STEM Inclusivity: A Transitionary Period

     Over these past few discussions we have discussed how sometimes in STEM fields individual researchers or workers can feel out of place, and I know there have been times in my experience that I have felt this. The most notable time this has happened to me was probably when I first got into the S-STEM program at my community college. I was one of the only students in the program who were specifically programming-oriented, and at the time there wasn't a lot of support or preplanned projects for me. To supplement this, I was set up with the IT department at my school and was essentially working as a custodian. On paper, it sounded like a good idea to give me a practical experience, but as a Latino research intern, there was obviously (whether intentional or not) a sense of alienation as well as some unintentional racist undertones. Being asked to write an APA formatted journal submission about my experience cleaning up Carl's Jr. wrappers from server rooms was a bit unnerving, especially with the rest of the TRAIN scholars getting to do peer-reviewed research. Of course, it is likely that the program didn't intentionally do this to discriminate against me (from what I heard the head of PC IT told staff to just send me to pick up garbage), but I would be lying if I said it didn't feel comically racist towards me. 

    Eventually, things got shuffled around and I was finally doing genuine work, but it was bittersweet given the prior experience. I always struggle to explain to some of my family members why STEM work matters, and how as Latinos we don't have to be locked into manual labor. It's not hard to imagine how difficult it was to convey this when my internship was me carting around a Rubbermaid bin of garbage. As bitter as I sound (really I'm more just stunned, hindsight I've been laughing about the irony of it all), I am at the very least pleased to know that things are getting better on all fronts. Services like the light rail have been getting approval to go into South Phoenix, which means the up and coming gen alpha from neighborhoods like Maryvale can be able to commute to places like the Phoenix Coding Academy, Phoenix College, and eventually ASU comfortably without having to lie that they live in a different zip code or begging their parents to drive them. It is through this increased accessibility that I think both employers and members of my community can see the potential for STEM work. When that time comes, which I would argue we are now in the early stages of, freshman will be hot-footing it not to pick up the lunch of maintenance workers who eat in servers rooms but instead hunkering down to develop the infrastructure for those servers instead.