Without question, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is the new buzzword for those worried about post-graduation employment. These are all disciplines in which students could excel if they are to retain their industrial and economic strength through a lifetime of work.

In his February 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama urged that we double-down on science and technology education starting in our secondary schools. To give the argument even more traction, some would widen the list of STEM professions to include educators, technicians, managers, social scientists, and health care professionals. Indeed, the talk these days in my college is about how to engage the 50%+ who study liberal arts in the 2-year programs.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the STEM job sector is growing at twice the rate of non-STEM occupations, but we should note some caveats. First, let’s remember that STEM workers, as identified by the Commerce Department, comprise only 5.5% of the workforce. Second, while STEM workers overall may earn 26% more than their counterparts, the greatest differential is seen in the lowest-level jobs; the higher the terminal degree, the less the earnings difference.¹

Why Art & Entrepreneurship

Therefore, we have to bring students into the power of their mindset. In particular, the entrepreneurial way of seeing problems and solutions. It’s not just thinking outside the box, it’s thinking of practical solutions that solve quickly and innovatively the problem. Many businesses do not have months and month or year to solve problems.

Take Stephen Northcutt, a 4-year college grad, who is now the president and CEO of The Escal Institute of Advanced Technologies. Before he began working in computer security, before he even went to college, Stephen was a Navy helicopter rescue crewman. Later, he became a whitewater raft guide, a chef, an instructor in the martial arts, a cartographer, and a network designer. Stephen came to college to study geology, but then he became intrigued by geodetics, or global mapping. His real strength, it turns out, was not in the technical arena. As one of Stephen’s professors said, “Stephen’s real strong point was being able to examine the situation and know what to do.” This means he had an entrepreneurial mind.

STEM is AI & STEAME is Humanity

When we add art and business, we immediately complicate basic machine learning. The brain is an amazing adaptive instrument that can make music, art, and expand on physics. Going into the increasingly technical world of work requires that integrate art and entrepreneurship into our educations system so that we can simple and clever solutions to complex problem. And of course complex solutions to complex problems. But heavens not—complex solutions to simple problems (bad tech can do that too).

When we focus in on STEM+AE, we can marry what our minds do best with the dynamic and intriguing work-world.

Moreover, it is not a given that the only path to STEM job success is to attain a STEM degree. About one-third of college-educated workers in STEM professions do not hold degrees in STEM. Two-thirds of people holding STEM undergraduate degrees work in non-STEM jobs. One-fifth of math majors, for instance, end up working in education.²  Nearly 40% of STEM managers hold non-STEM degrees.³  This data points to one of the realities of college and career: the workplace is flexible, vibrant, and often unpredictable—a moving target, if you will. It is a place where, over a lifetime, a college graduate will hold multiple jobs and may even see multiple careers.⁴ An entrepreneurially minded person in that job market will be able to adapt more quickly.

Numerous biographies of technology executives illustrate that even in the tech fields, the rise to the top is facilitated by non-tech degrees. A study of technology company startups by researchers at Harvard and Duke found that 47% of their CEOs and CTOs had terminal degrees in STEM subjects, but 53% had degrees in a variety of other fields—including finance, arts and humanities, business, law, and health care.⁵

Moreover, the CEOs of Dell, JP Morgan Chase, Walt Disney, IBM, and FedEx all have liberal arts educations.⁶

Why is this? We think it’s because the people who run things—whether divisions, departments, companies, or state governments—are integrators and synthesizer—and entrepreneurs.

So who brings together the scientists, the engineers, the designers, and humanists? I think you know by now what I believe. Not every one of our graduates will go on to be a Steve Jobs, but we know that they will be bigger, broader, and more creative and fearless thinkers and doers. That’s what community colleges need most.

Fun Video about STEAM…