Army Pursues Latinos To Push Them Into Sciences

An interesting story comes from the Army this week, which is apparently trying to push Latinos in its ranks into the sciences, or STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They are also using STEM as the proverbial carrot to recruit Latinos. A few things.

One, the military needs Latino recruits in order to sustain its numbers — period. Latinos are 1 in 6 Americans now, but as reported by Roberto Lovato for The Nation  in 2005, they will be 1 in 4 by 2025 (or so):

The centrality of Latinos to the military enterprise can be seen in statements by Pentagon officials like John McLaurin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Human Resources, who stated that in order to meet recruitment goals, Latino enlistments must grow to 22 percent by the year 2025, when one in four Americans will be Latino. Two factors add to the urgency. One is that while Latinos make up only 13 percent of the active-duty forces, they also make up a fast-growing 16 percent of the 17- to 21-year-old population. In the eyes of Pentagon planners, this rapidly growing, relatively poor population is prime recruiting material.

Two, Latinos have abysmal numbers in STEM fields, as we’ve written:

Yet, of those who currently inhabit the STEM workforce, the majority is largely white and male and this trend is similar for those majoring in STEM. Latinos represent only 4% of those in STEM. It has long been the case that minorities, especially Latinos, have been grossly underrepresented in STEM. This kind of under-representation not only hurts the economic and social viability of Latinos as a whole, but also becomes a vicious cycle, where young Latinos do not see role models in STEM, and so do not feel welcome there.

Three, the Army is pursuing Latino recruits by promising them STEM jobs by sponsoring the premiere Latino STEM organization, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers’ (SHPE). The story this week notes:

The U.S. Army today reaffirmed its commitment to helping more young Hispanics pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by announcing its sponsorship and attendance at the 2011 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers’ (SHPE) annual convention. The convention will be held from Oct. 26-30 in Anaheim, Calif.

Four, there are other ways to get Latinos into STEAM fields, as we’ve noted with an extensive list here.

So what’s the takeaway? The Army needs Latinos in its ranks so desperately that its recruiting strategy is to promise them that the miitary can provide them meaningful, professional work after their service. That’s, unfortunately, not been the case for many veterans. Plus, there are other ways for Latinos to get into STEM-related fields.

What do you think?