More than 1,000 area students, families, teachers, and community organizations are expected at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Saturday, Feb. 4, to participate in the 14th annual Black Family Technology Awareness Day. The event, part of a nationally celebrated week of the same name, is designed to spur interest in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and the arts. The theme for the program, “Tetherless Training for Tomorrow’s Technologies: Heroes, Role Models, and Mentors,” was selected to pay homage to past, present, and future leaders of African-American descent in STEM-related fields.

The opening ceremony will be held in the Darrin Communications Center (DCC), room 308, beginning at 8:45 a.m. Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson will deliver the opening remarks. Timothy E. Sams, vice president for student life, will deliver the keynote.

“There is a quiet crisis building in the United States — a crisis that could jeopardize the nation’s pre-eminence and well-being. The crisis has been mounting gradually, but inexorably, over several decades,” said President Jackson. “The crisis stems from the gap between the nation’s growing need for scientists, engineers, and other technically skilled workers, and its production of them. As the generation educated in the 1950s and 1960s prepares to retire, our colleges and universities are not graduating enough scientific and technical talent to step into research laboratories, software and other design centers, refineries, defense installations, science policy offices, manufacturing shop floors, and high-tech startups.”

News Release