Apply for US2020 STEM Mentoring Awards and Be Honored at the White House, Deadline- June 10

[STEM Learning Ecosystem]

Dear Colleagues,

We are reaching out to share a unique opportunity for this year’s US2020 STEM Mentoring Awards, announced at the White House Science Fair on April 13^th. For the past two years, STEM Funders Network member Chevron has provided sponsorship support for the STEM Mentoring Awards. Chevron see this awards series as an important way to elevate and encourage promising practices in STEM mentoring across the country.

US2020‘s mission is to dramatically scale the number of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals mentoring and teaching students through hands-on projects, with a focus on serving underrepresented communities. A key component to this mission is to identify and share exceptional work already taking place in the field and to build recognition for STEM mentoring as an important tool in education reform.

Winners of the STEM Mentoring Awards will be invited to attend the STEM Mentoring Symposium at the White House complex this summer, and receive recognition for their exceptional work in a room full of leaders in the field. US2020 will also work to capture the best practices of the winners and finalists to share them with the wider field on an ongoing basis.

Please consider applying to this year’s Awards as a way to highlight the important work you are doing in STEM education.  Please read on to find details on each of the three award categories, and to apply, please visit https://us2020.org/sma.  The deadline to apply for the awards is Friday, June 10.

Please also feel free to forward this opportunity to other organizations or partners you may work with (i.e.,-nonprofits could forward to other corporate supporters and corporates, please feel free to forward to your nonprofit partners). 

 

Excellence in Corporate Culture
The private sector has a big role to play in addressing the STEM education challenge. We believe it starts with an intentional focus on building a corporate culture that is conducive to service. The Excellence in Corporate Culture award will recognize companies that are promoting and supporting a culture of STEM volunteerism across all levels of their business operations. The finalist and winning companies will be interviewed and their strategies will be synthesized and presented as best practices for the field.

 

Excellence in Public – Private Partnerships
When the public sector partners with the corporations employing large STEM workforces or the nonprofits serving youth, STEM mentoring magic can happen. Connecting students with talented volunteers who can provide compelling, real-world STEM learning opportunities requires a collaborative, cross-sectoral approach. This award category seeks to define what works, how it works and begin to develop blueprints for effective, cross-sectoral partnerships that break down barriers for students and communities.

 

Excellence in Volunteer Experience
If we are going to bring STEM mentoring to the scale needed to address our country’s STEM education challenge, we need to treat every volunteer not just as an educator, mentor and coach for youth, but also as a powerful promoter and recruiter for our work. The Excellence in Volunteer Experience award will recognize education partners that provide high-quality, well-supported engagements for their volunteers during a spring semester or academic year STEM mentoring program. The finalist and winning organizations will be interviewed and their strategies synthesized and presented as best practices for the field.