Our country needs to do better to compete globally in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), asserted Irving Pressley McPhail '70, president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), speaking in Cornell's Biotechnology Building Oct. 17.

To do so successfully, he said, we need to encourage minority students to enter the STEM fields in order to be part of the discovery process "for people, for mankind [and] for communities."

Laying out what NACME calls the "new American dilemma," McPhail emphasized that for the United States to uphold the global standard in STEM fields, the number of African-Americans, American Indians, Latinos and women in STEM study and careers must increase. He noted that in the United States, compared with other countries, there is a disproportionately small number of minority students in these fields. NACME strives to rectify this problem, he said, by creating an "engineering workforce that looks like America."

NACME began as a scholarship foundation, allocating money directly to universities to fund the engineering studies of qualified minority students. NACME provides funds for the Alfred P. Sloan Minority Ph.D. Program and the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership; both work to change the demographics of not only engineers, but also teaching faculty in the sciences. McPhail said that Sloan scholars serve as role models for minority students and "push ingenuity and discovery in [their] fields."

More recently, though, NACME has realized that scholarships are not enough to change engineering demographics. Since high schools aren't graduating enough minority students with the necessary coursework in the sciences, McPhail led NACME in co-founding the Academy of Engineering in partnership with the National Academy Foundation and Project Lead the Way. The Academy of Engineering provides a science-based curriculum for grades 9 to 12, fostering small learning communities in 81 schools. NACME provides funding for teachers, scholarships for graduates of the program, and access to jobs, internships and mentors within the companies that are affiliated with NACME through its board and council.

McPhail said it is important to introduce science as early as possible, and that even ninth grade is not always early enough to spark an interest in engineering. The NACME STEM Urban Initiative reaches out to middle schools, raising awareness about engineering studies and career paths in grades six to eight and helping to shape the engineering labor force of the future.

McPhail recalled how difficult it was to be a minority student at Cornell in the late 1960s. One of his friends, who was at the top of many of his engineering classes at Cornell, dropped out of the college because of how he and other African-American students were treated. He added that he has spent much of his career, through teaching and now through NACME, to "make a difference in the lives of minority students," incentivizing the undergraduate experience and making it relevant for all students.

The talk was sponsored by the dean of the College of Engineering, Diversity Programs in Engineering and the university's diversity officers.

Sarah Byrne '15 is a student writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.