Coloring in the STEM Lines

STEM. Science. Technology. Engineering. Mathematics. These four areas have held my interest since I was a little girl. Science, more than anything else. I decided I wanted to become a doctor when I was eight, and I haven’t strayed from the medical path since. At the time, I didn’t realize or understand how my race would come to affect how hard or how easy that path would be for me. I assumed it would be the same for me as it would be for anyone else raised in an upper-middle-class neighborhood; not easy but attainable. I wasn’t prepared for the reality that I would be hit with.

I moved to Ghana when I was eleven and spent most of my pre-teen and teenage years. Therefore, most of my high school years were spent back in Ghana, where the education system is brutal compared to the education system in the states. I excelled in anything science-related, and my professors encouraged me to continue, as did my peers. I felt ready to go back to the States for my senior year and blow everyone’s expectations out of the water.

I didn’t know I would be the one blown away.

One of the first things I noticed coming back was the expectation of where I was academically. My advisor helped place me in all AP classes, and the extra challenge reminded me of the school system in Ghana. I felt at ease in these classes, but my peers may not have felt the same. Whenever I was put in group projects, my ideas were either gently put down or given little consideration. I didn’t realize that at the time, I was just the ‘girl from Ghana’ to them. Statements such as “ You speak English so well,” or “Biochemistry is so hard. Are you interested in anything else?” were common from both my classmates and my professors. It was one of the first times I had felt consciously aware of how people would view my race and my education. But why did that matter?

In today’s society, STEM employment has rapidly grown since the late 90s from 9.7 million people to 17.3 million people and computer jobs have seen a 338% increase over the same period. With this increase, there has also been an increase in minorities represented in the workplace. Interestingly, black and Hispanic workers are still underrepresented in STEM workers. Black people makeup of 11% of the STEM workforce but only 5% in Engineering specifically. This may be because more Black people just don’t want to be in the Engineering field, but there is generally less access to STEM resources in majority Black neighborhoods.

Not only are resources lacking, but surveys done to understand diversity trends in STEM jobs found that there were widely different results when different races were asked about the lack of diversity. 73% of black people were found to agree that lacking resources for STEM early on in life was a significant cause, while 50% of white people agreed. While 72% of black people thought discrimination in recruitment and hiring could be a factor, only 27% of white people found they thought the statement held true. 62% of black people, 42 % of Hispanic people, and 44% of Asian people said they faced discrimination in their workplace, compared to 13% of white people.

The majority of black people who said they were discriminated against found that the primary cause for discrimination was being treated as less competent. And I would sympathize and agree with them. I came to Calvin to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry on the Pre-med track. I was going to become a pediatrician...even if it killed me. I had hoped Calvin would be different. Sadly, even here at Calvin, I have had instances where I found myself being treated as if my intelligence wasn’t on the same level as that of my peers. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I can try to break out of the box I’m in, it will always find a way to follow me.

Although this has happened, this isn’t always the case either. I have had amazing professors since I got to Calvin, professors that have encouraged me and challenged me while recognizing my background. I have friends who empathize with my struggle when I view statistics for medical school and become discouraged. And I am sure that there are other students have had better experiences and haven’t really experienced the subconscious burden. But we as a society have to realize that there is a deficit in STEM, one that, while decreasing, still has a significant gap. We cannot claim that institutionalized racism is behind us while we have deficits across demographic lines (race, gender, and socioeconomic status) that prevent the opportunity for equal access. Being able to recognize and understand is the first step to moving forward and coloring in the STEM lines.  

-Stellamarie Pobi, ABSL Natural Sciences and Mathematics Coordinator