Exposing Minority Students to Careers in Transportation and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Summer Education Programs

The aging of the American workforce will lead to shortages in skilled workers throughout the country in the near future. Minorities are already underrepresented in the transportation industry, and without immediate intervention the conditions will not improve. To address the anticipated shortfall in skilled minority labor, FHWA, in coordination with the South Carolina Department of Transportation and South Carolina State University, developed the Summer Transportation Institute. In the Texas Gulf Coast region, the Center for Transportation Training and Research at Texas Southern University has introduced the transportation industry to minority high school students while emphasizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills in tomorrow's workplace through summer education programs for nearly 10 years. A study examines the core curriculum of those programs and discusses their potential applicability in other regions of Texas.