Today is the STEM from which our future will flourish

Today is an important day to think about our future. Not just because it’s Election Day, but also because today is national STEM Day. Today we’re focused on inviting our young people to understand more deeply how our 21st century tech-infused world works. Moreover, we aim to inspire them to dream of a world not yet invented, and to invent it.

Much of the news today may be centered upon the outcome of the election. But today, I’m also focused on the fact that 90 percent of the scientists who have ever lived are alive and working today, and I’m focused on giving the young people of our state the ability to join their ranks, find a well-paying job and someday raise a family right here in Rhode Island.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Here in Rhode Island, we like to call it STEAM, adding an “A” for Arts (and Design) in order to reflect the globally important work being done at the Rhode Island School of Design, our other great universities, and in our design community. As a state and as a country, we’re not training enough young people to fill the jobs of the future. In professions from pipefitters to physicists, the number of jobs that require fluency in the language of the digital age will only continue to grow. If trends continue, the U.S. is on track to create 1.4 million new STEM jobs in the coming years — yet our country is only training 400,000 students to fill them. For Rhode Island, that means that for every unemployed person in our state, there are 2.4 STEAM jobs open. So even if we trained every unemployed and underemployed person to fill these jobs, we’d still have a gap to close. That’s lost opportunity for our children, lost income for their families and lost vibrancy in our economy.

Today, there is no stronger indicator of a place’s ability to compete than the quality of its workforce. Under Governor Raimondo’s leadership, we’ve recognized the importance of STEAM education to ensuring workforce readiness and we’ve inaugurated a host of programs to boost our tech talent here in Rhode Island, with both short-term and long term initiatives designed to give Rhode Islanders a competitive edge.

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In the last year, with the collaboration of our partners in government, we’ve gotten two programs off the ground designed to generate quick results and build our economy’s momentum. First, the Wavemaker Fellowship is a unique loan repayment program that offers qualified STEAM workers in Rhode Island up to $6,000 a year for up to four years in refundable tax credits against the cost of their college student loans. We can’t solve the huge national problem of student debt by ourselves at the State House, but we can make Rhode Island a place where that weight around the necks of our graduates is made lighter, and we can enable them to stay here in Rhode Island — whether working at our great existing companies or starting their own. 215 Wavemaker Fellows were selected in our initial competitive round this year.

The second initiative, P-TECH, is a national model we’ve brought to three of our school districts so far, with more to come. Developed in partnership with the R.I. Department of Education and CCRI, this program will put high schoolers on a path to the jobs that key employers know they will have to fill. These students will be able to take college-level classes in high school, graduate with a free associate’s degree and be first in line for jobs with partner employers. For example, Rogers High School in Newport is partnering with SENEDIA, the defense industry organization, to prepare kids for jobs in that important field.

Thinking longer term, the Raimondo administration has dedicated itself to building a strong pipeline of talent coming out of our K-12 schools, ready to fill and create the jobs of the future. This year, under the Governor’s Computer Science for Rhode Island (CS4RI) program and thanks to the R.I. Office of Innovation, RIDE, and other leading agencies, ours is the first state in the country to be on the path to incorporating computer science into every school statewide — including elementary, middle and high schools. Today, familiarity with the fundamentals of computer science is as crucial to preparing our students for the world as the old triad of reading, writing and arithmetic. This effort, combined with a host of other education initiatives, is helping to build the long-term pipeline of talent our economy needs to be competitive and to grow.

Because of these forward thinking programs, and the major investments our state has made in economic and workforce development, we’re starting to see the initial signs of success. For example, General Electric is opening a major office in Providence. It’s encouraging that one of the country’s longest standing and most respected firms chose Rhode Island as a hub for GE Digital – a division they point to as the future of their company. We can’t imagine a more significant validation that our state is on the right path than that. But GE is far from the only company that’s taking notice. Finlays – another company with a rich heritage, this time from the UK — just announced a new R&D center and pilot plant for is beverage products at Quonset Business Park. A company with options, Finlays chose Rhode Island because they see that our state has what it takes to succeed R&D-wise and otherwise.

We still have plenty of work to do — many more challenges to tackle and much more progress to make. But today, let’s celebrate a bit. Let’s celebrate the fact that Rhode Island, a pioneer of America’s Industrial Revolution, is now on the path to leadership in the Digital Revolution.

Let’s celebrate the critical work of so many across our state who are making all of this happen: from our strong partners in the General Assembly to our terrific business leaders to the parents and teachers across Rhode Island who are encouraging and enabling our young people to take advantage of these opportunities. But most of all, on this National STEM Day, let’s celebrate our children — their dreams, their curiosity and their boundless potential. Let’s celebrate the fact that tonight, they can go outside, gaze into the heavens and contemplate the vastness of the universe above them. And let us celebrate the fact that tomorrow, they’ll head off to school in a state that invests in their futures — ensuring that they, like generations of Rhode Islanders before them, can reach for the stars.

Stefan Pryor is the R.I. Secretary of Commerce.

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