MentorNet Goes to Washington DC

America has identified the critical need for increasing the number of engineers and scientists to feed innovation, economic growth, and compete on the global stage and reverse the trend of sinking test scores and graduation rates in this disciplines.

I am pleased to tell you that YOUR contributions to this larger national mission - as proteges, mentors and our partners and supporters -  are being recognized by those agencies directly involved.  In December, MentorNet discussed the role of mentoring in producing positive graduation rates for women at a White House event honoring Champions of Change for Girls/Women in STEM. That event also honored our new Board member, Dr. Bobby Schnabel, as one of the Champions of Change. We also participated in an NSF-sponsored gathering of former winners of the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring, organized by my predecessor and founder of MentorNet, Carol Muller. I was invited also to speak to this year's awardees a week later.  In addition, we were the subject of tv broadasts and press recognition and have been in ongoing discussions with the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House. 

Now, we have just been invited back to DC to an elite Department of Education think tank on college completion.  I will keep you posted, but in the meantime, if you have any stories or data you wish to share about your experience in how mentoring affected a student's graduation, either as a protege or a mentor, please send them to me:
david@mentornet.net and I promise I will bring your message into this critical national discussion.

By David Porush

CEO, MentorNet