by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Recently, I was honored to join 29 high school scholars, their teachers, families and supporters at Morgan State University
=s Summer Transportation Institute. As I watched the graduates demonstrate the engineering projects they had created during the four-week session, I felt both pride and a sense of promise.I looked into their smiling, confident eyes and wished I had invited my father and mother to attend the Morgan State graduation dinner with me. Sitting there among some of the country
=s future engineers and managers, I thought back to the lessons my parents instilled in their children.Throughout most of my childhood, my mother would rise before dawn to take the "early bus" to domestic jobs in the homes of the wealthy, allowing our family to buy our own home and move forward toward greater opportunity. By her dedication and actions, Mother taught her children that we all must be prepared to take the early bus if we wish to accomplish our goals in life.
I also recalled our family trips to Baltimore's airport with my father. We had no money to fly anywhere, but Father would take us to watch the planes take off and land.
"Some day, will we be able to fly in one of those airplanes?" I would ask him.
"If you work hard and believe in yourself," Father would reply, "some day you will be able to build your own airplanes."
The 29 talented African American students from Baltimore's underfunded schools had learned similar lessons at Morgan State during this year's Summer Transportation Institute. Their abilities had been affirmed, and they now realize that their talents are essential to the nation's future well-being.
"Their belief in their own abilities has touched a higher potential here," I thought. "They visualize an American future in which they are full participants."
Young people - many from difficult circumstances - are reaching the same empowering self-realization at other Summer Transportation Institutes hosted by historically Black, Hispanic and Native American schools throughout the country. A nationwide partnership is teaching them that their ability and hard work can lead to good jobs within the nation's transportation sector.
Our children's dreams for the future need not be limited to the N.B.A. or the neighborhood corner. Math and science can carry them to a different destination, an opportunity we need them to pursue.
People sometimes forget that America is a large country in which transportation professionals play essential roles. One in every seven jobs is directly related to serving our transportation needs.
In transportation and other technology-based fields, a large percentage of our scientists, engineers and technicians will be retiring during the next 15 years. Many of the bright, well-educated young people whom the country will need to replace these retiring, skilled workers will be grandchildren of Americans once denied the front seats on their local transit buses.
Last year, the House Transportation Committee on which I serve successfully worked to authorize the $216 billion required to upgrade our public transit systems and roads. During those Congressional debates, continued funding was approved for essential Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Programs - including the Summer Transportation Institutes.
Under the leadership of U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater, this national partnership of government agencies, educators, private companies and parents is working to strengthen our young people's intellectual skills in science, math and engineering.
Equally important, Garrett A. Morgan Programs are reshaping expectations - our children
=s and our own. All of our young people, not just a "talented tenth," have abilities the country will need.If we instill high expectations in our children, they will respond, taking the early bus to a new destination of opportunity...and carrying future generations with them.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.