Inclusive STEM Learning Environments: Six Institutions Committed to Progress
Published on:
Oct 31, 2022
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Photo credit: Seventyfour/Adobe Stock
On November 1, 2022, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is making the first grants in its Driving Change initiative, awarding $2.5 million each to six universities: Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the Ohio State University, the University at Albany, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, University of Montana, and University of Virginia.
It’s no secret that college science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education has a serious diversity problem. Although roughly the same percentage of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other students of color initially select majors in science-related fields as white students, they end up graduating with a STEM bachelor’s degree at half the rate of white and Asian students. The result is an unacceptable underrepresentation of Black and brown people in all types of science-related jobs, from medical researchers and math professors to Silicon Valley engineers and rocket scientists.