The Department of Education has developed programs to improve access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education for girls and black and Latino students.

Leaders of STEM-oriented companies are worried about the diversity of their workforce, said Linda Rosen, Change the Equation’s chief executive officer, to the New York Daily News.

The department of education, as well as community organizations, such as, Black Girls Code, a mentoring group for young black girls, introduces computer coding lessons to girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as TouchDevelop, Scratch or Ruby on Rails. Hands on mentoring programs, encourage girls and all children of color to engage in STEM opportunities before graduating from high school.

Initiatives like, the Software Engineering Pilot, a New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE)comprehensive, standards-aligned computer science and software engineering education program for grades 6 to 12, gives access to hands-on computer science learning to more than 2,600 middle and high school students. Schools also host events with representatives from high profile companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and organizations like Girls Who Code to introduce students to professionals in the field.

The NYC DOE is currently seeking companies and organizations to host high school students for a six-week job shadow program called “Pathfinders”. The intensive will expose students to potential career paths while offering context for their school work.

Also, starting this year, New York City’s new Science Research Mentoring Consortium will provide STEM mentoring programs for 300 talented students at 11 city learning institutions, including five City University of New York research programs.

Source: www.blackenterprise.com

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