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A few years ago, Cindy Prado, today a
senior at Rio Grande City High School, had no idea
what career she would eventually pursue. Then she
participated in the annual Hispanic Engineering,
Science and Technology Week (HESTEC) Latinas Day;
after four years of attending the conference, Prado
is inspired to pursue a career in pharmacy—and to
help fill the need for women in male-dominated
professions in science, engineering and technology.
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Pictured left
to right are ExxonMobil representatives
Mayela Quezada, safety, training and
recruiting coordinator; Irene Garcia, an
environmental regulatory adviser; and Monica
Saenz, GIS Mapping and CAAD team coordinator |
Prado, who
attended her final HESTEC Latinas Day this past fall
with her mother, says that hearing from successful
women about the opportunities available to Hispanics,
particularly Hispanic women, has motivated her and
built her confidence. “I have learned to never let
anyone or anything get in the way of reaching my
goals,” she said at the event, held during the last
week in September 2005.
According to Prado’s mother, who is a parent
volunteer at her daughter’s school, HESTEC Latinas
Day has shown her daughter the importance of higher
education and the many career opportunities
available to Latinas. “Attending Latinas Day has
helped her decide to go into a career in science,”
she said proudly.
Empowering women to dream big and choose the path to
higher education is the ultimate goal of HESTEC
Latinas Day. The event was created in 2001 by its
host university, the University of Texas-Pan
American in Edinburgh, Texas, and U.S. Congressman
Rubén Hinojosa. UT Pan American is located in
southern Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, and
Hispanics make up 88 percent of its student
population.
“The number of college students entering fields in
math, science and engineering is declining, placing
America’s position as the world’s leader in science
and technology at risk, which is exactly why HESTEC
was created,” says Hinojosa. “We wanted to show
young Hispanic men and women that these subjects are
so much more than what you read in a text book or
see in a lab. People in these fields save lives,
invent things to improve our quality of life, and
make exciting advancements on a daily basis to make
our planet better.”
HESTEC emphasizes the importance of science literacy
to thousands of students in middle school, high
school and college. The leadership program’s goals
include increasing college enrollment and graduation
rates, and opening doors for tomorrow’s leaders in
these fields.
“There is a pressing need to increase the number of
Latinas who are seeking careers in the fields of
science and technology,” says Rolan S. Arriola, UT
Pan American vice president for External Affairs and
co-founder of HESTEC.
In order to meet that need, HESTEC takes a family
approach to introducing its Latina participants to
science and technology careers. “The mothers of
young Latinas exert a great influence in their
children’s choice of a career,” says Arriola.
“Because of this, it is very important to expose
both the Latina and her mother to the value of
pursuing a technical career.”
According to the National Science Foundation, women
made up slightly less than a quarter of the science
and engineering workforce in 2000, while they
composed almost 49 percent of the college-degreed
workforce.
Fortune 500 companies such as ExxonMobil Corporation
and Verizon Communications also recognize the urgent
need to increase the numbers of minorities and women
graduating with math- and science-related degrees.
These companies and others have joined the HESTEC
effort and partnered with UT Pan American by
sponsoring Latinas Day and other HESTEC activities.
At 2005’s event, more than 1,200 Latinas from local
high schools heard from top female executives and
engineers who shared their own stories about
pursuing careers in male-dominated fields and
encouraged participants to consider the job
possibilities in engineering, science and technology.
“Our goal is to get you to think about careers in
engineering and related fields and to encourage you
to pursue higher education and to find what you want
to do at this point if you have the desire and
passion for it,” Monica Saenz, senior engineer for
ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, said at the event.
Saenz told her all-female audience that an engineer
out of college starts at a salary of $60,000 to
$65,000 a year. “Engineering is a rewarding career
choice because it has one of the highest pays in
salaries,” she said. “Some salaries have doubled in
the last 20 years. The salary growth and
advancements are unlimited.”
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