Business
African-American science fair attracts record numbers of students to buck the odds in Silicon Valley
Christopher Smith, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering, looks at stem cell samples through an inverted microscope in a lab at the Johns Hopkins University. PHOTO/Patrick Semansky/AP
African-Americans make up just 2.6 percent of the Santa Clara County population, 2010 census data show. And according to a 2010 analysis, just 1.5 percent of computer workers living in Silicon Valley were black. At the technology heartland’s top 10 firms, just 296 of 5,907 top managers and officials in the valley were black or Latino.
For the 80 kids — a record number — who participated Saturday in the annual fair sponsored by the Frank S. Greene Scholars Program, though, the science may be the easy part. Upending long-standing societal trends will be their real conquest.
Many of the students showing their projects at Cypress Semiconductor’s San Jose headquarters will head back to classrooms where they often feel pushed more toward sports and music than neuroscience and cell biology.
“A lot of people consider African-Americans not as smart, and I think showing somebody that, yes, we can do all these things, is important,” said Natania JonesMitchell, hoarse after explaining her absorption of light experiment in both Spanish and English.
