Minority Report -- Riding the Pipeline: What Two Groups are doing to Create the Next Generation of Women and Minority Leaders

By Joel Gunz
Originally appeared in Commerce Magazine, December 2006

Part three in a three-part series.

When Harvard President Lawrence Summers questioned the innate potential of women to succeed in math and science, a debate erupted regarding women and minorities that hadn't been heard in decades. Think of the fallout from comedian Bill Cosby's speech calling African-Americans to task for not taking more responsibility for their economic plight, throw in last spring's protests from the Hispanic community over President Bush's proposed immigration reforms, and this much attention hasn’t been paid to minorities since, perhaps, the Sixties.

As far as the Northwest is concerned, such activity underscores the feeling of many that Oregon's professional workplace is still largely a white man's world. True, the door to the Executive Suite is open to all, but once women and minorities enter those quarters, they may not always feel that they are being treated as equals. Such prejudice will likely not be articulated; well-meaning white individuals might even insist that it isn't there. But women, blacks, Hispanics and others often find that they have to work harder to earn equal respect. Comments may be made behind their back. To these individuals, entering such a climate on a daily basis can be daunting.

Add in layers of negative cultural and social perceptions that linger among some women and minority groups, and that's a recipe for under-representation.

Diversity is an issue that everyone must confront. Oregon's economy depends on it. Each time an Oregon company fails to win a federal General Services Administration contract because it didn't meet diversity benchmarks, more job opportunities go to another state. All Oregonians, regardless of their gender or ethnic background feel that pinch.

Terri Fiez, Oregon State University Professor and Director of its School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, suggests that the solution begins with the individual.

When it comes to being a woman or a minority engineer, Fiez says, "It isn't easy. You have a choice: you can be a leader, or not. You have to have the same qualities as any leader, even if you're just starting out." According to Fiez, such minority leaders are defined by a certain set of characteristicsthe drive to put out consistently solid work. She adds, "You must have the ability to reach out to others to create community, because they won't always reach out to you. Just like any leader, you must be especially kind to others, even if they aren't kind to you."

Of course, such leadership qualities don't come about by accident. They must be cultivated from youth.

OSU senior Meghaan Smith is pursuing her PhD in chemical engineering. She reached out for this career because others encouraged her to see herself as an engineer. Says Smith, "My mom directed me that way after she became interested in engineering. She saw those same qualities in me and encouraged me to go for it."

Smith is President of the local chapter of Society of Women Engineers and recently finished a summer internship cosponsored by MIT and Harvard University. Nevertheless, in spite of her accomplishments, she still faces challenges that males don't. "It's a little intimidating to get into class and see that I am the only woman. I feel that I stand out because I'm a woman. I've had guys say things like, "I would have gotten that award or scholarship, but they had to give it to a female."

For Smith, much of her support comes from her family. Others, however, don't have that resource.

Urban black youths may be caught in a cycle of poverty that militates against getting a college education. Cultural antipathies toward a career in the sciences cause some blacks to feel that such a choice is a racial sellout.

Other systemic conditions make it difficult for minorities. North Portland's Jefferson High School, which serves a large portion of that city's black students, has long struggled to provide a consistent academic program, and each year turns out graduates ill-prepared for the rigors of, say, a university engineering program.

Hispanic students likewise have their own challenges. Language barriers often inhibit their parents from engaging in the school system, and a college campus is virtually terra incognita for them; and their children are often left to fend for themselves. If they have recently immigrated to the United States; their relatives may not understand how difficult it can be to succeed in college while continuing to work the family business.

Such youths need outside help if they are to take up the challenge of pursuing a professional career. As it turns out, various agencies have been cruising along under the radar, guiding kids toward just such a goal.

Each year, Portland-based non-profit Self Enhancement, Inc., which is "dedicated to guiding underserved youth to realize their full potential," coaches some 2000 youths, aged 8-25—most of whom are minorities living at or below the poverty line—to choose a better path.

Following a year-round program, SEI provides mentoring, tutoring, peer group support and elective classes to help kids with their homework and to develop life and leadership skills. Many of these kids come from highly unstable homes, and SEI offers them consistency, even taking on the role of additional parent, if need be, putting these youths on a healthy academic track as early as second grade—and keeping them there well into their college years.

And the results are truly astounding. 98 percent of these students will graduate from high school (compared with 48 percent among their peers who do not join SEI) and fully 85 percent of those high school graduates will go on to college. Many of these kids are the first ones in their family to earn a college degree.

Alumni are encouraged to pick up the SEI torch themselves, paying their lessons forward to a new generation of minority and poor youths. Take Siyonna White Webb, for example. Webb joined SEI at age 12 and, with its help, became the first person in her extended family to finish high school. Then she went on to Portland State University with the aid of a full scholarship. She recently graduated with a degree in criminal justice, and now she plans to work with Portland-area youths in crime prevention.

SEI's work is not new. In fact, the organization celebrated its 25th anniversary last August.
SEI has provided minority youths with the extra push they often need to get out and succeed. Other organizations at the other end of the educational pipeline are pulling such students through the system to get on a professional career track.

That's what Oregon State University's Ellen Momsen has been doing for the past three years. As Director of its Women and Minorities in Engineering program, Momsen's job is to seek out such candidates from among elementary and high schools, get them to consider a career in engineering, and help them fit in once they have made the commitment.

The fact that the WME program is funded entirely by grants and gifts from industry sponsors indicates that such a program is a priority for corporations. With that financial support, the WME program has created nearly three dozen paid research positions for its core students; it has also hosted engineering classes for middle school students and held high school career counselor workshops. The heart of WME, however, is its Ambassador program.

Following what Momsen calls a "near-peer" approach, student ambassadors—usually undergraduates who are themselves female and/or have a minority background—visit high schools throughout Oregon, working to overcome the negative perception that engineers sit in Dilbert-style cubicles all day devising new technologies to enrich the white male establishment—a scenario that turns women and minorities off.

Along the way, these Ambassadors help science teachers answer the perennial students' question: "when will I ever use this?" while modeling the fact that engineering is a legitimate option for minorities.

Plus, these Ambassadors make a career in engineering look cool.

They share their experiences with high school students about their trips to foreign countries. Dispelling the notion that they hang out in their dorm rooms practicing calculus, they talk about their experiences as athletes and cheerleaders and as members of garage bands. These young engineers literally rock.

Momsen's WME Ambassador Program is very much in line with sociologist Richard Florida's description of the "computer geek" as a recently evolved pop-culture hero. Florida's's 2002 book The Rise of the Creative Class lumps engineers and software programmers in with designers and artists as part of the creative community, with values more aligned with rock stars than pocket-protected Poindexters. He writes that this new breed of engineers is "youthfully inventive and at times youthfully rebellious, walking into a situation and wondering why it has to be that way."

Still, "the percentage of women who pursue careers in engineering is plummeting," Momsen complains. "It's dropped 10-12 percent in the last decade—particularly in computer science. A recent study showed that girls don't know much about engineering and don't want to know much."

Women and minorities are often all-too-aware of the social ills besetting today's world. Momsen's task is to help younger students see how a career in engineering can make a difference by pointing out the social relevance of engineering and the benefit it brings to mankind. It would seem that Momsen's job—connecting young women and minorities with opportunities to use science to solve real-world problems—is simple.

"It's very difficult to change perceptions and attitudes," says Momsen. "There are very entrenched stereotypes about what engineers do and what engineering is." Continues Momsen, "When I started this job three years ago, I thought that there would be a magic set of steps [to increase women and minority enrollment]. I thought, 'We're going to do this and then this and then this,' and then the problem will be solved. Well, not exactly. It's been much more difficult than I imagined it would be."

Reprinted from the December 2006 Commerce Magazine. ©Daily Journal of Commerce. All rights reserved.