Chapter 8: Creating Community Engaged Partnerships to Foster Trust with STEM & Hispanic Serving Institutions

The United States has set priorities to ensure the country stays competitive in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to encourage innovation (Beede et al., 2011). To increase innovation and keep pace with an advancing STEM culture, it is imperative to increase diversity within the STEM fields (Gonzalez, 2012; Tsui, 2007). Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) that enroll a racially and economically diverse undergraduate population (Núñez & Bowers, 2011) are uniquely positioned to develop STEM talent to meet the nation’s need for a diverse STEM-educated workforce. Increasing the participation of Latinxs in the STEM workforce, in particular, is essential as the U.S. Latinx population continues to expand (Pew Research Center, 2017). Despite this population growth, Latinxs, alongside Black individuals, continue to be significantly underrepresented in most STEM fields (Landivar, 2013). With STEM jobs projected to increase by 17%–62% by 2020, the United States has to train a large talent pool to fill these jobs. One such talent pool comes from the Latinx population, yet they must be encouraged and supported in their pursuit of STEM careers (U.S. Department of Education, 2012).