workers only make up 11%. This is unacceptable and these fields are simply incomplete without the potential skills and creativity of these minorities. Whether it’s further developing a pre-existing interest or exposing students to a viable career option they may become passionate about, United Engineers will continue to inspire and motivate young students to pursue STEM.
Our Plan
For the past four years, I have been introduced to and prepared for fast technological acceleration in the world. However, I have recognized a lack of equity for historically underrepresented groups (specifically females and ethnically and racially diverse people) in STEM. In response to a lack of passion, excitement, and access to information regarding STEM, our group would like to organize and run an eight week national workshop (in Indiana and Pennsylvania) for middle school students called United Engineers. The program will allow students to learn the basic concepts of engineering from high school students (first five weeks). The first phase will allow students to learn math and science basics (electricity and magnetism, kinematics, simple machines, etc.), maintain an engineering notebook of the workshop activities after informative lectures that involve construction and deconstruction of items/mechanisms, and learn the engineering design process. In the final three weeks, students will split up into groups to develop and propose an innovative solution addressing one or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. United Engineers will be a sustainable, annual, and expanding program to enhance and help students apply what they learn in the classroom after school.
