Dan Hull, OP-TEC's principal investigator, points out that the capacity of optical fibers to carry massive amounts of data in the form of light through hair-thin flexible strands of glass or plastic enables other technical advances. These include faster Internet speeds and enhanced endoscopic medical procedures.

When she makes a photonics recruiting presentation to women and girls, Carolyn Hulla-Meyer explains engineering in way that makes them see immediately that they can do it.

She asks them if they are crafters. Do they like to get on Pinterest? If they do, then, she says, “OK. That's a lot like engineering. You're just not told it’s engineering. It’s called crafting when you do it.ˮ

“It's just about staring those stereotypes in the face. Calling them out and then flipping them around so that the student can see it for what it is,ˮ she explains.

The Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology Laser program at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College is small with 15 students enrolled as laser majors for fall 2015.

Nevertheless, Hulla-Meyer is proud that the four white male students who graduated in May 2015 are being replaced by four students from underrepresented populations. Two of the incoming students are women—the program's second and third female students since 2006. The other new students are an African American man and a Hispanic man.

Hulla-Meyer is one of 16 outreach specialists working at partner colleges of the National Center of Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC); she recently made a presentation about her recruiting strategies at the HI-TEC Conference in Portland, Oregon.

OP-TEC and the two photonics regional centers—The Southeast Regional Center for Laser and Fiber Optics Education (LASER-TEC) and the Midwest Photonics Education Center (MPEC)—are devoting a portion of their Advanced Technological Education funds from the National Science Foundation to provide mini-grants to help 16 colleges cover the salary costs for outreach specialists to recruit students for photonics programs. The colleges are matching the grant funds they receive from the ATE photonics centers.  

All the outreach specialists are using posters, events, and other collaterals developed to celebrate 2015 as the International Year of Light in their presentations. In Cincinnati, Hulla-Meyer is reaching out to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for the college's laser and optics program to have a role in the Festival of Lights, the Christmas holiday light show that attracts thousands of visitors to the zoo each year from November to January.

Indian River State College where LASER-TEC is located has already had two large public conferences to mark the International Year of Light. More than 250 teenagers, parents, and teachers attended the events where lasers, infrared technologies, fiber optics, integrated photonics, and other light-based technologies were explained by national experts.

Using OP-TEC Survey Results

Based on photonics students' responses to survey questions about what influenced their career decisions, Hulla-Meyer and the other outreach specialists are also creating Facebook pages and incorporating social media into their recruitment activities.

In the 2013 survey, approximately half of the 130 photonics students who responded to survey questions indicated that they enrolled in laser and optics courses based on what they had learned about the enabling technology on social media and the internet. Guidance counselors and advertisements on television and radio influenced only about 10% of the photonics students.

Information from relatives had some impact on students' enrollment decisions, but family recommendations were much less persuasive than the internet and social media, says Dan Hull, OP-TEC principal investigator.   

He thinks the recruiters are making a difference, but it is too early to gauge the recruiters' full impact. He explains that the national and regional photonics centers agreed to invest in recruiters because the work of a recruiter dedicated solely to the Robotics and Photonics Institute at Indian River State College helped build enrollments there. Enrollment grew to 210 students in 2013 from 55 in 2005, the year before the college hired a recruiting and employment specialist. This one person is responsible for bringing students into the program and following up with them about employment after graduation,    

The 33 OP-TEC partner colleges currently graduate about 333 technicians per year. The most recent OP-TEC workforce projection study estimates that US industries need 800 new photonics technicians each year. Helping more colleges add photonics programs will help close the gap, but Hull says he and other OP-TEC partners agree that building enrollments in existing programs will close the gap more quickly.

Rethinking How We Talk About STEM 

Hulla-Meyer, who has previously worked as a job coach and recruiter, says effective recruitment involves helping people "see their skills for what they are." 

With real-life examples and a few minutes of hands-on photonics activities with prisms, she has found that women start to see that designing a living room shelf is not that much different than a photonics technician working on optical components.

When addressing mostly male audiences, Hulla-Meyer follows the advice of a colleague on the math faculty who has a bachelor's degree in social work; he suggested she point out that learning photonics can provide a path toward stable, well-paying jobs in a short amount of time. Some graduates of the Cincinnati State photonics program have started work at $21 per hour. A 2014 program graduate recently told her the annual salary of his photonics jobs exceeds $65,000.  

“There is no silver bullet, though. Every person is unique, so the most important thing I can do is to discuss ALL the aspects of being a technician, and present an accurate representation of the career, itself.  I try to avoid focusing solely on the math and science component. The career requires creative thinking, problem solving, and the ability to interpret and give directions,ˮ Hulla-Meyer explained in an email.  

“Traditionally, we have waited for the student to show interest in math and science, before we say ‘You should considering engineering, or being a technician.’ This method ignores the fact that underrepresented students are slapped with stereotypes that prevent us from believing that they are ‘good at’ or ‘interested in’ math and science. These stereotypes bombard us, but most of the time we aren’t aware of their presence. I believe the problem is that we have subconsciously accepted them, and now we reinforce them. So much so, that by the time a student reaches 13 years of age, they have already decided that they aren’t smart enough, hardworking enough, or dedicated enough to succeed in a STEM career. We hear all the time, how we have a need for skilled workers in the United States. We created that deficit when we left out a large portion of the student body,ˮ she wrote.

During an interview for the ATE@20 Blog she said, “I don't think that I've cracked the code. I think I'm trying a lot of different things to help crack it. The biggest thing is we need to rethink how we talk about it [STEM] and who we talk to about it.ˮ

When talking with high school and middle school students, she uses activities that complement the courses students are taking. Gaining entre to those students' classrooms first involves tailoring her calls to individual math and science teachers in middle school and high schools, as well as presentations to groups of teachers, to offer activities that demonstrate the math and science concepts covered by the curricula they must teach.

“We talk to the teachers so then the teachers can invite us into their classrooms,ˮ she said. Once she is in the classrooms Hulla-Meyer brings activities that show students that photonics are in their cell phones and cameras. She explains that it is someone's responsibility to maintain machines that use lasers, and set up optical components, and repair surgical lasers. “You could be that person,ˮ she tells the students.

“People just don't know that it [photonics] exists and they also don't know that lasers are just such a crucial part of the manufacturing and distribution process,ˮ she said.

Beginning in the 2014-2015 Hulla-Meyer and faculty with the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology Laser program at Cincinnati State are developing photonics experiments for every unit of the science curriculum at Fairfield Middle School in suburban Cincinnati. They plan to work with the same teachers throughout the year, and if that goes well to develop an elective course in light and optics for the school district to use.