Episode 38: Black, Latinx & Indigenous Women Are the Future of STEM

Her Career Ladder

Welcome, welcome, everybody. It is absolutely fantastic to be here with you today. I am Michele Heyward, founder of positive hire. And if you are attending the stem Success Summit, thank you so much for joining us here at the positive hire booth. Now, if you're like, I don't know what you mean, by stem Success Summit, I got you covered. I'm going to share with you a very special event that started on us November 17, and runs until November 20. It is called the stem Success Summit, hosted by stem media, which was founded by Dr. Nehemiah Marbury, who is a civil engineer. He's a licensed structural engineer. He's also an instructor at NC, a Northland State University. So definitely, definitely go and register for this job success summit. You're like, okay, great. Some engineer created us. Let me tell you why the stem Success Summit is absolutely fantastic opportunity for you. If you are young, STEM professional, they're going to help you even students, launch a successful and meaningful career is what this summit is all about. For you. What they're looking at helping you do is really hone in on your STEM career strategy, and certifications, having you look at technology and innovation, all his career opportunities, looking at securing finance, funding and financial management opportunities, as well as personal finance, personal branding, networking and resume building are going on at the summit to even talk about graduate school and research careers. But I'm in the entrepreneurship and startup side of it. But I'm having a booth here so definitely definitely can talk about startups. We can talk about what that looks like if you are a STEM professional or if you're STEM students so science, technology, engineering and math. That's what Ste M stands for STEM. They're going to have a healthcare and medicine as well as sustainability and environmental advocacy. But more importantly, it is usually last but it's absolutely the most important part of who you are is your mental health and personal well be we're going to cover all of that during this virtual summit that is completely free which blows my mind I got to talk to you Nehemiah you might need to be charging for this. You can also do job hunting in STEM. So today, I am here not only sharing with you the stem Success Summit, but what you can get from it and to engage with those of you that are attending the summit. So I'm really really happy to have you join us today. Now. I am going to be talking about something that is near and dear to my heart which is why Black Latinx and indigenous women are the best thing that happening to stem like truly truly what's up what's going on, is on and poppin they are truly the next generation. They are going to take stem by storm and it they're truly the future of STEM so science technology, engineering and math. Before I get started if you can in the chat share with us where you're tuning in from I'm in rural South Carolina, my home state Clemson University graduate maybe your student put in what university you rapid we want to know here at the stem Success Summit. We want to get to know you we definitely definitely want to see what's going on with each of you right now. Okay, if you have questions, definitely drop those in as well. And we will get to those as we go through the short time we have together but we want to make it as powerful as possible, as interactive and engaging as possible as well. So let's let's not get upset but let's make it the best that it can possibly be. All right. Now what I do want to do is let's get started with why Black Latinx of Indigenous women women are the future of STEM to me. I don't know you may have a different view. Definitely definitely let me know I want to know your your viewpoint on this as well. I want to know your thoughts I saw this as well. So definitely be sharing that, as we have this time together. And even if you're watching the replay, I still want to know. So the first reason why I truly believe black Latinx and indigenous women are the future of STEM is number one. They're solving community or societal problems. What Yes, they are literally just solving us a very niche problem. But usually that solution is impacting those people or people on a large scale. So oftentimes we talk about skin, I don't know how many of you remember, if you're my age, or tell nginx or older, we're in, you go by makeup, and we'll make you look ashy. Or there were medical devices that do not work for us. Even if you're looking at BMI, where they're looking at your weight, your body mass index, BMI, it is not based on African body bill, which is definitely different than what it's based on. And so we're coming in solving maternal health, because there's a high maternal health. There's a high maternal health, death rate for black women, for Hispanic women, for Asian women, how do we change that, and so they're really looking at solutions that have often been overlooked. But for the vast majority of the world, they will be, they will be solving that problem. So that is one thing that I'm really, really excited about. The next thing that I would say, as to why Black Latinx and indigenous women are, are the future of STEM their leaders. They are leaders in their communities. And when they go out, and they are doing work for the community, the community listens, the community response. And we see this often in politics. We see this often in fundraising, where they're able to really bring people together to solve a problem to to create movement, and really bring about change. And that is another reason why I see these women in these communities really being the future of STEM, because they as leaders, they, they they're listening to their community, and they're responding. And they're solving these problems in a very technical way, but in a very caring way, which is another The next reason why I think they will be the future of STEM, they will be the future of STEM, because they're nurturers, you cannot solve a problem in society, with our research without caring about people. Without talking to people without being able to relate to people, you will not be able to solve a problem. And if you're not able to solve a problem for people, if you're not able to do that, who are you solving the problem for? Maybe it's yourself, maybe it is you're in when you're looking at solutions, you have to be able to talk to people engage with people understand at a at a emotional level, what they need, and being able to connect with them for some of us right to create these solutions. Women have oftentimes a women have a great gift at this, and and being nurtured it. So it's really, really important to understand how to leverage that part of women, the nurturing part to bring about solutions that require science, technology, engineering, and a lot of math, high levels of math. And that oftentimes is oh, you're a nurturer. You shouldn't be doing this difficult stuff. No, they should be doing the difficult things because they have to be humanized, you have to bring in that nurturing side of what is going on. It's developing and changing what is what is in STEM. And one of the reasons I like civil engineering was a lot of people want it to
want it to change and build stuff, right. But one of the things I learned in civil was how you we were responsible as civil engineers for the public. Okay, you design it, but if it failed, the structure fail, what impact does it have on lives? If it isn't able to do X, Y and Z? What impact does it have on the owner? If it can't do 123? How does it impact the public? And so in su Will was always pushed upon me and others in my program that impacted the work we did a civil engineers on the public. And oftentimes that is removed, right? Having a sense of responsibility, or who's going to engage with your code, who's gonna engage with this process you're developing inside a facility to maybe produce the next level of I don't know, widgets or something, medical devices, hair products, vaccines, whatever that is. But nobody's really focus on it as much when you're talking about science, technology, engineering and math, like, Oh, that's a social science. We don't do you have to bring in the nurturing when you're talking about these solutions, okay. Next, the next reason, I think that women who are black Latinx, and indigenous, in STEM are driving the future is because they're underestimated. It's like, wait, what they're underestimated. They're tired of being gas lit. They're tired of being overlooked, they're tired. They see the opportunity to go into entrepreneurship, they see the opportunity to found their own startups, they see the opportunity to become consultants to go and solve these problems, they still see the opportunity, but it is no longer inside somebody else's walls. It is inside their own business. And so they're now then going out. And this is never that they're under estimating. So they're pissed off, and they're leaving. If you don't know, black women not only are graduating with more degrees, not as many in STEM as we'd like, but they're eating a lot of businesses, as well as Hispanic women. at enormous rates, like 270% a year, being able then to help them get funding and grow those businesses and generate is the next step generate, you know, six and seven figure businesses that are science technology, engineering base is the next step. And so I see people in the space now solving that problem, getting these women funding, helping them structure their businesses and helping them generate that wealth. That is why I see this as the next opportunity for the future of STEM with black black mixing digital. I said it, I said what I said, I meant what I said, I'm gonna go what I said, Okay, that's, that's that's how it is. That's how it's going down today. Okay. Um, the next thing. So I said they're starting to CES at record levels. But you know, what else they do? They get culture, right. They're creating these businesses and they're getting their culture right. Organizations right now we're talking about the great resignation. And employees are quitting, let me tell you something. Women of color in STEM have been leaving organizations have been leaving their STEM careers at high rates, like one in every three, we will have small population of a professionals one in three. There are out of all engineers in the US 3.94% combined, are black, Hispanic, and Native women come back. All 100% of engineers, when you get down to it 3.94% are black, Hispanic, and Native women with engineering degrees. I'm part of that 3.94%. I'm also part of that. Women of Color one out of three that leaves their STEM career as well. But I wanted to start off creating an inclusive culture. Because when you create that culture, they stay. And so organization like, Oh, it's a pipeline problem. It is a culture problem. You're seeing a high level of resignations of people leaving because you refuse to change the culture. And so this has not been all of a sudden the signs and signals have been there. What organizations did they ignored them why? Because it was black women quit. They she don't matter. There were Latinas quit. Oh, she don't matter. There were indigenous women quit sheet no matter what you know what happened? The white women were looking LGBTQ community employees. Were looking In the white men who no longer wanted to be there and be somewhere else, when they knew more people gonna be respected, were looking and watching. And you didn't change anything. And then what happens? A pandemic, where all of these people were continuously dying. And you were focused more on, where you're going to still be able to be productive, and generate revenue, because we still owe things to our stakeholders, you owe things to your employees first, and your employees are speaking. But because the vast majority of those employees who look like the C suite are now leaving, we're having an issue. But you still don't want to change sort of future of STEM is black Latinx Indigenous women, because they're creating inclusive workplaces where people are no longer overlooked. Their voices are heard, the ideas are not stolen while they're sitting at the same table as people who don't look like them. That is why Black Latinx and indigenous women are the future of STEM, highly educated, highly motivated, creating solutions for societal problems at scale. And the people they are worried about a people that are working in their businesses, don't get me wrong, they owe something to their stakeholders and their customers, but they're taking care of their employees first. And they're getting that right, because organizations refuse to make those changes. And organizations had decades to do this, but they want to grow profits. I remember I did a summit last year, in April, like right at the onset of the pandemic. And I said the best performing companies will be those that aren't inclusive. The other panelists had said other things, they looked at me I said because the people will stay, they will bring in new ideas, they will get the support they need. And they will get to this those comfortable iterate into markets and develop products they never thought about because they had not listened to the voices of black Latinx and indigenous women. Trust me on this. If you don't bet on anything, you're gonna bet on black. Okay. All right. Now, what is the next reason that black Latin X and indigenous women are the future stem different perspectives lead to different solutions, different perspective lead to different solutions, okay. I don't know if let's play this game. Make some of us may have been home school, some of us went to school on a bus, some of us may be dropped off by parents or carpool. So you're in a minivan or a car, somebody dropped you off your experience in travel all different, right? Some of us know to prepare for rainy days, because we took the school bus. So we always kept the umbrella on us. Those of us that may have been in a passenger car or private vehicle, you know, parents or carpool may not because the car usually came closer to us. And so our solutions and and how we view the world and how we anticipate things so differently, and our solutions. And I remember being somewhere. And we were having an issue with I don't I don't even remember exactly what the issue was. But the solution was literally was taking a piece of aluminum fall. And in some wood because we couldn't find any I was like looking for something that would flatten out but still be stiff. So why don't you just use a piece of aluminum foil, and he looked at me. But if you ever had this level anything or shimmy something paper only lasts so long.
And I know what we want something to form fit. So paper would end up being moved around. But if you could form something at the bottom of this leg on this table, the aluminum foil was going to form around it and stay longer and not be shifted and move like piece of cardboard or paper or wood. And people like I never would have thought of aluminum foil. But by having different experiences always trying to level out stuff. You come up with different solutions. So different perspectives, different experiences. You see different solutions. And oftentimes, we should diversify teams, women, you know, they always think in medical devices that are too large or women. They're always making these things for men. When you look at vehicle designs, these are all we design these vehicles for women. Yet when you look at studies, certain heights, which are usually the height that most women fall into, have to have the highest death rates and injury rates because the vehicle was designed for women, but the seatbelt, the steering column, the seat were not to help us help us live through a crash or are not getting severely injured. Right. It was just marketed to women. It was not designed for men, women in mind. They kept the same exact measurements that they've been using. But the woman that comes out with the Ciesla I'm gonna call it is Ciesla because y'all love Tesla's it's a Ciesla, the chef's law that was actually designed for women five, foot five and shorter maybe to 14 or nine, right? Who are sometimes pregnant. Right, who need to be closer to the steering wheel who need to have their seats raise whoever creates the Ciesla and gets it right will be a woman because nobody's developing those yet. They haven't listened. They don't have that experience of what it's like to be choked by a seatbelt, and having to figure out how to work around. They don't know what it's like to always try to keep two or three kids to sit down. And women are coming up with these solutions because they're living it every single day. So why is the future of STEM black Latinx and indigenous women? I run it back on my running back for it, I'm gonna run it back. Because we solve community or societal problems, right? We're in the culture, we're up the culture, and we're solving and bringing solutions for the culture. That's what we do. That's what we do. Right? Women are natural leaders. I said it not mean girls, but leaders. Women activate in their communities in the culture and they are change agents. Why? Because number three, they're nurturers, they're going to nurture people. And so when they come up with solutions, when they're solving problems, they're thinking about people in mind not profits. That's, that's a tool that's a double edged sword and business, right? You're solving a solution for people. If the people like the solution, then go back and ask them how much they'll pay for it. So it can be profitable. But if you're solving something and you're not nurturing, you're not being human with that solution. Nobody's gonna pay for it. They don't want it. Black Latin X and indigenous women, especially in STEM are underestimated, overlooked and just damn tired. They're not going to leave their their expertise, their education, their knowledge, when they leave their STEM career. They're just going to go to number five, and start their own businesses, whether it's a 10 tech startup, whether it's a small business, whether it's consulting firm, and you're going to take that with them. And you're going to leverage that to build a number six, an inclusive workplace, because organizations have not listened. They tried to fix black Latin X and indigenous communities, people and say you need to fit in here to how we do. You need to be more inclusive. So those organizations have not done work. So they're seeing not just black Latinx and indigenous women in STEM quitting. They're seeing everybody resigning and high numbers because you showed you did not care about people. It was profits over people. And those people have said you know what, time's up. I'm done. I'm going someplace else, because it is not here. And lastly, why Black Latin X Indigenous women are the future of STEM. They bring in different perspectives that lead to different solutions. Too often they aren't listened to an organization's and guess what? They are now leaving and taking those ideas and executing them outside of those organizations. they're still gonna solve the problem, they still won't get it done. Sudden, that's what they're going to do. So it's really, really important to understand. For organizations like, Oh, we're going to, we're going to make the change, you got to go saying that Michael Jackson song, but you're gonna have to go do some work. If you want to have black Latinx Indigenous women in STEM in your organization, to drive the future, you have to change our culture. And that is not what's happening. So hey, Dr. Nehemiah, I'm glad you could drop by. Thank you, Haley for joining me. Yes. Do you believe let's ask this question, do you believe black Latin X and indigenous women are the future of STEM? I want to know, I want to know your thoughts. Do you believe they are the future of STEM? I do, obviously, because I wouldn't be talking about it. But I want to know your thoughts on that I truly, truly do. All right. If you're just joining us, I want to let you know that we have our next event coming up this month, next week, Tuesday, where I'll be talking about how to level up your length in live. Not live just on LinkedIn. Okay. And you can join me [e-mail] I'm at I'm gonna add this, I forgot to add this. But you can join me at this. This webinar. It is it is literally a webinar, it is going to go on for 75 minutes, about 40 minutes of 40 minutes of teaching you some tips and things you didn't know about getting seen and heard on LinkedIn. And then you can also ask some questions that we that I may about what you're doing on LinkedIn. And we can definitely, definitely talk about that. And then we can also just hang out, I don't know. We can also just hang out. I like hanging out with y'all. Well, the people in my community, I won't say all y'all, but some of y'all I do enjoy hanging out with. So you can go to bi T dot L Y You thought I'd like to say another word. I was not for slash up leveling on LinkedIn. That's up leveling, all lowercase. It is case sensitive. So up leveling on LinkedIn, all lowercase. And join me there. It goes down at 7pm. East Coast time on Tuesday, November 13. I'm going to be talking about up leveling on LinkedIn. So if you have not done that I want to share with you is is some really easy things you can do is not always I didn't know it worked like that. Yes, it really, really does work like that. And it's not anything you have to stress about. But definitely some some monumentous things you can do on your profile to get saved by recruiters and hiring managers even build out your network. So we're going to talk about that on the next webinar at positive hire. So I don't know I'm excited about it. I would love to have you all there. So come by up leveling on LinkedIn on November 23. If it's after November 23, you're going to have to come over two positive hire.co forward slash blog. And we'll have the replay posted there but you want to join live so you can ask your questions. Because I'm not taking questions before the event but I am taking questions during the event. Alright everybody, thank you so much.
If you have not registered yet, if you have not registered yet, you want to go join the stem Success Summit at 21 dot stem success summit.com I'm not 21 2021 dot stem success summit.com It goes on until November 20. So you got a little bit of time. They come in join the fun and really connect with others in STEM, young professionals in STEM as well as those in college learning and learning their craft and getting started. So everybody have a great time at the summit and I will catch you later. Bye