MentorNet adds its name to mission-critical STEM conference

NEWS RELEASE
April 4, 2012

For Immediate Release
  
MentorNet adds its name to mission-critical STEM conference

Washington, DC. America needs a workforce skilled in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and a notable group of companies and organizations is uniting to ensure that the nation gets the message. This summer, thousands of education, policy and industry thought leaders will convene in Dallas, Texas for STEM Solutions 2012, a groundbreaking leadership summit that will bring the best minds and best practices together on a national stage to open the conversation and develop solutions to the STEM skills shortage.

Among the STEM stakeholders who have signed on to get behind the Summit is MentorNet. As one of the conference’s Co-chairs, MentorNet will provide topical input, expertise and support throughout the planning stages, as well as during the conference.

The organizers of STEM Solutions 2012 identified MentorNet as a change maker involved in shaping the economy’s future. MentorNet connects students in STEM majors on campuses directly, personally, and powerfully with their future careers by matching them to individual STEM professionals as mentors and guiding their relationships. MentorNet protégés are disproportionately women and underrepresented minorities, so this unique program jumps many hurdles to give thousands of students a year personal wisdom about their future careers and encouragement to finish their degrees. Mentors and protégés meet and communicate via the Internet, a simple method that has proven its efficacy: 93.5 percent of students complete their STEM degrees.

According to Dr. Mary Fernandez, MentorNet's Chair, "MentorNet allows protégés to broach very personal and specific problems. These students are dealing with more than just getting good grades: they're young, they're vulnerable, and the mentor is there to help them figure out how to tear down the barriers."

MentorNet is also a vigorous advocate for connecting the workforce to higher education, informing and motivating a growing community of 53,000 influencers, advocates, decision-makers, professors, researchers, protégés and STEM professionals. 

As recent studies by the US General Accounting Office and the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House have shown, there are hundreds of government-funded programs aimed at encouraging and students all along the K-20+ pipeline to choose and persist in engineering and science. There are thousands more in the private and non-profit sector. STEM Solutions and STEMConnector™ offer the best large-scale effort to provide a directory to and coordinate these programs. However, MentorNet is unique in that it both aims at students at the university level and can show outstanding results over the long-term, a critical last segment of the pipeline guiding students to entry into the workforce. The program’s CEO, David Porush, outlined the sense of mutual purpose, “MentorNet is strongly motivated to help produce a comprehensive vision to attack this critical national opportunity and amplify our individual efforts.”

Sharing data collected from 30,000 MentorNet protégés over 12 years, Porush is one of the event’s featured speakers and will be discussing the use of the Internet to mentor university students, especially those who may face extra hurdles, in STEM to encourage them to complete their degrees and enter the workforce.

Event organizers, U.S. News & World Report, Innovate+Educate and STEMConnector™ have enthusiastically welcomed MentorNet’s involvement. “STEMConnector is so proud that MentorNet is committing its strong voice and resources towards addressing one of the most pressing issues facing America's economic future. We respect and admire MentorNet's work and look forward their critical contributions to the STEM Solutions Conference in Dallas.,” said Edie Fraser, CEO of STEMConnector.
To learn more about how you can help shape our nation’s future by participating in STEM Solutions 2012, visit www.USNewsSTEMSolutions.com. Furthermore, MentorNet has negotiated a special program rate for its network of contacts who register using code MNT031.
 

U.S. News STEM Solutions 2012—A Leadership Summit is a mission-critical event focused on the shortage of science- and tech-related skills in the American workforce. U.S. News & World Report, together with Innovate+Educate, STEMConnector™ and more than 40 key organizations will bring together for the first time on a national stage major corporations, leading educators, top policy makers and education technology companies to create a collective that will fill jobs now and advance the future STEM workforce. Held June 27 – 29, 2012 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
U.S. News & World Report is a print and digital publisher of news and information in the areas of politics, policy, education, health care, personal finance and other topics of consumer interest.
Innovate+Educate is a national non-profit led by Fortune 500 companies with a goal of aligning STEM education and workforce efforts on a state-by-state basis.
STEMConnector™ is a resource center and network that helps bring together the many STEM projects around the country with a website of more than 3,000 organizations dedicated to STEM education; jobs and diversity are key priorities.

For additional information about STEM Solutions 2012

Alexi Turbow, Communications Relations Coordinator | U.S. News & World Report
Phone: 202-955-2155
Email: aturbow@usnews.com

Kimberly Hardcastle-Geddes | Vice President, MDG

Phone: 619.298.1445 x116

Email: kimberly@marketingdesigngroup.com