Million Women Mentors

Partnership Seeks to Engage

More Than One Million Girls and Young Women

in STEM Education and Careers

I am so thankful to be graced to continue to share this journey of Purposed Work. My 2014 travel schedule has started. In lieu of a blog post this week, I’m sharing information about an exciting program for “advancing women and girls in STEM careers through mentoring.”

The National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) announced its partnership with the "Million Women Mentors" (MWM) initiative, launched January 8, 2014, 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!

 To become involved with NAPE or Million Women Mentors, please visit www.napequity.org  or www.MillionWomenMentors.org . Contact: Claudia Morrell, Chief Operating Officer, (610) 593-8038.

If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.