Letter to the Editor | Montgomery County’s Value Proposition: Investing in STEM and Minorities

Montgomery County’s powerful science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related fields boast millions of dollars in economic impact, yet it is suffering from a shortage of qualified STEM workers, according to the Final Report of the Maryland Governor’s STEM Task Force.  With approximately 6,000 STEM job openings and only 4,000 STEM graduates, the math simply doesn’t add up, especially looking toward the future.  And, since we consider our technology community to be a global powerhouse, we can’t afford to continue this deficit of STEM workers and watch the rest of the world zoom past us. 

However, this problem is not unique to Montgomery County, or even Maryland.  It currently plagues much of America.  Besides a shortage of skilled STEM professionals who can fill the three million STEM-related vacant jobs in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, approximately 10,000 Baby Boomer will turn retirement age every day for the next 18 years.  STEM jobs have grown at three times the rate of non-STEM jobs during the past decade, and one in five STEM professionals come from outside the U.S.  Clearly, we need to better invest in STEM education in Montgomery County.

We propose a STEM movement focused on minority students in the county, for which there is the potential for enormous growth.  As highlighted in a recent National Science Foundation report, the number of African Americans and Hispanics in science and engineering fields nationally is only 3.9 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.  In Montgomery County, investing in minority youth makes even more sense.  Here’s why: 

According to the U.S. Census, Montgomery County now has a Minority Majority population of 51 percent, with the Latino community growing at a rate of 64.4 percent, Asians at 37.5 percent and African Americans at 23.5 while Whites are dropping at a rate of approximately eight percent.  In fact, almost all the population growth in Maryland is now minority growth.   Minorities are not just burgeoning, but also young with more than one in three Latinos under the age of 18.

We propose a minority-based youth movement to push Montgomery County forward in STEM education.  Our collective challenge is to attract more students to be interested in STEM-related subjects through cool, accessible, innovative platforms on their terms, not ours.  For instance, through the MdBio Foundation’s flagship program, MdBioLab – a state-of-the-art tractor-trailer with a fully-equipped laboratory – 10,000 Maryland high school students are introduced to a variety of STEM-related jobs and careers annually.  The Hispanic Heritage Foundation has created a national initiative, in partnership with the Entertainment Software Association, which challenges minority youth to design a video game that addresses social issues to encourage innovation among youth through platforms they feel most comfortable – video gaming and phone apps.  But we need to do more to leverage the tremendous talent we boast in Montgomery County to inspire and guide our youth in the STEM fields. 

With that, we are co-hosting the first LOFT (Leaders On Fast Track) STEM Symposium for Montgomery County students on Saturday, November 16 at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.  The daylong event is free for County students and will feature top STEM leaders, who are taking part in interactive panels as well as networking with the students. During a special breakfast of Montgomery County leadership, Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. John Delaney will discuss the importance of investing in STEM programs for minority youth. 

The investment in minority youth is truly a value proposition for Montgomery County to serve as a leader in innovation, research and STEM job creation.  We can’t afford to wait.

By Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO, Hispanic Heritage Foundation (www.HispanicHeritage.org) and Brian Gaines, CEO of the MdBio Foundation (mdbiofoundation.org)