January 8th 2018
January is National Mentoring Month!
It's National #MentoringMonth this January,  and STEMconnector & Million Women Mentors will be featuring mentoring-related content on our STEMdaily newsletter as well as on our social media platforms. As always, we particularly want to share the incredible work of our partners and members! If you have any news items, blog posts, videos, or any other content pieces that might fit the bill- please send them to  [email protected]  and  [email protected] . Also, if you have a good mentoring story the needs to be told, we'd love to work together with you to create that content piece for our blog
Million Women Mentors®’ Entrepreneurship Initiative Mentoring Program, Sponsored by Wells Fargo
- STEM growth: Tech and Engineering
- Revenue:  $3-$20 Million Annually
- Size: 25 or more employees
- Location: US-Based
- Past Success in STEM-related industry
- Years in Business: 5 years or more
- Three-to-Five Year Business Plan
- Forecasted Financial Statements for 2017-2019

As part of the MWM-EI program Million Women Mentors will match 5-10 WBEs to a respective larger company to act as their mentor for a year to assist the mentee company in ways to achieve growth.
Extended Application Deadline: 5:00 pm EST, Wednesday, January 10th, 2017
Download the Application for the Program   Here  .
Mentors Needed!
Our valued MWM partner, Mentored Pathways, is looking for additional mentors to help serve a number of students across the United States. Utilizing a vast network of middle and high school educators, Mentored Pathways provides the opportunity for mentors to match with students focused on specific projects to help boost their understanding and desire for the STEM path. You may find more information by going to their website - MentoredPathways.org
NIGERIA: How BoI Intervention Funds are Helping Female Entrepreneurs – NACCIMA boss Alaba Lawson
Iyalode Alaba Lawson is the first female president of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and also the leader of the women’s group known as NACCIMA Women’s Group (NAWORG). In this interview with YETUNDE OLADEINDE, the NACCIMA boss talks about government interventions for women entrepreneurs, her achievements and challenges as NACCIMA president and more.
What role can women play to improve the economy?      We must not look down on the role that women are going to play. The women are the architect of the micro economy in this great country. They are the ones moving the GDP of the country with either their formal or informal trading that they are doing. And so, we are the architect and the engine room of the growth of the economy and that is why we say that when they produce, we must exhibit what they produce.

AUSTRALIA: Superstar Mentor for Young Scientists
Former Bega resident Jodie Ward has been selected in Science Technology Australia’s Science Superstars program and is bringing her expertise to schools on the Far South Coast.
As part of the Superstars program, Dr Ward will visit five public schools in April to encourage participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects. 
Studies have shown a high rate of female students drop out of STEM subjects before completing Years 10 and 11. 
Dr Ward is determined to increase participation by targeting girls in Years 8 to 10 to discuss the “plethora of scientific careers” that are possible.

Changing the Game by Middle School: Stopping Sexual Harassment Before It Starts
This year,  Forbes Magazine  noted that women in the U.S. leave the tech field at a 45 percent higher rate than men, driven out in part by behaviors chronicled in the 2016 survey “ The Elephant in the Valley .” The EveryGirl article, “ Women are leaving STEM in droves. We should talk about why “ states what we all know: there is a surge of programs such as coding and after school STEAM programs that are enticing female interest in science, technology, engineering and math in order to build the STEM career pipeline at an early age.
“But what if the pipeline isn’t the problem? What if, after arriving, it’s just too unbearable for women to stay in the water?”

Grant Helps More Minority Students Graduate in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
A new “bridge” is coming to Tampa Bay. However, instead of carrying harried commuters back and forth, this bridge will help underrepresented minority students move into high-demand baccalaureate programs in science, technology, engineering and math.
The Tampa Bay Bridge to the Baccalaureate, a partnership between  St. Petersburg College ,  Hillsborough Community College , and  State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota , has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the  National Science Foundation , under its Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program, to increase the number of minority students transferring into a STEM program at the  University of South Florida .

Professors Blame 'Masculine' Ideals for Lack of Women in STEM
Based on interviews with 8 female STEM students, two professors recently concluded that "masculine" norms are to blame for the lack of female STEM graduates.
According to the professors, these masculine norms include “ask ing good questions,” “capacity for abstract thought and rational thought processes,” “motivation,” “independent” thinking, and a relatively low fear of failure.
Two professors believe that “masculine STEM ideals”—like “asking good questions” and “putting school first”—are to blame for the lack of women in math and science courses.

How To Inspire More Young Women To Enter STEM In 2018
As women remain underrepresented in fields of STEM, how do we begin to close the gender gap and inspire the next generation of female innovators and leaders? At a time when technology continues to rapidly transform the way we live, we can and should work to empower more young women to take an active role in that transformation.
In that spirit, Forbes partnered with Audi of America in 2017 to launch the inaugural “Idea Incubator,” a program dedicated to inspiring future generations of female STEM leaders while also bringing together emerging talent to ideate around solving for real-world challenges through a STEM lens. Students from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering were tasked with developing solutions to a critical issue facing women and girls today – access to reliable, safe and affordable transportation. The winning team of students was presented with the first “Audi Drive Progress Grant,” a $50,000 scholarship to propel their studies.

Gold Award Girl Scout Brings STEM to the Catwalk
Maureen “Reeny” B. is a 2017 National Young Woman of Distinction from Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.  As part of her Gold Award project , she designed and created fashion accessories she dubbed “Illumicize” that progressively light up in response to increases in heart rate. But that was just the beginning. Maureen went on to host a series of Catwalk Coding camps—instructional courses designed to attract girls in low-income communities to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Today she updates us on her camps and how they’re affecting girls around the world. 

Women Needed in STEM on Brink of Fourth Industrial Revolution
Women are underwhelmingly employed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Not only women themselves, but governments and industries would benefit to realize the value of more women in such fields. The European Commission says that more women in information and communications technology (ICT), a STEM subfield, could increase the European Union’s GDP by nine billion euros per year.
This low-risk high-reward opportunity is being missed around the globe, with a particular negligence at home. Canada, for its gender-balanced cabinet, only sees 36 per cent of PhDs in science earned by women, while the UK and US see 49 and 46 per cent, respectively. Canada’s science minister thinks that Canadian universities aren’t doing enough to ensure gender parity.

Women Bioscience Workers start Group for Networking, Mentoring in Madison
Getting more women into scientific jobs in the Madison area -- that's the goal of a new effort starting this month.
Women in Biohealth launches on January 17 with a roundtable discussion and networking event, organized by BioForward, the state's biohealth advocacy organization. 
The idea is to "bring women together and to support young professionals and students" and show them "there are paths for women in (the biotech) industry," said BioForward CEO Lisa Johnson.

Aspiring Women, This Event is For You
The San Antonio Business Journal’s 2018 Mentoring Monday is a few weeks away, and it’s shaping up to be one that women with aspirations for leadership and growth ought not miss.
The event, which enables women seeking mentors to meet several in one morning, will be from 8 to 10 a.m. Feb. 12 at The DoSeum, 2800 Broadway St. For more information and to register, go to the  event website.
The local business community has made more progress than many others in terms of recognizing women leaders and putting them in positions to make a difference. Our Dec. 8 cover story noted, for example, that many of this area’s chambers of commerce are being led by women in 2018.

Meet the Louisville mentors for 2018 Bizwomen Mentoring Monday
More than 40 influential women who represent a cross-section of important Louisville industries have signed on to participate in this year's Mentoring Monday speed-coaching event. 
Mentoring Monday is our annual networking breakfast that connects professional women in our region. We're excited to announce we have moved our event away from Spring Break week for 2018, so mark your calendars for Monday, Feb. 12, at the Olmsted.  Ticket information is available here — sign up quickly to avoid a sellout .

How Can Companies Foster a Culture of Gender Diversity at Workplace?
In the past few years, the debate around 'gender diversity' has become more extreme at workplaces. The term simply means an equal representation of men and women in the workplace. To tackle this issue, many companies are taking concrete steps like promoting collaborative culture, greater industry exposure for women employee and equal pay for equal work. The human resource department is also making sure to train staff members at all levels about the importance of gender diversity.

The Mantra of Meritocracy
Despite growing recognition of the pitfalls of meritocracy for women and minorities, the concept has been exported to developing countries through economic policies, multilateral development programs, and the globalization of media and curricula. In countries with deep social divisions like India, where the number of  women in the workforce dropped 11.4 percent  between 1993 and 2012, the mantra of meritocracy has taken hold as a potential means to overcome these divides and drive economic growth—especially in education.
Indians also hold up their exam-based  university admission system  as an example of meritocracy—university acceptance is based only on exam scores. This belief in meritocracy may allow Indians to overlook continuing disparities in acceptance rates and the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. 

How to Buck the "Brogrammer" Culture and Get Women into STEM
Cai Gad - Being daring worked out for me, as it did for my mom. Now, reflecting on my career in the wake of the ongoing, important discussions about gender imbalance in tech, I believe there are four groups critical to bucking the brogrammer culture and encouraging women in STEM.
First are local governments. The tech industry talks a lot about supporting female engineers at the national level, but some of the most important work is—and should be—done locally. Girls need a low-cost, low-pressure space to play and experiment with code if they are to develop an interest in programming. Coding bootcamps are great, but they often require substantial commitments of time and money. Local libraries and schools should allocate funds to host free programming workshops. There, girls could try out coding and see how they like it, and local engineering talent could gain an opportunity to tutor and teach the next generation.

In a recent Gallup study, only 11 percent of corporate executives perceived that college graduates had the skills they were looking for. How can we better prepare the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow? 
In her new book, Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America (Taylor and Francis: March 28, 2017) mentoring expert Patty empowers professionals – whether they are bankers, lawyers, architects, accountants, engineers, IT specialists or artists – to bring their real-world experience and her project based mentoring model into the classroom. 
Compelling and insightful, the book reveals how professionals can embark on a journey to transform lives, mentoring one student at a time. 
“You have made a difference in the lives of these kids, and most likely you have made a difference in the lives of their kids as well. They have grabbed hold of your light, because they feel your encouragement and kindness, and maybe because they had no other. Thank you for your important leadership in this role.” 
— Chris Gardener, Author of The Pursuit of Happyness, 2010 NFTE Dare to Dream speech 
For more information visit  www.teachtowork.com
 
Women’s Quick Facts brings to life insightful data on the impact of women that everyone should know. From purchasing power, to how efficient women owned companies are with respect to capital compared to men, this book takes the pulse on women in today’s modern economy. Not only does each page compile a broad spectrum of the most current data, it also brings the numbers to life in bite size, easy to read content.

Million Women Mentors | STEMconnector | 202-304-1964 | [email protected] | www.MillionWomenMentors.org
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