to recent Census Bureau projections, minorities will account for 57 percent of the United States population by 2060. (8) According to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc., as the United States works to remain competitive in the world of technological innovation, the United States should address the need to increase the number of individuals from underrepresented minority segments of the population who work in engineering. (9) The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that, while freshmen from underrepresented minority groups express an interest in pursuing a STEM undergraduate degree at the same rate as all other freshmen, only 22 percent of Latino students, 18 percent of African-American students, and 19 percent of Native American students studying in STEM fields complete their degree within 5 years, compared to around 33 percent and 42 percent 5-year completion rates for White and Asian students, respectively. (10) According to the 2015 Asian Americans Advancing Justice report Making America Work , data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) on average hide the fact that some subgroups are underrepresented in STEM fields, with only 9 percent of Cambodian, 8 percent of Laotian, 8 percent of Hmong, and 7 percent of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander workers hold STEM jobs, compared to 12 percent of the total American population holding STEM jobs. (11) According to 3-year estimates from the 2013 American Community Survey, Southeast Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have higher poverty rates and lower educational attainment rates compared to the overall population. (12) Additionally, while 15 percent of the overall population lives below the Federal poverty level, several minority populations have significantly higher poverty rates including 20 percent of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, 21 percent of Cambodian, 28 percent of Hmong, 17 percent of Laotian, and 33 percent of Bhutanese Americans. Compared to 30 percent