La Vista
are low income. Our goal is to give these kids hope. We show them what college is like and have them interact with professionals and other men- tors. We want them to know that they can go to college. We try to create an environment that is nurturing to stu- dents. And it’s working: 90 percent of symposium graduates have gone on to college. In many cases, the program is the first time the students [are] exposed to people who look like them and speak like them, but are on a totally different socio-economic level than they are. The power of that is huge. Look at the chal- lenges the students face: They are [the] first-generation [to attend] college. Often there is a language barrier. There is the economic challenge. We bridge that by providing the mentoring and we help them with college applications. We show them how to write a resume. We also provide the intangible, the sense of what I like to call la familia. It is about a type of familial support. And it makes all the difference.
HE&IT: What is the biggest challenge you see getting Hispanic youth into college, especially the STEM majors?
Petrone: Our program is hugely STEM focused. 44 percent of our Youth Initiative students are pursuing STEM careers. That’s crucial because as a country we’re falling behind places like China. At first, only about 20 percent of the kids say they want to go into sci- ence, technology, engineering or math. They see the cool jobs as being a movie star or sports player. They say math is not exciting; it is just hard work. The visibility our youth have to fascinating STEM careers is minimal.
HE&IT: What do you do about that?
Petrone: Our goal is to expose kids to really cool STEM careers. And we try to get our sponsors to help cre- ate activities that demonstrate how fascinating these technologies are. At one our symposium sites, Lockheed Martin used GPS technology to create a three-dimensional map of the Southern
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Methodist University campus. Half the kids were sitting in one room, the other half in another. And they used that technology to do a scavenger hunt. Be- fore long, the kids were whooping and hollering as they realized the technical challenge of the 3D modeling and how GPS and satellite technology gave them the technical capability to find what they were looking for.
HE&IT: Is high school too late in terms of luring students into fields where they need to build math and science skills that may have not been there before?
Petrone: We’re catching them at an age when many of them had not thought of college or decided what they want to do. It is late, but not too late. I remember one student who struggled with English, but four years later was speaking English to a room of 500 people. So young people have enormous capacity to learn, if they are focused and motivated.
HE&IT: Is that case unusual?
Petrone: We have partnered with a Los Angeles high school that had a 50 percent dropout rate. We did career roundtables. We brought in guest speakers. We hosted parent nights. Scores on state exams went up 14 percent. Our goal is to change their motivation so they can get what they want. These kids are resilient. If we can give them the hope, they will work re- ally hard. Research on what drives kids shows that there is a hope factor that is pivotal. I like to say that there are non-addressable issues—such as some- one’s background—and addressable issues. We can help kids with problem solving, a sense of purpose. There is a mental shift, a mind shift that we try to facilitate in our youth that makes the unattainable very attainable.
HE&IT: What do you think of the in- creasing emphasis on school account- ability and testing? Is that helpful? And is President Obama on the right
track with some of his education initiatives that continue those ac- countability measures, while adding significant new funding?
Petrone: My personal opinion after spending 27 years in the industry is that I like the idea of accountability, measurement and assessments. When we look at some of the president’s initiatives: Better standards, more emphasis on early childhood educa- tion, innovation for teachers, I can’t disagree with them. I support them. I think they are terrific. I think some of the first steps they are doing are some of the things we are trying to do in this organization. They have emphasized STEM education. And our goal is to reach high numbers of students and give them an opportunity to under- stand that STEM is cool.
HE&IT: Please talk about your own background and influences.
Petrone: I am one of five kids. My par- ents were middle class and successful, but they had no college degree. Both of my parents worked very hard for us. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. In our house, you had to go to school. You had to do better. That was just part of life. We never took a family vaca- tion. My parents were saving money to put us through school. After going to school, I spent 22 years at General Elec- tric and I worked all over the world and all over the United States. Then, I was a vice president for human resources at Lockheed Martin. I have always appre- ciated the value of education. I lived in India for four years and what struck me was the value India decided to place on education. I saw people of virtually no means pushing their children to go to school. I remember coming back to the states and not sensing that same urgency. I looked at data from the His- panic standpoint and wondered where that will leave us in 30 years. That concerned me and I wanted to help. I was invited to be on the board of the Hispanic College Fund and I jumped at the chance.
HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | 2010 7
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