Graduate School Channel
GEM: The Power of Partnership
About the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in
Engineering and Sciences
By Leigh Hayden
The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in
Engineering and Sciences (GEM) is in the business of collaboration, plain
and simple. A well-paid consulting guru has coined the term "colliance," a
merging of "collaboration" and "alliance" to describe a new business
paradigm necessary for businesses to survive and thrive in the 21st century
global economy.
For GEM, this isn't news. They've been doing "colliance" for 27
years.
"Partnership is what GEM does," said Saundra D. Johnson, executive
director of the graduate fellowship program. "If it wasn't for the
contributions of our university members and employer members, we could not
have graduated more than 2200 Hispanic, African American, and Native
American men and women from engineering and science programs at the nation's
top colleges and universities."
Johnson travels extensively, taking the message of partnership benefits
not only for GEM's many constituents but also for society to audiences
around the country. Whether it's a roundtable for the automotive industry, a
presentation for a professional society's conference or leveraging resources
through relationships with organizations focused on K-12 or undergraduate
technology student development, the core message is the same: increasing the
numbers of underrepresented groups in engineering and science.
Johnson said, "We're appreciative that the Supreme Court decision on the
challenge to the University of Michigan Law School's admission policy
affirmed the business case for diversity in higher education, and by
extension, the work force." Michigan is a GEM university member.
Each year GEM selects from among 600 or more applicants from
under-represented groups wanting to pursue a Master's or Ph.D. in an
engineering, physical, or life science discipline. Those awarded funding,
full tuition and stipend, become GEM Fellows.
Fellowships are portable to revered institutions such as the Georgia
Institute of Technology, MIT, University of Michigan, Texas A&M, and
Stanford University – 89 in all. In addition to removing barriers to
graduate technical programs nationwide, Fellow status opens doors to Fortune
500 corporations and government laboratories through internships. Ford Motor
Company and Intel Corporation are leading supporters of GEM Fellows. HP, 3M
Company, Merck, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are among GEM's
nearly 50 employer members.
The internship, two summers for M.S. students and one summer for Ph.D.
candidates, ties theory to practice in the industrial setting. "It's a
formula proven to successfully graduate students," said Johnson. "GEM's core
business, our fellowship programs, has an 87% graduation rate." The
internship component also gives employer members of the consortium the
chance to build relationships with Fellows that can lead to offers of
full-time employment after graduation.
"We've been quite successful in hiring the GEM Fellows," said Della
Smith, Intel's Corporate College Manager for Diversity. "We have a number of
GEM Fellows who have worked for Intel for many, many years. Clearly as we
continue to invest in the program, that is the whole purpose."
The GEM partnership, perfected over a quarter century, is members
combining and maximizing resources to achieve a common goal. GEM
universities and employers pool resources to increase the numbers of
historically under-represented minorities obtaining graduate degrees in
science, technology, engineering, and math. Both benefit from efficiently
recruiting, mentoring and training tomorrow's technology leaders for
positions in industry and academia.
Many in education and business recognize the threat to U.S. dominance in
innovation when participation in technology education and the work force
lags demand. "I think it's great we've created brain drain from other
nations," Dr. Noe Lozano, Associate Dean Student & Diversity Affairs in the
School of Engineering at Stanford University, said. "At the same time, we're
not advancing these professions as an American way of life, not only for
diversity students but for all students."
Women and minorities may be participating in greater numbers in science
and engineering at all education levels, but representation is not close to
mirroring their distribution in the general population. A 2003 Commission on
Professionals in Science and Technology study, "Trends in African American
and Native American Participation in STEM Higher Education," found that
between 1987 and 2000 Master's degree awards increased from 2.7% to 4.7% and
1.6% to 2.8% at the doctorate level for African Americans. The 2000 Census
tallied Blacks at 12.3% of the total population.
Powtawche Williams, a Ph.D. Fellow in Mechanical Engineering at Rice
University, said, "It actually took me by surprise when I went to
undergraduate school that there weren't many minorities in science and
engineering, let alone professors. So I guess with GEM, it sort of opened
the door to the reality of what society was like in that respect and also to
what opportunities and support were available."
And students do have access to an extensive support network. Whether it's
the university, other GEM Fellows, or the employer member, students can
connect with people and resources to help them achieve. Dr. Gary May,
Executive Assistant to the President at Georgia Tech and a GEM alumnus,
welcomes being a role model.
"I think one of my most significant responsibilities to the community and
also one of the things I'm most proud of is my availability and
accessibility to students whom I was once like. I am proud of being able to
show them a different path, a career path that can give them a high quality
of life, lots of satisfaction. Everyone knows or has heard of other careers,
but not many people in our communities are aware of the types of ways you
can enhance your life by getting into technology as a career," May said.
"The partnership among corporations, universities, and GEM is unique because
it brings to the table all the necessary components for students to succeed.
Students need funding to go to school. Students obviously need the
universities to get their degrees, and students need to have places to take
the skills learned to have a viable careers."
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