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National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity Joins STEM
Mentoring Initiative "Million Women
Mentors"
Partnership
Seeks to Engage More Than One Million Girls and Young Women in STEM
Education and Careers
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Contact:
Claudia Morrell, Chief Operating Officer, (610) 593-8038
Cochranville, PA
(1/8/14) -- The National Alliance
for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) announced its partnership with the "Million
Women Mentors" (MWM) initiative, which was launched
today, in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club, as part of
National Mentoring Month. A collective effort of more than 40
nonprofit, media, education, government, and industry partners and 9
corporate sponsors, MWM will support the engagement of 1 million
science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentors--male and
female--to increase the interest and confidence of girls and young
women to pursue and succeed in STEM degrees and careers.
In the past 10 years, growth in STEM jobs has been three
times greater than that of non-STEM jobs. Today 80% of the fastest
growing occupations in the United States depend on mastery of
mathematics and knowledge and skills in hard sciences. Although women
comprise 48% of the U.S. workforce, just 24% are in STEM fields, a
statistic that has held constant for nearly the past decade. Although
75% of all college students are women and students of color, they
represent only 45% of STEM degrees earned each year. Too many of these
young women begin in STEM degree paths but leave despite their good
academic standing, often citing uncomfortable classroom experiences and
disconcerting climate. Even when women earn a STEM degree, they are
less likely than their male counterparts to work in a STEM field--even
though STEM jobs pay more and have a lower wage gap: 92 cents on a
dollar versus 75 cents in other fields.
NAPE, through its
Education Foundation, has developed a suite of professional development
programs for administrators, educators, and counselors/advisors to
improve opportunities for underrepresented populations in STEM courses
of study and careers, including STEM-related Career and Technical
Education. NAPE's STEM
Equity Pipeline™
offerings include the Program
Improvement Process for Equity™,
Micromessaging
to Reach and Teach Every Student™, and the Focus on
Counselors Initiative. To date, NAPE has provided
professional development in these programs to almost 1,700
administrators, educators, and counselors/advisors in 372 schools.
As part of
National Mentoring Month, on
January 16, 2014, at 1 pm EST, NAPE will actively engage those who
mentor girls in STEM in a webinar titled Building Trust.
NAPE COO
Claudia Morrell will discuss the importance of
paying attention to the use of subtle but powerful micromessages in
building trust in mentor/mentee relationships. As explained by Ms.
Morrell, "Without honesty there is no credibility in the mentor/mentee
relationship, and the mentor becomes just one more person in a long
line of people repeating things the mentee doesn't believe. NAPE is
excited to contribute to this initiative by providing guidance to
mentors about the best ways to communicate with their mentees."
Register for this free webinar today!
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To become involved with NAPE or Million Women Mentors, please visit napequity.org
and MillionWomenMentors.org.
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NAPE
is a national, nonprofit consortium of state and local agencies,
corporations, and national organizations that collaborate to create
equitable and diverse classrooms and workplaces where there are no
barriers to opportunities. The NAPE Education Foundation has been
involved in a number of initiatives to increase diversity in America's
workforce and to increase opportunities in high-skill, high-wage,
high-demand careers. Among these is the National Science Foundation-funded
STEM Equity Pipeline Project, which works with educational systems to
increase the participation of underrepresented populations in STEM
education. For more information, visit www.napequity.org.
Million
Women Mentors® (MWM) is a collective national campaign
and program with the purpose of captivating one million mentors to link
with one million girls and young professionals for their STEM careers.
Through its efforts MWM works to showcase existing best practice and
suggestions for the future. Utilizing a technology portal built in
three phases and developed in collaboration with Tata Consultancy
Services, MWM technology will enable mentor services for the nation.
The MWM website and program will launch January 8, 2014. The program is
a collective effort of founding partners including 35 non-profits and
major corporations and will also reach government agencies. MWM is an
initiative of STEMconnector®, a company which works closely with
corporations and other organizations to assist in corporate
development, corporate structure and smart STEM investments. Facebook,
Twitter,
Google+
STEMconnector®
is THE information resource and source of best practices. The one-stop
for Who's Doing What in STEM Education and STEM jobs. STEMconnector®'s
web site contains 6,500 profiles of stakeholders in STEM Education.
STEMconnector® purpose is to map STEM activity of organizations,
government, private sector, education, associations, diversity and
women. STEMconnector® overall works through collaboration with its
members and partners. Members are in all sectors. STEM Council meetings
are offered three times a year to members and these are business,
government, education and nonprofits.
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National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity
PO Box 369, Cochranville, PA 19330
(610) 593-8038, nape@napequity.org
www.napequity.org
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