BLOG SPOTLIGHT
The SOA blog features leading voices from across industry, academia, and government as they articulate the important steps being taken to build out our national strategy.
4/23/24
The Children Who Will Pioneer Tomorrow
Imagine a world where…
A young girl born into poverty in the Mississippi Delta one day designs a winning solution to end child hunger around the world.
A young boy whose immigrant parents lost their home due to a wildfire in the Southwest United States one day becomes a pioneer in the efforts to mitigate and ultimately slow climate change.
And a child from Baltimore who survives a rare form of leukemia thanks to the hard work of the cancer team at Children’s National one day leads that same team, which has a scientific breakthrough in the fight against that same form of leukemia.
In this world, these children have teachers and mentors who see their potential and the resources to put their passion and vision into action. They are given the opportunities and access to one day become a vital part of the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) community. The systems in place provide the space to nurture their curiosity and the tools to hone their talents instead of outsized roadblocks. Most critically, they have the belief that they were born to be a part of the solution.
We would argue that this world is not only possible but also essential. Essential to creating a more just society and better individual lives while solving the world’s greatest challenges. Essential to creating the next generation of innovations that will propel the future. And essential to powering the economy and society for continued growth and progress. Driving greater equity in STEMM is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. And there is a movement already underway to make this world a reality.
That movement is the STEMM Opportunity Alliance. Its goal is to propel the STEMM community to grow to its greatest potential and tap our nation’s culturally rich, innovative, and diverse talent pool to expand the STEMM workforce. It aims to open doors and opportunities where future generations not only feel like they belong but can also thrive.
About a year after SOA was launched at the White House, we are entering a new phase of this important initiative. On May 1, 2024, SOA will unveil a national strategy for achieving equity and excellence in STEMM by 2050. It is a roadmap for the future that has been co-constructed with the input and guidance of more than 150 partner organizations and 1,500 leaders and community members across the country. This roadmap will be released at the 2024 White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence hosted in partnership with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). This moment will set the tone for the concerted and collaborative effort necessary to achieve SOA’s vision in the decades to come.
At the summit, SOA and OSTP will convene a growing set of cross-sector public and private partners to continue this important conversation, announce new commitments aligned toward advancing key goals in the national strategy, and continue to build momentum for change. Our goal: inspire multi-sector alignment and collaboration to leverage the full talent of our nation to achieve progress and excellence.
SOA will also announce anchor organizations across the plan’s strategic pillars, which are already leading initiatives in these areas. They will serve as conveners, network weavers, and strategic guides. In collaboration with the SOA team, they will help build and lead strong networks, collectively driving toward ambitious, measurable goals in their respective pillars. They will do so by beginning the hard work to realign support, systems, and accountability measures.
Want to join the growing movement? Now is the time to signal your support. SOA is calling on all segments of the STEMM community — state and federal agencies, foundations, nonprofit organizations, universities, professional societies, and private companies — to sign up, make your commitment to advancing change, and be featured as new partners at the upcoming summit. It will take all of us working on a unified mission and vision to help these children of the future become the leaders and pioneers we know they can and should be. Our future prosperity depends on it.
Celebrating a Fruitful Year as SOA Moves to the Next Chapter
Even as we look ahead to the next phase of this effort, it’s amazing to sit back and realize how far we’ve come. When this movement was launched at the first ever White House STEMM Equity and Excellence Summit less than one year ago, we had 93 partners who had committed $1.2 billion to efforts that will help achieve SOA’s goals. Here’s where we stand today:
More than 150 partners strong, an increase of 61%
$1.8 billion in commitments from partners, an increase of 50%
Over 1,500 engagements across our in-person convenings, virtual town halls, and written comments
Teacher Sacrifices No Substitute for Broadening STEMM Education Access
We need a cross-sector, systemic approach to removing barriers in the STEMM ecosystem so that under resourced students do not have to rely on individual teachers’ sacrifices to get the same level of education as others. And we need to ensure that the institutes designed to serve students of color have the adequate funding and support to launch their careers.
Reflections on Ada Lovelace Day: The Importance of Women Role Models in STEMM
For centuries, women have been at the forefront of scientific innovation, despite facing outsized obstacles. While immense work has been done to remove these obstacles, systemic barriers still exist. The work of the STEMM Opportunity Alliance – to develop and launch a shared national strategy to achieve STEMM equity and excellence – is critical to ensuring more women can keep changing the world through STEMM discoveries.
The Role Community Colleges Play in Strengthening STEMM Talent Pathways
Community college students typically enter higher education having had less access to quality STEMM education in elementary, middle, and high school. Removing systemic inequities throughout the education system is critical to closing this gap, but community colleges themselves also have an important role to play.
Ending the STEM Teacher Shortage
Preparing teachers who reflect and represent their students, who cultivate classrooms of belonging and are supported by workplaces of belonging, and who connect STEM learning to the greatest challenges of today creates the conditions for all students to thrive in STEM learning
How Industry Can Drive Equity in Communities
At the SOA event we hosted in St. Paul earlier this month, 3M’s Chief Technology Officer John Banovetz said, “You can’t create differentiated product solutions without a diverse workforce. More diverse teams outperform homogenous ones. Science is key to solving challenges we face in the world today. Having people from different experiences leads to better solutions.” At 3M, we know that more diverse teams drive stronger, more innovative projects and discoveries.
Philanthropy’s Important Role in Promoting STEMM Equity
Among the most important roles science philanthropy can and should play is providing greater access and opportunity for those who have been systemically and historically left out of the research enterprise.
Improving the Experience of Science for All
By improving the environments that scientists operate in, rather than focusing solely on students’ perceived deficits, we believe that everyone can achieve their maximum potential. Improving the experience of science means creating environments that are inclusive and supportive of scientists from all backgrounds, identities, and ideological perspectives. This benefits every scientist who participates in these environments, and it also strengthens their scientific work.
Six Month Check-In: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going
I do not expect to live to see what SOA’s audacious 2023 vision has wrought. But I know that we need to develop a strategic plan now that will move all of us toward our goal, passing the baton seamlessly to the next generation in what SOA Advisory Council Member Dame Oona King has described as “cathedral building.” It takes a plan and commitment, it takes a long time, and it takes a village.
Increasing Equity in STEMM through Community Science
The STEMM Opportunity Alliance’s project to achieve equity in STEMM must go beyond removing barriers in higher education and professional STEMM environments. To succeed fully, our work must include supporting organizations that increase scientific agency at the community level.
The Role of Belonging in Achieving Equity in STEMM
For too long, efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM have focused on representation – fitting marginalized groups into a broken system – rather than belonging. A focus on belonging means identifying and eliminating the systemic barriers that make it so hard for certain populations to succeed in STEMM.
Equity is Critical to the STEMM Workforce of the Future
Without expanding access to STEMM education and removing barriers throughout STEMM talent pathways, we will be unable to fill the thousands of critical STEMM-related jobs. The only way to do this is through the kind of cross-sector, multi-lateral coordination that SOA facilitates.
Diversifying the STEMM Ecosystem Starts with Our Teachers
Achieving equity in STEMM has to start with early introductions to the STEMM ecosystem and must focus on maximizing access to quality STEMM education for all students.
Building a national STEMM equity strategy that transforms the full ecosystem
Absent intervention, America is currently not on track to deliver the scientific talent we will need to create and capitalize on these transformational innovations now or in the future.
Centering Postsecondary Education to Create a more Equitable STEMM Field
Absent intervention, America is currently not on track to deliver the scientific talent we will need to create and capitalize on these transformational innovations now or in the future.
How the STEMM Opportunity Alliance Will Help Achieve Scientific Excellence through Equity
Absent intervention, America is currently not on track to deliver the scientific talent we will need to create and capitalize on these transformational innovations now or in the future.