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When Roscoe Giles entered the University of
Chicago in the mid 1960s, he was one of about 15 students
on special scholarship and the only African American. He still
remembers the social event held to introduce the scholars
to each other and to help break the ice. The group played
Botticelli, a word game named for Italian artist Sandro Botticelli
that requires players to recall names and facts from European
cultural history.
“That was our social event, and I can’t
tell you how much I asked myself, ‘Am I in the right
place here?’” says Giles, now deputy director
of Boston University’s Center for Computational Science
and co-director of the National Science Foundation's Education,
Outreach and Training Partnership for Advance Computational
Infrastructure (EOT-PACI).
A lot has changed since the 1960s, but women,
African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and the disabled
still comprise only a small fraction of the professionals
in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET)
careers as well as the students in college SMET programs.
The isolation that Giles felt as a student is still common
among today’s students who are female, disabled, or
a member of a minority group that is underrepresented in SMET
(African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans).
The problem is of concern not only to minority communities,
women, and people with disabilities. Organizations that employ
scientists and highly skilled technical workers, including
NCSA, know that the workforce is changing and that they must
attract and retain underrepresented minorities, women, and
the disabled to their ranks if they are to keep U.S. research
and business sectors strong and competitive.
“One of the critical issues of our time
is how to fully engage the creative potential of a culturally
and ethnically diverse workforce,” says NCSA Director
Dan Reed. “We aren’t there yet—science,
technology, and engineering still suffer from a lack of diverse
viewpoints and backgrounds. But the more we embrace diversity
and inclusion, the stronger we become, not only as researchers,
academics, and business people, but as human beings.”
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Access Online | Posted 12-10-2002
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