Arva R. Rice
President & Chief Executive Officer, New York Urban League

Twitter: @arvarice

A few years ago, I attended a national conference focused on science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) that singlehandedly transformed the focus of our affiliate.  One of the consistent themes of the conference was the dearth of Black and brown students and adults in the sector.  After the first hour, I also noted the dearth of people of color attending the event.  By the end of the conference, I felt compelled to weave STEAM into our existing programs by seeking relevant partnerships and creating programs to address this crisis head on. 

By 2020, more than one million new STEAM jobs are expected to be added to the U.S. workforce with a 21% rise in technology positions.  More women and people of color are also expected to enter the workforce. However, these populations are severely underrepresented in STEAM fields. Only half as many Black and Hispanic workers have STEAM jobs relative to their overall workforce representation compared to 75% of white men. Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S., they fill less than 25% of STEAM jobs. Engaging more girls and people of color in STEAM education and career pipelining is a business imperative.

STEAM has already revolutionized how we live, from smart technologies in our smart homes to every day weather updates on our smart phones. STEAM is not a mysterious field better left to academics and engineers.  There are problems all around us that can be solved with STEAM. The New York Urban League (NYUL) is proud of actively training our youth to become problem solvers and create some of those solutions.

The goals of the NYUL STEAM Initiative are: to ensure youth from low-income families have access to quality educational services that lead to academic achievement, to develop students who are competitive college applicants, and to instill career and entrepreneurial aspirations that prepare them for STEAM related industries.

Our work started with a STEAM summer camp that included a parent and youth component. Later we published “A Parents’ Guide to STEM” in partnership with US News & World Reports.  We changed the focus of our career exploration days—known as our Young Men and Young Women’s Empowerment Days—to focus on how corporations create STEAM solutions.  Most recently, we created The Harlem Alliance, a collaborative to build a state-of-the-art CodeNEXT lab powered by Google.  We have trained young people to code, provided internships with tech companies, and opened career pathways in STEAM industries.

The path to STEAM success is broad and can be reached via many roads. It requires conquering fears and strengthening weak foundations in math and science.  Parents and caregivers must encourage young people to push past stereotypes, take challenging coursework, and venture beyond the familiar.  Young people want to find a cure for cancer, provide clean water and rid the world of AIDS.  Too often cast as the problem, they want to create the solutions.  STEAM provides the tools that can unlock the creativity of the next generation.