Brett Brenton, US2020 RTPChristina O’Neill, Cisco Kim Gervase, North Carolina Science Olympiad

Leveraging Partnerships

In this session, we hope you will…

• Grow in your understanding of how partnerships can be formed and leveraged around a central goal or mission

• Come to understand why a coalition of partners decided to begin this program and commit to this work

• Learn about the role that industry partners and youth-serving organizations play in this type of approach

• Hear about the challenges we have faced, the benefits of partnering, and the recommendations we have for others who wish to attempt similar models

Key Objectives and Takeaways

The US2020 program was launched at the 2013 White House Science Fair as a way to both diversify the STEM fields as well as help address current and future gaps of qualified workers in these fields.

The program’s primary focus is through the use of mentoring to help engage new audiences. US2020 mentoring is sustainable, experiential and focused on three key demographics – females, the economically disadvantaged, and underrepresented minorities.

US2020 RTP has worked for the last fifteen months to build partnerships with dozens of STEM Industry partners and over 100 youth-serving organizations, all with a goal of uniting the STEM community and exposing more students to potential STEM careers.

US2020 RTP

The Platform Badges

The Digital Partner Directory

• Internship opportunities

• Job shadowing, tours, and ‘speed mentoring’

• Teacher mini-externships

• Events, convenings, and summits

• Promoting fairs and career days

Other ways we provide support

NCSO is a K-12 STEM competition involving more than 650 schools in 85 NC counties – more than 16,000 students will compete in NC this year!

Students work on teams to become experts in a variety of subject areas throughout the year and then compete against other regional teams for individual medals and team trophies.

Problem-based learning at its best; and a way to let students and teachers take their knowledge to the next level.

North Carolina Science Olympiad

Leveraging our partnerships across the state

• K-12 School systems

• Institutions of high ed

• Corporations

• Government Organizations

• Museums

• Clubs/Societies

• Other youth-serving organizations

US2020 In 2013, Cisco joined the launch of the US2020 initiative and committed to having 20% of our US workforce to volunteer as STEM mentors by the year 2020. We are focused on bridging the gap to students who have not seen STEM careers first-hand.

Girls Power Tech is an annual Cisco program held in conjunction with International Girls in ICT Day. We bring girls ages 13-18 to Cisco campuses worldwide to get inspired about STEM and technology careers, and to connect with mentors on-site and learn about Cisco technology.

Networking Academy is an IT skills and career building program that is offered to learning institutions and individuals worldwide. Our courses provide in-depth technology training and encourage students to solve problems and work together, just as they will in the workplace..

Cisco in RTP

Our philanthropic focus areas

• Education (with emphasis on STEM)

• Critical Human Needs (nutritious food, water, shelter, and emergency care)

Key Internal Stakeholders

• Cisco Foundation

• Cisco Executives

• Our Mission

Cisco Partnerships

Long term, layered partnership with targeted non-profits

• Volunteers

• Cash Grants

• Product Donation

• Local Employee Epicenters

Relationship Management

• Regular updates and engagement

The importance of this work cannot be overstated – we face both challenge and opportunity in addressing the looming shortages and the lack of diversity in the STEM fields.

There are tremendous efforts being made on both the STEM industry side and the youth-serving side that are focused on the same basic goal – increasing exposure to STEM.

That said, there are a number of companies, organizations and schools that do not have access to each other and therefore cannot make the most of the resources that are abundant in our region.

Mission of tying entities from these realms together

• Becoming a mentor is a big step for many people

• Companies need to make sense of the approach and make it fit their own personal direction

• Searching for high quality programming to ensure a good experience

• Overall cost of running a program like this at an optimal level

• Overcoming a host of life challenges for a great number of the students we are trying to reach

Challenges of this approach

• Creating a regional network for greater accessibility and collective impact

• Addressing a business problem through intentional long-term job recruitment

• Providing opportunities for community to engage in meaningful ways

• Creating confidence in students who may lack it otherwise

• Taking advantage of the region’s resources and strengths

• Making people feel good about the work they do

Benefits of this approach

• Start with the people you already have relationships with before jumping into new relationships

• Meet your partners where they are rather than asking them to immediately become something they’re not

• Develop multiple opportunities to engage so that you are not reliant on only one way of measuring success

• Be clear in your mission and make sure you carry it out in consistent ways. Be who you say you are

• Develop a clear policy around vetting partners to ensure that the partnerships you create result in a high quality of engagement for all

Recommendations

US2020 RTPFacebook.com/US2020RTP Twitter @STEMinthePark

Instagram.com/STEMintheParkYouTube: US2020RTP

CiscoOnline @ csr.cisco.comTwitter @CiscoLocal

Facebook.com/CiscoCSR

North Carolina Science OlympiadFacebook.com/NCScienceOlympiad

Twitter @NCSciOlympiadInstagram.com/ncsciolympiad

YouTube: North Carolina Science Olympiad

To learn more