Center For Adaptive Optics Akamai Summer Internship Program

It is estimated that over the next ten years, the U.S. will need an additional 1.9 million workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Traditionally, the STEM workforce has consisted of mostly white, non-Hispanic men, who made up 70% of the STEM workforce in 1997. In the same year, underrepresented minorities African-Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians comprised just over 6% of the general STEM workforce. This reliance on a predominately white, male workforce is troubling in the face of the changing demographics of the U.S. population. The proportion of white students in undergraduate enrollment fell from 80% in 1978 to 70% in 1997. During the same period, the proportion of underrepresented minorities (URM) in undergraduate enrollment increased from 15.7 to 21.7%.