As one of the world’s premier technology companies and an employer of nearly 60,000 scientists and engineers, Lockheed Martin is proud to partner with innovative organizations across the nation to be part of the solution to the STEM challenge. One of the premier initiatives the company supports  is Viva Technology™, a national kindergarten-through-12th grade education program designed to engage students, teachers and parents with STEM challenges. Viva Technology stimulates interest in the application of technology by creating awareness, supplying STEM resources, and providing access to STEM career pathways. For the fall 2015 academic year, Lockheed Martin is funding five Viva Technology programs in Texas, California, Colorado, Georgia and Maryland. “In addition to reaching out, we’re also looking inward. Through workplace diversity programs, we’re promoting inclusion and fostering an environment where historically underrepresented groups are supported and encouraged to rise into positions of leadership,” says Rainia Washington, Vice President, Culture, Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

 

 

 

National Grid is helping build the future of engineering through its signature education program, known as Engineering Our Future. The goal is to help ensure a diverse, highly skilled work force by encouraging students of all ages and backgrounds to study STEM programs. In fact, the company has invested more than $3 million to help provide thousands of students throughout New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island with the skills and tools they’ll need to succeed as part of the 21st century work force. National Grid has also partnered with the City University of New York, LaGuardia Community College and Con Edison to create the Energy Tech High School in Long Island City. This unique six-year program allows students to graduate with both a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree in engineering, totally free of charge. And students who go through this program are well-equipped to move into lucrative and competitive careers or four-year degrees at other institutions.  Through these and similar efforts, National Grid is committed to helping local kids and communities, and building tomorrow’s workforce today.

 

 

 

GM has a longstanding commitment to increasing the number of Latinos in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers – as is evident in its support of educational programs, grants and recruiting practices. GM champions efforts year round through partnerships with educational institutions, other corporations and local organizations, reaching thousands of students annually. In addition, the Buick Achievers Scholarship Program offers scholarships to students, particularly in STEM fields, of up to $25,000 per year. As one example of its commitment, in May, GM’s Arlington Assembly Plant participated in the first ever STEM week in partnership with the STEM Community Council of Arlington, Texas. Members of GM’s Hispanic Initiative Team, the company’s award-winning employee resource group, spearheaded the effort.Activities kicked off with a mayoral proclamation and unfolded into a host of simultaneous educational events at various locations including the GM plant that produces Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC vehicles. STEM week impacted over 5,000 students in the Arlington area and beyond.  Students heard inspirational speakers and took part in science fairs, a 3D printing program, and robotics demonstrations. The Arlington school district is 44 percent Hispanic and three of the participating schools (Sam Houston High School, Carter Junior High School and Remynse Elementary School) are over 70 percent Hispanic.

 

 

 

As a global leader in networking technology, Cisco views STEM education as a business imperative. Since 1998, the company has invested $1.3B in STEM education globally. Its Networking Academy program, with over 9,000 academies and over 1 million students enrolling each year, provides students of all socioeconomic backgrounds with technical training. The academy has helped more than 5.5 million people prepare for the IT workforce since 1997. As part of its commitment to the US2020 organization, the company has pledged that 20% of its U.S. workforce will volunteer 20 hours in STEM mentoring by the year 2020.  Since 2014, over 2,500 of its U.S. employees have volunteered over 28,000 hours in mentoring. In support of the company’s efforts to reach women and minorities, Cisco’s Latino employee resource organization, Conexión, has partnered with MESA, which helps educationally disadvantaged students prepare for college and STEM careers. Through mentoring and shadowing opportunities, students pair up with a Cisco employee for one year and meet monthly for discussions on a range of topics. Over the past 3 years, Cisco and MESA have sponsored 114 MESA students and 6 students have been hired into Cisco. Conexión’s signature program, Program Escuela, inspires youth from high-risk areas to seek higher education by promoting interest in technology. Employees volunteer to engage with elementary students on a project over a 5-week period and provide coaching around project work.

 

 

 

In a keynote speech at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced Intel’s new goal in diversity and inclusion: to achieve full representation of under- represented minorities and women by the year 2020. “It’s time to step up and do more,” Krzanich said. “It’s not just good enough to say we value diversity and then have our workplaces and our industry not reflect the full availability and talent pool of women and underrepresented minorities.” He called on the rest of the industry to join him in making diversity a new force in technology to help shape the future. Krzanich announced a $300 million Diversity in Technology Initiative to make investments that help build a pipeline of underrepresented engineers and computer scientists, to foster hiring and inclusion for women and under-represented minorities at Intel, and to fund programs to support a more positive representation of women and underrepresented minorities in technology and gaming. Full representation means Intel’s U.S. workforce will be more representative of the talent available in the positions for which the company hires, including more balanced representation in senior leadership positions.

 

 

 

ExxonMobil recognizes that our nation needs more students who are college and career ready in STEM and that more engineers, and more kinds of engineers, are needed to address the challenges facing the 21st century. Be An Engineer is an effort to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates the demand for professionals in several engineering disciplines—led by software and petroleum engineers—to continue to grow, with the addition of approximately 250,000 engineering positions over the next 10 years. Be An Engineer intends to build a greater understanding of the engineering field and the opportunities it offers. “One of the challenges we have as a profession is that young people don’t really know what an engineer does. And it can take on a certain connotation of being nothing more than a technician. When in reality scientists discover things and help us understand why they are. Mathematicians help us calculate and measure why they are and why they behave the way they do. Engineers are the marriage of science and mathematics. Engineers put them together and create everything around us,”said Rex W. Tillerson, Chairman and CEO, ExxonMobil.

 

 

 

Samsung’s flagship education program is the Solve for Tomorrow Contest to promote STEM among students in grades 6-12. School teams are asked to address the following challenge: “Show how STEM can help  improve your community.” Each level of participation comes with prizes, leading to five National Winners receiving more than $135,000 of technology and other prizes for their schools. This year’s  National Winners were Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver, WA; Nicholson Elementary School in Picayune, MS; Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy in Erie, PA; Galena High School in Reno, NV; and Downtown College Prep in San Jose, CA. the projects ranged from an affordable system to reduce a home’s water use (San Jose), to equipment to ease the challenges of wheelchair-bound students (Reno). They were recognized in Washington, DC last April for what they had accomplished with their Solve for Tomorrow projects. Students attended an awards luncheon at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, then had meetings with members of Congress on Capitol Hill, as well as top education and domestic policy staff at the White House.

 

 

 

A recent survey from ASIS Foundation and University of Phoenix found that 39 percent of security industry leaders identified cyber security as one of the top security risks likely to affect companies in the next five years. More than ever before, there is increasing global demand for security across every industry, making development of a cybersecurity workforce critical to the economy and national security. Earlier this year,  Apollo Education Group, Inc. University of Phoenix® and STEMconnector® hosted the National STEM Forum on Security Risks and Emerging Workforce Solutions Roundtable, bringing together national security experts from across the country and across various industries to provide insight on emerging strategies and workforce solutions in enterprise security and cyber security; security risks and challenges; and the current critical workplace gap. Among the participants was Major General Spider Marks, executive dean, University of Phoenix College of Security and Criminal Justice. “The security industry is rapidly changing and the skillsets necessary to safeguard businesses, government agencies and individuals are changing along with it,” he said. “In order to arm today’s security professionals with the tools and education they need to succeed, we need to come together to identify market needs and match them to the education we are offering those in the industry.”

 

 

 

Companies such as NBCUniversal and Telemundo incorporate “creative thinking” into STEM, adding an “A” for Arts and turning it into STEAM, which includes entertainment, multi-media, graphic design and other exciting fields. Learning is Succeeding (Aprender es Triunfar) is an initiative presented by Telemundo to provide you with information about the importance of an education in a STEAM field. Given the employment opportunities these fields represent, it is essential to increase the participation of Latino students. Learning is Succeeding is aimed at showing ways to integrate learning about STEAM fields at home in a practical and fun way. The bilingual website at www.learningissucceeding.com offers information about STEAM, tools, resources and a parent toolkit. In the growing STEAM field of media, NBCUniversal also offers one of the most outstanding STEAM internships in the country. Open to college students over 18, the Campus 2 Career program offers students real life experience, learning opportunities in the classroom and on the job, and networking opportunities with fellow interns and employees. For more information, visit www.nbcunicareers.com.

 

 

 

AT&T and the AT&T Foundation have given nearly $87 million to support STEM initiatives since 1995. Projects supported by AT&T contributions range from STEM scholarship programs and science/math focused summer camps for at-risk youth, to hands-on technology labs and elite robotics competitions at the nation’s leading universities. In addition to its overall funding of innovative STEM programs, AT&T remains focused on improving opportunities for STEM learning in K-12 education while helping at-risk youth prepare for work in the 21st century. HACEMOS is the Hispanic Employee Association of AT&T. With a membership base of 1,700, HACEMOS is committed to helping three key areas: corporation, communities, and employees. HACEMOS awarded more than $185,000 in scholarships in 2014 and has awarded more than $2.7 million in scholarships since the organization’s formation in 1988. Every year, HACEMOS connects thousands of students across the country via satellite during “High Technology Day” to familiarize students with careers in technology.