STEM Mentorship Programs: A Corporate and University Perspective

Abstract

The US2020 National Mentoring Initiative, with a goal of engaging 1 million mentors in STEM programming by the year 2020, was born out of a call to action from President Obama. The TechPoint Foundation for Youth (TPF4Y) has taken on the role of Coalition Lead for US2020 in Indianapolis. Indianapolis has a large and growing STEM community, with extensive STEM knowledge and wisdom, but, in 2013, had no large scale system to connect potential mentors and K-12 mentees. To address this issue, TechPoint Foundation for Youth assembled a core group of STEM-based corporate partners in the city and joined the US2020 program, adding the support of three AmeriCorps VISTAs—Volunteers in Service to America—who each had roles dedicated to a piece of the volunteer coordination continuum. In partnership with Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the STEM Education Research Institute, TPF4Y also sought to increase the awareness of US2020 and STEM mentoring programs on a college campus. This presentation will share growing pains and learned lessons from Year 1 that can apply to the development of future STEM mentorship programs both in a company and on a college campus.