"For instance the top 50 jobs in the state through 2026, 25 of those require a technical degree. Think Amazon passing on Detroit in its now dead H2Q campaign.įOX 2: "It seems like if there's any time to invest in stem programs, it's now. And speaking of the workforce, experts say metro Detroit doesn't have the highly educated, tech-savvy kind that meshes well with the jobs and companies of the 21st century. "DAPCEP means a lot, especially for my family because of DAPCEP both my older sister and myself are now engineers and just giving us confidence knowing that we could go into this field," Hudson said.Īnd according to some studies women of color comprise less than two percent of engineers in the workforce. Renee Hudson a quality assurance engineer at Stock X. Tiffani Dickerson is with the Department of Defense. Luree Brown now is a launch engineer at Ford Motor Company. "They introduced me to engineering in the 4th grade and they put me on the campus at U of M in the 7th grade I fell in love and I ended up going to U-M for my engineering degree." "I wouldn't be an engineer without DAPCEP," said one woman. that's where the national society of black engineers is holding its annual convention.
They understand the importance of the program."įOX 2 met with three DAPCEP alumni at Cobo Thursday. "We try to remove all the barriers that we can to help as many students as possible." "We know that cost is always a barrier for programs such as these," Reaves said. Reaves says the state funding helps them lower costs allowing the non-profit to expose thousands of Detroit kids to careers in science, tech, engineering and math. "Without that funding 1600 students will not be served in some way, shape or form," said Michelle Reaves, the organization's executive director. It is being cut from Whitmer's proposed budget and could lose nearly a half million dollars in funding. The Detroit area pre-college engineering program, which spent more than 40 years getting kids involved in the Science, Technology Engineering and Math fields, is bracing for a major hit.