Graduating Hispanic and other Minority College Students

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Permalink Reply by Victor Antonio on February 24, 2010 at 5:11pm

Great article. Sad to read when you think about the drop out rate, but nonetheless, we have to accept to the truth if we're going to move forward. Thanks for sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Miguel A. Corona on February 25, 2010 at 5:52am

Victor - Thanks for the feedback and your thoughts. I think there are strides being made, but as I said, there are many solutions out there that can be implemented. It's just a question of action and commitment on the part of institutions that have yet to make it a priority. Many are and that's why we are seeing some positive movement. Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Miguel A. Corona on February 25, 2010 at 5:56am

Well said Dolly. I think you're first-hand account is indicative of some of the stereotypes out there regarding Hispanic college graduates. Like any group, you'll have your share of unqualified candidates, however, if a company and/or college is determined to improve the quality of all candidates, it needs to make it a priority. Given the number of issues and challenges faced by colleges and universities today (budget, research, change, etc) - increasing minority graduation might not be high on their priority list. I appreciate your illustration and taking the time to read my entry. Best regards.

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Permalink Reply by NSHP admin on February 26, 2010 at 9:31am

Thanks for sharing this Miguel, excellent article. Definitely and eye opener, but also a stimulus for us to do more and push harder for education.

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Permalink Reply by Miguel A. Corona on February 26, 2010 at 9:56am

Indeed Ricardo. While progress is being made - much work still needs to be done. I appreciate your feedback.

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Permalink Reply by Javier Gonzalez-Rocha on March 5, 2010 at 12:53am

Well lets take a look at our k-12 education. Lets take California for an example.

http://www.childrennow.org/uploads/documents/reportcard_2010.pdf

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Permalink Reply by Javier Gonzalez-Rocha on March 5, 2010 at 1:01am

From its conception, the aerospace industry has been the chief contributor in the design and development of the products and systems which support the security and infrastructure of the United States. It contributes over 15 percent to our Gross Domestic Product and supports over 15 million high-quality American jobs . Hence, maintaining a thriving industry is essential and its development will depend on our nation’s continuous technical advancement. Unfortunately, the replenishment of well-prepared aerospace engineers has staggered and threatens the country’s aerospace industry considering we have the smallest and oldest industry workforce since the 1950s. While many of the aerospace engineers are retiring, there are not enough graduating aerospace engineers to replenish the aerospace engineering workforce. Hence, the production of a strong and diverse aerospace engineering workforce has become the greatest challenge of the aerospace industry in the 21st century.
Today, Latinos are the fastest growing population segment of the United States and yet have remained an untapped source or technical talent in the aerospace industry . The growth of Latino aerospace engineers has not been proportional to that of the population over the last thirty years. While the number of Latinos in the United States has grown by more than 57 percent between 1990 and 2000 , the number of Latinos participating in aerospace engineering has not been able to exceed a 7 percent growth . This is worrisome considering that in states like California; Latinos represent 49 percent of a 6.3 million student population. There is an obvious deficiency in the aerospace engineering pipeline.
In an effort to address this issue and contribute to the already existing framework to determine the contributing factors to the low number of aerospace engineering, this paper assesses the factors that may possess an influence over the interest and engagement of Latinos in aerospace engineering.

Completed Study Coming Soon!

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Permalink Reply by Miguel A. Corona on March 5, 2010 at 6:11am

Thanks Javier. No doubt there is still much work to be done in regard to more minorities in Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. It's a national problem that needs to be addressed starting very early in the educational process. This also includes bringing in more minority faculty to the STEM fields. I appreciate your feedback and contribution to our discussion.

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Permalink Reply by SYNTIA ALCANTAR on March 12, 2010 at 8:35pm

This is deeply saddening article, but talking as a parent of a college age son, I am able to see that educating the k-12s better is not really at the root of the problem, or blaming higher educations institutions because of their practices is the way to go either.

My college age son, had the support, attended great schools (I drove him out of assigned schools for 6 years 7-12 grade), and he was 69/720 (GPA:4.25) at graduation from high school.
He Could gone to University of Columbia U. or to Colorado U. with partial scholarships.
His decision was to go to the UofA, a great school too by the way. One of the reasons was "I want to go where my friends are going to as well".
Then came the parties, cutting class, mediocre or no homework assignments turned in, whatever the reasons; in the end all equals to after one year of iffy attendance, becoming one more statistical dropout.

We tried and reach out countless times in countless ways, but to no avail.

No one else is to be blame, but the student himself.

We as people and private persons are the architects of our own future because regardless how many helping hands we have, it is only ourselves whom will pull us by the strap of our boots and into the right path, the right career, the right happy life. We decide who we want to be and how hard we are willing to work to get there.

My own opinion is we as a society have way too much.
Where is the hunger to be better and do well, when most of us carry smartphones and live cozy lives?
When we are never hungry and have our sports, our cars, and most of our needs taken care of and with minimum to no effort?

Really, the person whom wants to be successful, have a good life, a career, and give back to our nation for all of the great things it does for us, will do it.
That person will participate and will give back, but there will also be those that will only coast through life unaware of how lucky they really are and just do the bare minimum in life.

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Permalink Reply by Miguel A. Corona on March 13, 2010 at 4:22pm

Syntia -

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and story. I'm sure any parent would feel disappointed knowing that someone with so much opportunity did not take advantage of grapping that bright future with both hands. Indeed, life is still about choices and it's not only adolescents that make bad choices - it's often adults. Having confronted many of these educational cross roads in my life, I always erred on the fact that education will always provide more opportunities than not. Now that I earned my doctorate, I can see that even those choices were always difficult to make they were certainly worth it.

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