STEM Education and This Damn Thing Called Privilege
As an engineer, STEM education was one of the most important aspects in my upbringing. Growing up in China, I received one of the most intensive math and science curricula in the world. In addition, I had the privilege of bringing an invention and a research study to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. A well-rounded education and opportunities to participate in extracurricular hands-on competitions and activities earned me a ticket to study at UC Berkeley, one of the best schools for engineering in the world. And over the 3 years in college, I also had the opportunity to build products that have a positive impact upon the world, including what I am working on now, battery electric vehicles.
Today, in college campuses there are many opportunities to excel and gain scholarships to overcome the difficulties encountered by students from low-income families. UC Berkeley, as the world’s best public school, had given me the opportunity to meet and work with talented individuals from all backgrounds. UC Berkeley, and all public colleges are truly transformative to many people’s lives. But why can’t we start with middle school students? Why can’t we start with elementary school students? The earlier the inequality starts to emerge, the larger the gap will be. I have always had a passion for education. In high school and college, I tutored younger students in math and chemistry, including 3 high school students from Berkeley High School taking AP Chemistry. Today, I had the pleasure of volunteering at Lincoln Middle School in Warren, Michigan, where I will be helping middle school students to build a fuel-cell vehicle over the next few weeks. This school is less than a mile north of the border between Warren and Detroit, and most of the students are minorities (mostly African Americans with some Hispanic Americans and a few Asian Americans). This school is adequately resourced today, but a few years ago during the Detroit bankruptcy, it was extremely underfunded. Most of the students are from low-income families, and there is also a larger percentage of female students in the classrooms. This experience made me reflect upon my own privileges of receiving a well-rounded STEM education and opportunities to do hands-on work.
Engineers are supposed to solve problems, and isn’t inequality one of the major problems in the world? Over the past decade, of course I had worked hard to get to where I am today, but without the privileges I had, no matter how hard I worked, I might not have succeeded. Some students in here are probably way more hard-working and diligent than I am and won’t get that opportunity to succeed if they don’t have access to good education. What I was doing today at Lincoln Middle School was fun and rewarding to both the students and myself, but a lot more has to be done. There has to be a strong belief and ordeal, that education is transformative to one’s life. It doesn’t help to teach them about fuel cells, batteries, and cars, if they think they can never afford one. It’s sad to teach them about the concept of division of labor in mass production, when some of them think they will end up being line workers on those production lines, while other more privileged students can become the engineers that design those production lines and the products they are building. So much is yet to be done, to encourage and promote the same education I had taken granted for, to low-income communities in this country.
Almost 60 years ago, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) into law, to promote and encourage science and technology education in the United States. This was among the many initiatives, including NASA and DARPA, to compete with the Soviet Union in technological advances in aerospace, transportation, and defense. This initiative gave birth to generations of entrepreneurs, engineers, innovators, scientists, and mathematicians that made America the country it is today. Students from all over the nation and the world fill the college campuses, aspiring for a great career for engineering, science, and math. Silicon Valley and Detroit’s auto industry wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have STEM education. 25 years ago, Soviet Union was disintegrated, and the U.S. lost a great competitor. Today, one of the two major parties in this country and the representative of the majority party in the Congress, is an official denier of scientifically proven climate change, while we are here teaching students about the importance of fuel cell and battery vehicles.
I call on all engineers and scientists reading this, whether you are from my alma mater SMIC or UC Berkeley, or from GM, to make an effort in your community to promote STEM education. It’s not about blaming something on the privilege or taking away the privilege from someone; it’s about turning this privilege into a right and resource that’s available to everyone.
Today, in college campuses there are many opportunities to excel and gain scholarships to overcome the difficulties encountered by students from low-income families. UC Berkeley, as the world’s best public school, had given me the opportunity to meet and work with talented individuals from all backgrounds. UC Berkeley, and all public colleges are truly transformative to many people’s lives. But why can’t we start with middle school students? Why can’t we start with elementary school students? The earlier the inequality starts to emerge, the larger the gap will be. I have always had a passion for education. In high school and college, I tutored younger students in math and chemistry, including 3 high school students from Berkeley High School taking AP Chemistry. Today, I had the pleasure of volunteering at Lincoln Middle School in Warren, Michigan, where I will be helping middle school students to build a fuel-cell vehicle over the next few weeks. This school is less than a mile north of the border between Warren and Detroit, and most of the students are minorities (mostly African Americans with some Hispanic Americans and a few Asian Americans). This school is adequately resourced today, but a few years ago during the Detroit bankruptcy, it was extremely underfunded. Most of the students are from low-income families, and there is also a larger percentage of female students in the classrooms. This experience made me reflect upon my own privileges of receiving a well-rounded STEM education and opportunities to do hands-on work.
Engineers are supposed to solve problems, and isn’t inequality one of the major problems in the world? Over the past decade, of course I had worked hard to get to where I am today, but without the privileges I had, no matter how hard I worked, I might not have succeeded. Some students in here are probably way more hard-working and diligent than I am and won’t get that opportunity to succeed if they don’t have access to good education. What I was doing today at Lincoln Middle School was fun and rewarding to both the students and myself, but a lot more has to be done. There has to be a strong belief and ordeal, that education is transformative to one’s life. It doesn’t help to teach them about fuel cells, batteries, and cars, if they think they can never afford one. It’s sad to teach them about the concept of division of labor in mass production, when some of them think they will end up being line workers on those production lines, while other more privileged students can become the engineers that design those production lines and the products they are building. So much is yet to be done, to encourage and promote the same education I had taken granted for, to low-income communities in this country.
Almost 60 years ago, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) into law, to promote and encourage science and technology education in the United States. This was among the many initiatives, including NASA and DARPA, to compete with the Soviet Union in technological advances in aerospace, transportation, and defense. This initiative gave birth to generations of entrepreneurs, engineers, innovators, scientists, and mathematicians that made America the country it is today. Students from all over the nation and the world fill the college campuses, aspiring for a great career for engineering, science, and math. Silicon Valley and Detroit’s auto industry wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have STEM education. 25 years ago, Soviet Union was disintegrated, and the U.S. lost a great competitor. Today, one of the two major parties in this country and the representative of the majority party in the Congress, is an official denier of scientifically proven climate change, while we are here teaching students about the importance of fuel cell and battery vehicles.
I call on all engineers and scientists reading this, whether you are from my alma mater SMIC or UC Berkeley, or from GM, to make an effort in your community to promote STEM education. It’s not about blaming something on the privilege or taking away the privilege from someone; it’s about turning this privilege into a right and resource that’s available to everyone.