Rosemary Townsend was a part-time nursery-school teacher in 2000, when her husband died. Today, the Latina from Pueblo is poised to start a biology Ph.D. program and hopes to become a wildlife biologist.
“Soon as I had some experience, I realized lab work was fun,” said Townsend, 44. “And now I know I can do this.”
When Townsend graduates from Colorado State University-Pueblo this spring, she’ll be one of about 170 Latino students at the state’s public universities who are earning degrees in science and technical fields.
Latinos account for less than 4 percent of all degrees in those fields, according to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. But they are 20 percent of the state’s population.
“This is a major problem, this gap between Hispanic students and the rest of the population,” said Dan Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. “These are careers that have a great opportunity to contribute to society. We have to heal that gap.”
The barriers faced by Latinos, here and across the nation, are subtle. They include poor high school preparation, lack of familiarity with technical fields and a dearth of minority faculty mentors.
In the past decade, millions of dollars have been poured into programs to increase Latino representation in the sciences.
One recent $595,000 National Institutes of Health grant was given to Colorado State University in Fort Collins and CSU- Pueblo to get more minority students into graduate school.
The three-year grant will pay for research fellowships and summer work, tuition and laptop computers for four students a year, starting this fall.
Among Colorado’s universities, CSU-Pueblo has emerged as the leader in graduating Latino scientists, engineers and other technical experts.
The school awarded 35 of the 168 science and technical degrees granted to Latino students last year by Colorado schools.
That was more than the University of Colorado at Boulder, which is nine times bigger than CSU-Pueblo, or CU-Denver, which has almost five times as many students.
Personalized approach
When Pueblo’s Townsend first returned to school – at Pueblo Community College – teachers recommended she take classes in education, she said.
At CSU-Pueblo, expectations were higher, Townsend said. Professors asked about her interests, which were in wildlife biology despite her lack of experience in that field.
“And the profs seemed to get to know us real quickly on a first-name basis,” Townsend said. “For me, just knowing that they know my name makes it easier to go into their office and ask questions.”
Townsend now spends two mornings a week in a faculty laboratory, researching the genetics of lungworms that sicken Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.
Hector Carrasco, a dean and engineering professor at CSU- Pueblo, said faculty are committed to “instilling confidence” in minority students.
“We get them connected,” Carrasco said. “They do things together; they have tutors, research mentors; they meet the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists.”
Faculty and peer mentorship are hallmarks of successful programs, according to a recent national report assessing what it takes to increase minorities in the sciences.
A chance to conduct real research experiences – not just class laboratory experiments – is also key, the report said.
“Just asking questions, and to be able to answer them, to figure out something that’s totally novel … that was it for me,” said Anthony Aragon, 31, who grew up in a southeastern Colorado as the son of farmworkers.
No one in his family, Aragon said, had ever gone to college. Hoping to set a good example for his cousins, Aragon enrolled at CSU-Pueblo.
At CSU-Pueblo, professors quickly swept Aragon up in research projects, he said. They also sent him to a science conference sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans.
“I finally saw a lot of other minority students doing the same thing I was doing,” Aragon said. “It hit home that you could actually get this kind of thing – a Ph.D. – done.”
Today, Aragon is doing post- doctoral research in biology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on the parasite that causes schistosomiasis, a debilitating and sometimes-fatal tropical disease.
Aragon says he understands why so few Latino students in Colorado take on science and technical fields, which can take years of schooling.
“If you’re coming from a family that doesn’t understand the higher-education system, you might have a lot of pressure to get a job, to work,” Aragon said. “There’s this sense you’re wasting your time with more and more education when your family really needs your help.”
The help of family ties
That is the kind of thing that mathematician Richard Tapia, from Rice University, says he hears a lot.
Earlier this month, Tapia gave a talk on diversity in science and technical fields at CU-Boulder.
It is not enough to break down barriers, Tapia said. “You need an environment that’s nurturing, enticing and familiar,” he said. “You need to involve family.”
Tapia’s research group is known nationally for doctorates earned by underrepresented minorities.
“If we, as Hispanics, are not in the sciences, engineering, mathematics … we cannot be in technical leadership, and if we are not in leadership, we cannot make decisions at the national level that can be favorable to all the people,” Tapia said. “If we don’t change things, that will lead to a permanent underclass for Hispanics.”
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
