Many of America’s technology giants say, yes. Merck has funded tens of millions of dollars in United Negro College Fund scholarships. Bayer has a special focus on recruiting and promoting minorities. Technology giants such as Boeing, General Electric and Xerox support organizations dedicated to raising black STEM participation. Their motivation is simple math. If bright and capable students’ talents go undeveloped, “this represents a loss for both the individual and society,” the National Science Board said in a 2010 report. The report said that after the Soviet Union beat America into space with Sputnik, the U.S. was inspired to educate a new generation of innovators. This national urgency faded by the 1970s, the report said, and was replaced by complacency.
Some 16 percent of all U.S. undergraduates major in natural science or engineering, compared with 25 percent in Europe, 38 percent in South Korea and 47 percent in China, the report said. To reverse this decline, the report said America must “cast a wide net to identify all types of talents and to nurture potential in all demographics of students.”
Jemison identifies another incentive. Even though scientists may use the same methodology, “what topics they choose to research, even the interpretation of facts or what they choose to look at is influenced by experience.”
“So many times it’s the diversity of thought and perception and experience base that starts to make the difference in the problems you research and the solutions you consider,” she says.
“It’s a much more robust reason for diversity that just the head count.”
Article first appeared @
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/sports/basketball/lenny-cooke-star-to-be-who-never-was.html?_r=3&src=dayp&pagewanted=all
This Article Appeared in The Black Truth News Volume 3 Issue 8 August 2012