10-29-09:HITEC President Served as Expert Panelist at US Congressional Briefing to Promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics careers to advance the US Competitiveness
WASHINGTON, DC October 29, 2009 - Hispanic IT Executive Council President David Olivencia served as an expert panelist during a Congressional briefing hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI) focusing on “STEM: How the U.S. Hispanic Community will Define the Future of U.S. Competitiveness.”
Bringing together members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and expert panelists, the CHLI Congressional Briefing Series focused on building a greater awareness and consensus to increase the graduation rates of Americans of Hispanic descent in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields in the coming years.
Olivencia stated “When I look at the future and jobs of the future in this globally competitive world, I am deeply concerned with our increasing drop-out rates, especially in our inner cities, as well as the decreasing amount of youth pursuing careers in STEM. Many of the high paying jobs of the future are going to be spun out of STEM fields. This demand is being accelerated by the rapid growth of the internet, the intelligence around human genome, artificial intelligence, and the explosive growth of digital information. Closing these gaps and creating more STEM students will have direct positive impact on our GDP and the continued growth and prosperity of the United States.”
Considering the demand in the coming years for a knowledge-based workforce and the growing demographics of the Hispanic community, the United States will potentially lose its competitive edge if the nation does not reduce the disparity in the drop-out rates within the Hispanic community. Americans of Hispanic descent account for approximately 16% of the US population and nearly 50% of the population growth making this not only a Hispanic challenge but also a national challenge of the highest priority.
In the next twenty years, studies show that between seventy to eighty million Americans will retire. While only five percent of the American workforce is currently employed in STEM-related jobs, Americans of Hispanic descent only comprise two percent of all STEM professionals.
As one of the nation's leading non-profit organizations, HITEC is building a coalition with several non-profits including SHPE, HSF, HCF, CHLI, and others to help drive and increase the amount of Hispanics pursuing and graduating in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
Others who participated in the briefing included: Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), Member, House Science and Technology Committee; Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15), Member, House Committee on Education and Labor; Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX-29), CHLI Vice-Chair; Dr. Alicia Abella, Executive Director, Network and IP Services Research Lab AT&T Labs; Victor Torres, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); and Frank Flores, Sector Vice President, Engineering, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
About the Hispanic IT Executive Council:
HITEC (Hispanic IT Executive Council) was founded by senior Hispanic IT executives who have built outstanding careers in information technology but realized that there are far too few Hispanics in the IT leadership role. With a strong desire and passion to make an impact within the Hispanic IT community by helping others reach the highest levels, HITEC was formed in late 2006. These national leaders include executives leading Fortune 500 corporations on both U.S. and global initiatives while others lead some of the largest Hispanic owned IT firms in the United States. For more information about the HITEC organization, visit http://www.hitecglobal.org.
About CHLI:
The Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI, pronounced “chili”) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, based in Washington, D.C., that advances the diversity of thought in U.S. Hispanic community in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, as well as in the international community. For more information, please visit http://www.chli.org. You may also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.