As concerns grow over labor shortages in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, the colleges ready students for jobs or more education. Educators are also looking to community colleges to fill the gap. With their high enrollments of minority and low-income students, community colleges are obvious places to recruit a diverse work force. One of the first steps is to alert students to the STEM jobs going unfilled for lack of qualified applicants. Because community-college students are more likely than others to be financially strained, however, they may shy away from time-intensive STEM programs. Those juggling classes, jobs, and family demands can be daunted by the academic requirements. And deficiencies in math often land students in remedial-course quicksand. There is also an image issue. Many students view science and math as fields for nerds, according to a report last year by the National Academies. Key to recruiting, it said, is "creating a culture where it's cool to be smart." Community colleges are working to break through those barriers, often in partnerships with industry or neighboring four-year colleges.