Only 3% of Black professionals hold senior technology leadership positions. This statistic is not just a number. It is a mirror reflecting the opportunities lost, the decisions never made, and the innovations the world will never see.
It also highlights a dynamic that we think we can change. The three of us—a nonprofit CEO, a founder and principal of a college preparatory high school, and a summit president—met last year over breakfast at a restaurant. education summit in San Diego and we are committed to driving this change.
The lack of Black leadership and talent in STEM fields is a problem with a known origin: K-12 schools. This is evident in school classrooms where a 7-year-old wonders why the robot can’t recognize her face and a ninth-grader struggles to debug her first algorithm.
Related: There’s a lot going on in classrooms from kindergarten through high school. Stay up to date with our free weekly K-12 education newsletter.
Students cannot be what they cannot see. By the time most students meet their first STEM mentor, the pipeline has already narrowed. If we wait for college orientation to expand this pool, we have waited too long, because the future workforce does not start with college orientation.
The three of us are each doing our part to expand the pipeline. Our solutions to this problem include:
- Invest in programs that work: Equitable talent development starts well before internships. Philanthropic and corporate partners must invest in pre-K programs, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and other organizations that expand access to STEM.
- Uplifting stories: Amplify stories about the contributions of graduates of these schools and organizations. Invite young innovators into boardrooms as collaborators. Tell their stories about the stages where capital and policy decisions are made.
- Build a career pipeline of future leaders and innovators: Commit to creating more paid internships, sponsoring a cohort of teachers, or funding a classroom. The need is specific; the impact is generational.
Our partnership, which began as an effort to integrate HBCU students and leaders into the ASU+GSV community (a gathering platform for education innovators), now promotes access, mentoring and career-related opportunities through collaboration between three distinct entities.
Project Scientist is a national nonprofit organization covering early exploration through college-ready leadership. We offer a series of extracurricular experiences, including an Explorers Club, an Innovation Lab, and a Circle of Scholars who guide students through every step of their K-12 journey. THE programs include rigorous, hands-on real-world experiences and teacher training.
At HBCU College Preparatory High SchoolStudents tackle projects such as exploring the role of science in civic justice by using physics to analyze the speed of bullets and chemistry to help design protest safety tools like protection against tear gas. When a ninth grader at HBCU Early College Prep High School wonders if an algorithm could be biased, she’s not just learning computer science; it frames ethics.
It’s the first program of its kind in the world, and it’s filled with academics who are already designing real-world solutions. In this way, students learn that STEM is not just about formulas; it is also a question of freedom.
HBCUs have always been more than institutions; they are incubators of intelligence and courage. Although they receive only a fraction of the philanthropic and government investments directed to their peers and represent only 9% of four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions, HBCU Awards 28 percent of STEM bachelor’s degrees earned by Black students. This is an outsized return on an undervalued investment.
Our partnership views HBCUs as critical infrastructure in the innovation economy, connecting K-12 and higher education. It aims to foster students’ sense of belonging and ensure they have access to professional mentoring, job shadowing and paid internships. This exposure to professional expectations will shape their future.
Related: STUDENT VOICES: We were STEM-obsessed siblings growing up. It shaped our path to Princeton and our careers
Education at its best cultivates both innovation and integrity. Students in these programs and schools don’t wait until adulthood to create change. There is no need to tell them that they belong to the future. They are already building it.
Pipeline expansion requires more than corporate will. Some meetings and partnerships produce business cards; ours resulted in a model: the conditions necessary for people to sit down next to each other, recognize a common problem, and refuse to leave without a plan. This helps us build relationships that advance students, institutions, and ideas.
It’s also proof that when investors, policymakers, and innovators get in the same room as educators, something real can happen. This is exactly the commitment the next generation is asking us to make, to ensure that the doors we have walked through remain open long after we are gone.
Our story began with a breakfast conversation. The next chapter depends on who chooses to take a chair.
Patrice S. Johnson is the CEO of Project Scientist, a national nonprofit organization that inspires curiosity and confidence in underappreciated students from kindergarten to career. Tiffany Taylorpresident of the ASU + GSV Summit, and Asia Johnsonprincipal and founder of HBCU Early College Prep High School, also contributed to this opinion piece.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story Black Students and STEM was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Register with Hechinger weekly newsletter.
The article OPINION: We need more black professionals in STEM fields appeared first in the Hechinger Report.
