Professionals want technology careers to appeal more to blacks

Feb. 28--When Patrick Allmond attended the recent monthly meeting of the Oklahoma Venture Forum at the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park, he said he couldn't help but notice a similarity he shared with the keynote speaker, Michael Carolina.

"We were the only color in the room," Allmond said.

Carolina is executive director of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, and is black.

So is Allmond, who owns a technology-based business called Focus Information Technology Services Inc.

Allmond and Carolina were the only blacks among the 118 people at the event.

The Venture Forum is a networking organization for technology-based entrepreneurs, researchers, venture capitalists and economic development officers.

"When I go into a room like the room (in which the Venture Forum met), it's kind of surprising," Allmond said. "There aren't many people of color there, and I wish there were because it's a really great field to be in.

"There are just mammoth opportunities and I feel information technology is a field that is never going to dry up."

Although the audience was overwhelmingly white and male, Carolina was focused only on discussing the economic benefit brought to the state over the 20-year history of OCAST.

As for bringing that message to a more diverse technology-based audience in the future, it will depend on expanding the appeal of science and math to minority students early in life, he said.

"It's a coaching and mentoring issue, particularly for African-Americans who sometimes grew up in families where you may have a support issue in terms of doing your homework in math and sciences," Carolina said. "I think it has to start in the K-through-12 level in getting minorities interested in math and science. We have initiatives to do that."

In fact, there seems to be few programs specifically geared to lure more minorities into science and math careers.

The state has implemented Gov. Henry's Achieving Classroom Excellence program, which attempts to set all students regardless of race or financial status on an academic track for college.

At the higher education level, the state offers a program called the Teacher Shortage Employment Incentive Program, which provides a financial reward for science and math majors who graduate from college and teach for five years, said Ben Hardcastle, spokesman for the State Regents for Higher Education.

But that program does not specifically target minority students.

"We want to build a pool of people who can compete and become engineers and scientists," Carolina said. "Sometimes it's just a matter of the coaching and the mentoring, particularly with black males. You have issues with African-American role models."

But there are role models in the sciences and math for aspiring young people, Carolina said. He cited the well-known example of George Washington Carver, who developed new applications for peanuts and sweet potatoes, and lesser known examples such as Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first successful open-heart surgery in 1893.

Carolina often is asked to speak at groups of young people, and recently spoke to the Big 12 Black Student Association at its annual meeting on the Oklahoma State University campus. He made a pitch for science and math, of course.

"I spoke on science and society," he said. "Science is a critical component of our society and innovations that come through science and mathematics, engineering; that we as a nation have to embrace technology."

Carolina and Allmond took far different paths that led them to technology-based careers.

Caroline grew up in Wewoka, the son of a school teacher with lots of emphasis placed on academic skills. He enrolled at OSU in 1962 and majored in biological engineering at a time when few blacks were enrolled in such programs. He later earned a master's degree in environmental and civil engineering at the University of Oklahoma and enjoyed a long career with AT&T and its spin-off, Lucent Technologies.

"I was interested in science and math early on, so I took those science and biology courses, the math courses, algebra and geometry and calculus," Carolina said. "It was fairly easy because I had the building block of math."

Allmond grew up in Southern California, the adopted son of a nurse. He developed an early interest in computers and learned programming skills on his own.

"By the time I got to my classes in high school, I actually helped teach the (computer) class," Allmond said. "There was no point in taking the class because I knew as much as the teacher did. So that was an easy 'A,' and I was sort of a teacher's assistant."

After graduating from North Hollywood High School, Allmond went straight into the Air Force, which put his computer skills to use at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Neb. Allmond took no further formal education, except on-the-job training. He's just beginning to work on a college degree through OSU's Oklahoma City campus, he said.

After leaving the military in 1990, Allmond worked for Hertz and IBM until he created his own technology-based business in 1998, in part so that he could raise his family in Oklahoma City.

His status as a minority business owner actually has helped him win business for Focus Information Technology Services, he said.

His advice to young blacks with technology-based entrepreneurial aspirations? Speak correctly and make a good presentation.

"I think the best thing I can do is sit down and mentor some people and show them that if you don't believe that your color is a handicap it's not," Allmond said. "Present yourself as a professional and present yourself as someone who knows what he is talking about and the whole color issue goes away."

Carolina said that the historical perspective that pioneering black scientists provide young people can help inspire more to pursue careers in science and math.

"It's so important to black Americans to have role models," he said. "There are good examples out there. We just need to make sure those stories get told."

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