How Industry Can Help Improve STEM Graduation Rates

Based on Census and NSF data, the percent of US, college graduation age residents that earned Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Bachelor's degrees in 2000 was 10.42%. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of STEM Bachelor graduates grew at a relatively low .86% compound growth rate (CGR) per year. In that same time period, the overall US resident population grew at a 1% CGR. The growth in STEM Bachelor degrees was slightly lower than the overall growth in the US population. Looking into the future, the US population is projected to grow from 282.1 Million in 2000 to 419.8 Million in 2050 (0.8% CGR), while US Hispanics are projected to have the highest population growth from 35.6 Million in 2000 to 102.5 Million in 2050 (2.11% CGR). Unfortunately, Hispanics have the lowest yearly percentage of STEM Bachelor graduates (only 4.39% of college graduation age Hispanics obtain a STEM degree). This paper's first section will briefly cover US population STEM graduation trends for several segments (i.e. Hispanics, Blacks, Asians and Females). It will then summarize the STEM education issues faced in the United States. The second section will present several programs that IBM and IBM partners (SHPE and HENAAC) are pursuing to help improve these statistics. The programs covered include: eMentoring, IBM Partners in Education (IPiE), EX.I.TE. (EXploring Interests in Technology and Engineering), Viva Technology and STEM-focused summer camps for Hispanic youth. We then propose possible collaboration opportunities between the IEEE and industry that may be able to improve the STEM graduation trends covered in this paper.