The Single-Day Event Aims to Expose More Than 2,000 Students to STEM Careers
One way to get Hispanic youth interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and math is to expose them to Hispanics already in STEM jobs.
That is at the heart of HACEMOS’ annual National High Technology Day. During the multi-city event today, Hispanic role models will challenge and mentor young people and encourage them to consider a variety of fields related to technology.
Members of the AT&T Employee Group HACEMOS will offer hands-on activities aimed at sparking creativity and interest among the youth who could become tomorrow’s STEM workforce. Students will participate in workshops on circuitry, cybersecurity and connected cars.
The event will take place at 27 different locations across the country, as well as Mexico and is expected to touch more than 2,000 students.
“Our society is driven by technology; and the future intensifies the need for innovative tech. Thus, it is a national imperative to help the next generation scale on the STEM skills needed to be relevant & impactful on the next wave of societal innovations,” said Yovany Jerez, HACEMOS national president.
This year’s HACEMOS theme is “Innovate/Grow/Innovar/Crecer”. The goal is to work toward changing statistics showing Hispanics as underrepresented in STEM. Hispanics comprise 16% of the U.S. workforce, but only 7% of all STEM workers, according to a 2018 article from Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends.
HACEMOS is an industry-leading Latino employee group at AT&T with more than 11,000 employee members in the U.S. The group first began in San Antonio, Texas in 1988. More than 20,000 students have participated in the event to date.