The social, economic, and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have disproportionately affected underserved populations in the United States, including racially minoritized students, lower-income students, and females. These populations have also been historically underrepresented and underserved in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Without a concerted effort to recruit and support underserved students in STEM amid the crisis, the consequences of COVID-19 threaten to erase progress that has made and to exacerbate long-standing inequities and racial disparities by further stratifying STEM fields, according to two Virginia Tech faculty members.
