[nfbcs] [Nfb-science] [BlindMath] Science division reach its 2017 STEM scholarship goal

Wed May 10 03:27:22 UTC 2017

Hi Mr. Grussenmeyer,

I'm Cricket Bidleman. I'm very interested in physics and computer
science, but I have other career interests as well, including some
of... What was it? The "humanities crap" that you were talking about.

I really don't want to be confrontational, but at the same time, I'm
having difficulty processing this situation. Forgive me... I'm a bit
slow sometimes. The NFB promotes inclusion and its scholarship program
provides a foundation on which the educational dreams of blind
students can be built. As a witness to the incredible good that this
organization does by promoting the inclusion of all students and all
people in all careers, I am rather shocked that social sciences and
other such fields are considered "crap" by anyone, much less someone
in the NFB, who I am sure has a perfectly respectable career that no
one would consider "crap".

I would also like to note, as someone who is interested in science and
other data-heavy fields, that there were no statistics on your email.
I would be incredibly happy to look over a compilation of what I'm
sure is carefully documented research on your part. I'm sure that
someone as clearly knowledgeable as yourself would have plentiful
documentation on such a claim.

I am aware that you are probably incredibly busy. However, if you
could take time out of your full day and condescend to explain your
claim to me, I would really, really appreciate it. I just want to make
sure, since I am a student, that I have the right information, and I
am certain that you are a credible source. Thank you so much!

Respectfully yours,
Cricket X. Bidleman
NCS Pearson, Associate quality Assurance Engineer

On 5/9/17, Don Winiecki via Nfb-science <nfb-science at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi William,
>
> I am a sociologist who teaches in a College of Engineering.  My role is to
> promote inclusion, diversity and social-justice in engineering.  We have
> lots of social science data providing substantive evidence that students in
> STEM fields who are not part of the demographic majority (read, white males)
> face substantive disadvantages leveraged by members of the majority
> demographic.
>
> I am a Principal Investigator on an NSF funded project to `Revolutionize
> Engineering Departments` in the directions noted above -- initially focusing
> on Computer Science.    NSF is obviously strongly in favor of attempting to
> reverse the damages to STEM fields by biases of the demographic majority in
> society and in that discipline.
>
> The field of Computer Science is now (finally) waking up to the fact that
> their innovations reflect the same biases that plague society in general.
> The same Computer Scientists who are researching `algorithmic bias` and bias
> in machine learning technologies are also strong proponents of involving
> members of the social sciences and the humanities in their research, in
> order to take advantage of the real knowledge of social problems they have
> discovered and documented over several centuries.  I myself am working with
> one of our Data Scientists at Boise State University to write a proposal for
> funding combined social science and data science research to produce and
> prototype use of precision agriculture tools.
>
> To be honest, I find your comment to reflect some of the problems that I and
> others are attempting to address in the sciences -- and in Computer Science
> in particular.  I hope you come to realize the influence you have on others
> in your field and begin to see the value of working to foster inclusive
> transdisciplinary partnerships across all the sciences, arts and
> humanities.
>
> Incidentally, I taught myself FORTRAN, C and Lisp and use them when
> appropriate in my own activities.  Computer Science is not just for computer
> scientists.
>
> PS: If you'd like to provide data to support your claim that humanities and
> social science graduates are unemployed at a rate higher than in the
> sciences, I'd be happy to see it.  My own reviews of those data show that
> engineering graduates are not employed at higher rates than other majors,
> and in fact in many engineering fields, job satisfaction drops precipitously
> with time.  Research on that latter phenomenon indicates that older workers
> are often seen as a liability in `high tech` and despite the fact that they
> were once the developers (perhaps now the maintainers) of our technological
> infrastructure, they report they are treated poorly in comparison to those
> in the youthful vanguard -- they feel the industry has cast them aside.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> _don
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Don Winiecki, Ed.D., Ph.D.
> Professor of Ethics & Morality in Professional Practice
> Boise State University, College of Engineering
> 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725-2070 USA
> E-mail: dwiniecki at boisestate.edu
> Telephone: (+01) 208 426 1899
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ipa
>
>> On May 9, 2017, at 7:05 PM, William Grussenmeyer via BlindMath
>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Good.  I am tired of seeing all those scholarships going to people in
>> majors like English, social work, and other humanities crap where they
>> will never find a job.
>>
>>> On 5/9/17, John Miller via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our successful effort to
>>> collect donations for a 2017 NFB Science, Technology Engineering, and
>>> Mathematics (STEM) Scholarship.
>>> The STEM scholarship will be awarded in the amount of $3000 to a worthy
>>> blind student at the 2017 NFB convention.
>>>
>>> We have made significant progress towards raising funds for a 2018 STEM
>>> scholarship as well.
>>> I want to let you know that we started the 2017 fundraising effort with
>>> $940
>>> in the scholarship fund in July 2016.
>>> At this time we have raised $1565 towards a 2018 STEM scholarship.
>>> I feel confident that working together we can again award the STEM
>>> scholarship in 2018.
>>>
>>> We know that blind professionals and students are succeeding in biology,
>>> chemestry, and natural science.
>>> We know that blind individuals are performing at a high level in
>>> mathematics, physics, engineering, and related fields.
>>> Donations came from blind individuals working in these fields, our
>>> friends,
>>> and our family.
>>> This year one corporate donation came from E.A.S.Y. LLC,
>>> www.easytactilegraphics.com<http://www.easytactilegraphics.com>, an
>>> organization committed to blind individuals creating technical drawings
>>> independently.
>>>
>>> I am so grateful to be part of an organization that has a belief in the
>>> abilities of blind people and a commitment to helping the next generation
>>> of
>>> blind students.
>>> I am also so thankful to those who patiently listened to my pitch for
>>> the
>>> scholarship and then generously made it happen.
>>>
>>> Very Best,
>>> John Miller, President
>>> Science and Engineering Division
>>> of the National Federation of the Blind
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> --
>> William Grussenmeyer
>> PhD Student, Computer Science
>> University of Nevada, Reno
>> NSF Fellow
>>
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>
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