By Jessica Wray
SHFWire

WASHINGTON – When astronaut Mae Jemison prepared for her launch into space, the chemist and physician had to test her flight suit – working with her personal flight suit technician to keep the special outfit in working order.

Mae Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut, explains a survey about the need for more STEM-trained job candidates. Jemison is the spokeswoman for Bayer’s Making Science Make Sense program – an initiative to get students excited and involved in STEM education. SHFWire photo by Jessica Wray

The bulky, orange suit helped protect Jemison during launch and re-entry and was maintained by Sharon McDougle, who Jemison said she depended on to be skilled in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – to keep her safe.

“My life depended on her having a great degree of STEM literacy, yet she was a high school graduate,” Jemison said.

Jemison used her flight suit technician as an example of a science career that required a high school diploma and extensive training – not a doctorate in astrophysics.

“It’s really important for us to think about things in a different way,” she said at a conference Thursday about STEM education and the workforce.

She and other experts said there is still a shortage of skilled workers for a number of STEM jobs in the United States – and that most of those jobs do not require advanced degrees.

According to the Labor Department’s O*Net database, a person graduating with a two- or four-year degree in STEM can work as a lab technician, making a median salary of $42,000 a year; a computer system analyst, earning about $80,000 a year, or a marine engineer, who can make on average $88,000 annually.

Jennifer McNelly, president of the Manufacturing Institute, describes the importance of manufacturing jobs to the nation’s economy. She said she wants to improve the industry’s image and encourage students to think about training in college for a trade job. SHFWire photo by Jessica Wray

A report released Tuesday by Bayer Material Science surveyed 150 talent recruiters from U.S. Fortune 1000 companies.

Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut and Bayer’s “Making Science Make Sense” spokeswoman, said it’s important for schools and local governments to provide students with information about STEM jobs that don’t necessarily require doctoral degrees.

Jemison has a chemical engineering degree from Stanford University and a medical degree from Cornell University. After two years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia, she practiced medicine in California while she took graduate engineering classes. In 1987 she was selected by NASA for the astronaut program. She flew to space in the Endeavour on an eight-day mission in 1992.

Change the Equation hosted the STEM conference with Bayer.

The survey found that 67 percent of 150 talent recruiters who responded to the survey said there are more STEM jobs being created than non-STEM jobs today at U.S. Fortune 1000 companies.

Talent recruiters said in the survey that job candidates with two- and four-year STEM degrees are “as” or “more in demand” for non-STEM jobs than candidates without the science and math background.

Jennifer McNelly, president of the Manufacturing Institute, said it’s time parents, teachers and administrators change the way they view the manufacturing industry and encourage students to think about training for trade jobs.

“We need to engage in our supply chain and offer work-based learning. We need to change how we talk about the world of work and the respect for work and what it means to do and make things,” McNelly said. “I think about how we make life-saving medicine and we make jets fly. But people don’t understand that.”

Kelly Mack, executive director of Project Kaleidoscope with the Association of American Colleges and Universities, agreed with McNelly – but added that increasing the number of students who decide to study STEM majors and stick with it will only happen once many instructors change their mindsets.

“We still have professors who pride themselves on low pass rates. For many of them, that’s a sign of good teaching,” Mack said. “We need to change the mindset from weeding out talent to cultivating talent.”

A study done by the Brookings Institution breaks down the number of STEM jobs and what education they require.

The study found that 50 percent of STEM jobs – which Brookings defines as any job that requires specialized knowledge in the four areas – do not require a bachelor’s degree. STEM jobs make up 20 percent of all U.S. jobs.

Jonathan Rothwell, associate fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, worked on the “Hidden STEM Economy” study. He said that, from 1980 to 2010, there was an increase of 4.3 million STEM jobs in the U.S. for workers with some college but no bachelor’s degree and a 10 million job increase in STEM positions at the bachelor’s degree level or higher.

Reach reporter Jessica Wray at jessica.wray@shns.com or 202-326-9865. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire.

Posted by the CCO without edit, opinion, or bias

Letter to the Editor: Is Bribery Running Rampant in Evansville Politics?

Dear Editor,

It has now been more than a week since I made my first phone call to Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann. I wanted to know whether there was any follow up investigation into a bribe which allegedly took place over the course of the downtown hotel debacle. Although ample opportunity has been given for Mr. Hermann to respond to my inquiries, alarmingly I have heard nothing from him in this regard. As a consequence, I am resorting to my next method of recourse – this letter to you, dear Editor.

I like to think of myself as a reasonable man. I am not usually impetuous or impulsive in my actions. I try my best to champion reason and eschew irrationality whenever possible, but some things have come to light of which I believe the people of Vanderburgh County deserve to be privy.

In the course of the recent hotel debate, I personally know of one, and have heard from reliable sources that two more incidents of bribery took place involving three different Evansville City Council Members.

According to information I received directly from one such Council Member, at least one of these bribery attempts was reported to Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann. In this alleged bribery attempt, the perpetrator, a “friend” of this Council Member, offered $50,000 and an assurance of no contest in the next election if said Member voted “yes” to the, then, $37.5 million subsidy package for the downtown hotel deal. This alleged bribe came at a time in the process when it was looking to most savvy observers as if one vote would swing the outcome.

Although the Council Member in this incident insists the alleged bribe could have been a “joke”, she felt it was serious enough to report to some authority “just in case”. To this end, according to her, she reported the alleged bribe attempt to County Prosecutor Nick Hermann. In this decision, the Council Member must be applauded. She obviously did the right thing in reporting the incident to one whom she felt was a proper authority.

While I realize this alleged bribe by an admitted friend has placed this Council Member in a difficult moral position, and while I also realize this letter, if published, might add to that discomfort, I do not believe it a betrayal of her confidence to disclose that the name of the Council Member in this alleged incident is Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley, Councilwoman from Evansville’s Ward 3.

I believe the people of Evansville deserve to know, if not WHO made the alleged bribe attempt, whether this matter is being taken seriously by the proper authorities to whom the incident was disclosed. It was in pursuit of this latter end that my phone calls to the office of Nick Hermann were made, and it has been to my great disappointment my inquiries thus far have gone without reply.

Perhaps most shockingly of all, as I alluded to above, this was not the only incident of bribery rumored to have taken place over the course of the hotel debacle. Two other incidents have been rumored as well – both involving other Council Members, both involving an attempt to influence the outcome of the vote, and both attempting to influence the vote to the negative. According to one rumor, a Council Member was threatened with a negative repercussion to their business if they did not vote “no”. In the other, the Council Member was offered free advertising in an area print publication throughout their next campaign for office in exchange for a “no” vote.

While I was an opponent of the deal involving a $37.5 million subsidy, I am even more vehemently opposed to the idea that bribery is a legitimate means in the pursuit of political ends. Likewise, I am opposed to the seeming lack of serious attention being given these rampant allegations of bribery in our local political process.

While I must commend Councilwoman Brinkerhoff-Riley for her courage and prudence in reporting her incident to the County Prosecutor, I have to question whether this incident has been properly investigated given the fact the public has heard nothing about it. The failure of Prosecutor Nick Hermann to return my phone calls doesn’t bolster my confidence in the investigative process. Furthermore, I must question, if the rumors in the other two incidents are true, why didn’t they get reported to the proper authorities as well? While it is not specifically a crime in the State of Indiana to fail to disclose bribery attempts, such failure is illegal in many other states, and at the very least, I’m sure we can all agree, it constitutes an ethical lapse unbecoming an official holding the public’s trust.

So, dear Editor, in closing I urge all public officials to follow the example of Councilwoman Brinkerhoff-Riley and promptly report any perceived attempts at bribery and to always recuse themselves from votes in which they hold a business interest, however remote. I call upon County Prosecutor Nick Hermann to update the public on any ongoing investigations involving bribery of public officials in Vanderburgh County. And I leave you with the words of former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare John Gardner: “Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.”

With Sincerest Thanks,

Brad Linzy