Consortium of 19 institutions will support minority women and girls in STEM fields

Research has shown that STEM students and professionals experience a chillier climate than their peers in other fields

The University of Illinois at Chicago is one of 15 universities joining an initiative to increase the percentage of women and minorities pursuing undergraduate degrees in computer science. UIC and each of the other universities will receive $30,000 a year for three years to support their efforts. 

Emily Hernandez didn’t wait until college to start recruiting fellow minorities to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. She started as an eighth-grader during a University of Memphis camp called Girls Experiencing Engineering near her Germantown, Tennessee, hometown.

The reality is that most scientists are pretty normal people, at least outside the laboratory setting. There are some unique characteristics that may be more prevalent in the scientific community, and most of those characteristics can contribute positively to the organization.