A Florida entrepreneur is encouraging Hispanic students to pursue careers in STEM, due to lack of representation.
Gabriel Ruiz is the president and founder of Advanced IT Concepts Inc, a STEM-company partnered with the U.S. Military.
“In Belgium, we’re putting entire medical facility simulations for NATO Special forces,” Ruiz said. “The technology we’re deploying immerses them into an entire combat like infrastructure facility and they develop skill that are needed in order to save lives.”
Ruiz spent 36 years working in technology within the U.S. Army. He enrolled in STEM courses in Puerto Rico at 16.
Ruiz is passionate about helping Hispanic students successful like him.
Hispanics are one of the fasting growing demographics in the U.S. They make up almost 20-percent of the population, but only a little more than five percent of the STEM workforce, according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hispanic students drop out or transfer out of STEM courses at higher rates than their male counterparts.
“We’re now going to start bringing those young minds, young students that are specifically focused on STEM to expose them to the technologies we’re deploying and develop that mindset, stay within STEM careers,” Ruiz said.
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