Hang in there, one day left ’til the weekend! Here are some need-to-know numbers for Thursday.
A series of programs across the nation are trying to diversify the health care field by helping Black and Latino high school and college students become doctors, medical examiners and public health leaders. These pipelines come in the midst of application record lows: Marketplace reporter Amy Scott said, “the number of black men applying to medical school is lower than it was in the late 1970s.” Though African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans make up 25 percent of the U.S. population, only 9 percent are doctors. Eighteen-year-old Christiona Harris said she wants to be a pediatric trauma surgeon — a position she thinks shouldn’t be out of reach for young black men and women. “A young black boy – if he’s tall, he’s a basketball player. If he’s stocky, he’s a football player. Why can’t he be a surgeon?” she said. “Or a black girl with a lot of knowledge. ‘Oh, you going to be a nurse?’ Why can’t I go that extra mile and be a doctor?”
Pinterest is also joining efforts to increase diversity, setting the goal of increasing hiring rates for full-time engineers to 30 percent female and 8 percent underrepresented ethnic minorities. The social media company hired Candice Morgan as its head of diversity to reach these goals. Part of the hiring process will mean interviewing “at least one woman and one underrepresented minority for all senior level positions,” Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes wrote. In trying to cultivate a more inclusive workforce, Morgan discovered some interesting linguistic biases: apparently the word “rockstar” can discourage some groups from applying.
Recruitment is at the fore for the military, which is having trouble with gaining new members because of…a good economy. To try to improve the quality of the military’s conditions, the Navy is increasing maternity by twofold, and sending more of its members to graduate programs instead of war colleges.
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