May 2019
MAY NEWSLETTER

Please check out below for what's going on in MWM! 
MENTORING HEADLINES
2019 Leaders to Learn From Series

As Million Women Mentors embarks on our fifth year in operation, we are excited to build on the progress we have made and share authentic insight into the world of mentoring through our #BeyondtheBuzzword campaign. Part of this work is showcasing the leaders who have paved the way for women across industries and set a true example for girls and women across the globe. We know that leadership comes in many forms and that there are many avenues to success. The  2019 Million Women Mentors Leaders to Learn From series showcases the career paths of STEM leaders who have followed unique pathways to attain their current status. Every month we will celebrate the story of a new trailblazer who beat the odds and define what it means to be a role model. These profiles will celebrate individuals who persevere against convention and remind young people and seasoned veterans alike that there is no longer a "traditional" means to career success.

We are happy to announce this month's leader Kate Marshall , Lieutenant Governor , Nevada. We are very excited to have Kate's partnership with MWM-Nevada and the great things she will be able to bring to not only the movement in Nevada but in general! Feel free to share this profile with your networks to show women across the globe that there is no longer a 'traditional' model of a successful career. To download the profile please click here or the image below.
littleBits, The Walt Disney Company and UC Davis Launch Snap the Gap, an Ambitious Program to Close the Gender Gap in STEM

littleBits , the educational technology company that is reinventing the way kids learn, has announced a program in collaboration with media giant The Walt Disney Company that aims to close the gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) starting at the point of highest leverage: 10-year-old girls. Participants in the program will receive a STEM Starter Pack, a one-year immersion in an inventor community, and mentorship by an inspiring adult in STEM. Unlike programs aimed primarily at raising awareness,  Snap the Gap  is a solution-based program. It will kick off with a year-one pilot valued at $4 million, for 15,000 girls in  California. UC Davis , which leads Million Women Mentors - California , will help recruit participants and mentors, and it will measure the impact of the program. With this launch, Snap the Gap is calling on STEM professionals to join the movement and volunteer as mentors or partners. More information can be found at  SnapTheGap.org . This is a great facilitated connection by Million Women Mentors and we are so proud of everyone involved!
AACC Announces Request for MentorLinks Colleges
and Mentor Applications

The MentorLinks: Advancing Technological Education program, supported by the   National Science Foundation  is designed to help colleges develop or strengthen technician training programs in STEM fields through mentoring, professional development opportunities, and technical assistance; to establish connections for colleges to identify new ideas and relationships through networking opportunities at program meetings and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) National Conferences; and to help colleges gain insight about support for building and sustaining new programs.

Request for Proposals: MentorLinks Colleges
Deadline: Friday, June 7, 2019
To submit your MentorLinks College proposal, please  click here .
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is pleased to announce a national grant competition for the MentorLinks: Advancing Technological Education program, developed with the support of the National Science Foundation. MentorLinks is designed for community colleges seeking to improve technician education programs in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields. Colleges should be interested in working with an experienced community college mentor who has successfully planned and implemented a major change in a high-technology program.
MentorLinks colleges will receive $20,000 for the 2-year grant period and travel support for the project director to attend three project meetings. The grant’s primary emphasis is on valuable networking, and rich opportunities for technical assistance and professional development. The grant period runs October 1, 2019–November 30, 2021.

Request for Mentor Applications
Deadline: Friday, June 7, 2019
To submit your Mentor Application, please  click here .
 
AACC is pleased to announce a national call for applications for the MentorLinks: Advancing Technological Education program, developed with the support of the National Science Foundation. AACC seeks applications from 2-year college professionals who are interested in serving as mentors to work with a college whose faculty and administration want to develop or strengthen a certificate or degree program for technicians in a science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics field. MentorLinks colleges will be selected in a separate request for proposal process and assigned to a mentor. Up to ten institutions will be selected as MentorLinks colleges and up to ten individual mentors will be named to the MentorLinks Mentor Team for a 2-year grant period beginning October 1, 2019, and ending November 30, 2021. Mentors will receive an honorarium and travel support to attend a mentor training and orientation meeting, three national project meetings, and to conduct college site visits.
PARTNERS
Kickstart Better Strategy at All Levels" How to Run a "Strategy Led" Mentoring Program

Thursday, May 16 2019, 1:00PM – 2:15PM EDT

Business strategy is both critical and often elusive for nonprofits. In our quest to develop effective mentoring organizations that serve our stakeholders, we often find ourselves asking: How can we develop organizational strategy that doesn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust? How can we help our people within our organizations to truly live our strategy? This webinar will provide a basic framework of how to run a “strategy-led” mentoring program. Speaking from a mentoring program lens, panelists will discuss how strategy is used, how to develop organizational strategy and ownership, and how to operationalize strategy. Experts Bob Tipton of Team Tipton and Khari Brown of Capital Partners for Education will provide participants with specific examples of processes and tools that can be used to shape and implement strategy in your own mentoring programs. Click here to register.
Girls Power Tech

Cisco and Stevens-Henager is pleased to host female students to be part of our  Girls Power Tech  Global Mentoring Initiative . This special learning opportunity is hosted by Cisco at offices and schools around the world in partnership with  International Girls in ICT Day , an annual initiative organized by the United Nation’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This day of learning is designed to introduce girls to exciting opportunities in the information and communications technology (ICT) field. During this event, the students will be mentored by Cisco employees and other industry employees, hear from innovative women working in IT and engineering, and learn about educational and career opportunities in the technology field. The agenda includes:
  • Careers Panel – a look at the diverse roles in technology
  • Face to Face Speed Mentoring: education and career discussions with volunteers
  • Coding 101 workshop
  • IoT Global Problem Solvers workshop

Cisco’s Girls Power Tech  Global Mentoring Initiative will be held at our Stevens-Henager College, Boise at  1444 So. Entertainment Ave. on May 2, 2019 from 9:30-2:00pm. For more information or to get involved please contact Glenn or Sara with any questions at  glenn.pfautsch@stevenshenager.edu or  sashreve@cisco.com or click here.
Empowering Women To Lead

An op-ed written by Tanya Krochta, CAE , SVP Chief Administrative Officer , ACORD
Tanya is the Chair of the Communications Committee for the
MWM Women in Insurance Initiative

In January 2019, a record 102 women were seated in the United States House of Representatives. Over a third of those women (35) won their seats for the first time in the 2018 midterm elections. In the US Senate, the percentage of women climbed to 25% after five freshman female senators were elected. Although these numbers show progress and a trend in the direction of equal representation for women within the United States government, true parity remains elusive. This year may have rung in more female representation in government; however, trends point in the opposite direction when it comes to female CEOs within the private sector. At the start of 2019, the number of female CEO’s in Fortune 500 companies was just 24 – a 25% decrease. Despite women making up 51.5% of all managers, few ever achieve a C-Suite position. Two questions are apparent: How can we encourage women and girls to achieve leadership goals? And once they're in leadership roles, how do we keep them there? Getting them there, of course, has to begin at a young age. Recently retired Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi was groomed for leadership since childhood by her mother. Growing up, Nooyi was coached with questions such as "What would you do if you were the prime minister?" – inspiring her to believe that she could, and would, lead. To read the rest of the piece, please click here.
Trailblazers Workshop
May 10 2019, 9:00AM – 6:00PM
City Market Social House, 1145 South San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015

Discount on Registration:  Millionmentors$250 to receive a $250 discount

Join Aspire’s Founder, Dr. Sam Collins for the first Trailblazers workshop in Los Angeles to lead and make a difference in your life, work and world.Dr Sam Collins is a leading global voice on leadership and equality, a social entrepreneur, speaker and author. She has worked with individuals, global corporations, government and not-for-profits over the past 20 years and has contributed to CNN, The Huffington Post, The Guardian , The Sunday Times and the BBC. Originally from the UK and passionate about pioneering change, family and life balance, Sam now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children. For more information about Aspire and this event please click here.
STATES' INITIATIVES





PA Girls in STEM Day

MWM-PA held a PA Girls in STEM Day on March 26th. The event took place at 5 locations simultaneously throughout the state including: Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Erie, Lehigh Valley. In total, 237 middle and high school girls participated throughout the day! A big thank you to Cisco , who hosted the Pittsburgh session, they connected all locations virtually whereby they had female speakers that spoke to the girls about a day in the life of their jobs, their education, skills, challenges they faced. In addition to the girls, during the day 75 professional women participated as mentors for a networking lunch activity.  Female Speakers that connected virtually to all locations were: Sara Hanks and Jennifer Coin, Data Analytics Group, GE Transportation (morning sessions) and Nicole Quick and Elena Reifenstein , Managers, B Braun USA Quality Organization (afternoon sessions). This type of event is a model for other states to work across the state and if you are interested in this model please email states@millionwomenmentors.com .





MWM-Maryland Welcomes New Chair

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Cassandra Jones Havard who has been named as the new chair of Million Women Mentors - Maryland. Dr. Havard is deeply entrenched in developing more opportunities in the STEM field through various means including entrepreneurship. She is currently a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and her areas of expertise includes banking. In 2010, Dr. Havard helped to establish the Charles Hamilton Houston Scholars Program at the University of Baltimore. The program is a diversity initiative for minority freshmen and sophomore undergraduates designed to teach skills and expose students to the legal profession. She brings a wealth of experience to the program and we are looking forward to working together to expand opportunities for more women and girls. A meet and greet will be held with Dr. Havard on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 11 a.m. in Annapolis, MD. For more information, please email Summar Goodman at  summar.goodman@maryland.gov .





Students & Scientists Release Fish Back into Tennessee River

On April 10, 2019, students from  Girls Preparatory School  and  Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy  and professional anglers from  Major League Fishing  joined scientists from the  Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute  to release nearly 90 juvenile Lake Sturgeon into the Tennessee River. This species has been swimming in freshwater lakes and rivers since the Late Cretaceous Period but had all but disappeared from the Tennessee River by the 1960s and 1970s. Twenty years ago, the Tennessee Aquarium was among the organizations to found the Lake Sturgeon Working Group, which has returned more than 220,000 juveniles of this state-endangered species to the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.





MWM-MN's Trailblazers STEM Panel Discussion

MWM-MN's Trailblazers STEM Panel Discussion took place Thursday, April 18th, at the Mall of America . The Mall of America rolled out the red carpet and welcomed young women considering STEM careers into a fantastic venue with amazing technology and capabilities.The companies represented on the panel are all equally committed to helping young women navigate STEM career paths. Over 150 girls participated and were treated to i nspirational and interesting stories . "Encouraging young women in STEM has been my personal passion and a key part of Keyot’s mission! This event was a huge success! Many thanks to all who helped orchestrate such a successful event." said Anjie Cayot , President of  Keyot . The Keyot team had an additional panel this month in MN at North Hennepin Community College. This was the first time being hosted at a college and in particular being focused on the NHCC students. Additionally, Keyot also supported the Traiblazers panel that took place in Iowa through the MWM-IA team.
WHAT'S GOING ON WITH MWM?
It is Time to Get Your Numbers in For ‘Be Counted!’ 2019
 
As we begin 2019, it is important you start thinking about our   Million Women Mentors ‘Be Counted!’ Campaign , an effort to record all of the mentoring of girls and women in STEM that is happening already for 2019! We know companies, organizations, and individuals are working to move the needle for girls in STEM currently, and now we just need to count it!
 
Now you can easily record the mentoring you are doing just by clicking on the Be Counted! button after logging into the website. After logging in, just fill out the information about the mentoring you have done, and voila! You will be counted!
 
Please help spread the word about this campaign and get all of the mentoring counted!  If you would like the Be Counted! Campaign Cheat Sheet click here . As well, the link to share out for our Google form can be accessed by   clicking here.
 
If you have any questions or comments, please contact  Alexa.Gitler@stemconnector.com .
WEBSITE UPDATES
New MWM Portal Feature: Mentoring Opportunities Page for Your Organization

We have now created a new way to direct your employees to the mentoring opportunities that mean the most to your organization and to them! This link will send them directly to a web page that is branded with your company's logo and that will let your employees enter her/his zip code to view full details of mentoring opportunities nearby. This page will also automatically place your organization's preferred mentoring opportunities at the top of the list!
 
This is available to companies that have a mentor organization account on the MWM portal. The URL is in the form " www.millionwomenmentors.com/organization/PIN/find_mentoring_opportunity " where PIN is your organization's PIN number, available by logging in and selecting "Account" in the top-right menu.
 
We are also working to make it easier for mentors to quickly volunteer with specific offerings directly from this page. Email  support@millionwomenmentors.com  for questions or comments!
ONLINE RESOURCES
MWM State of the States 2018-2019

The report provides an overview of the movement and features a page on each state involved. The state pages detail events and initiatives within that state over the past year, commitments and pledges to mentor, and plans for the coming year, and provides information on that state's leadership structure and partner organizations. It's a chance to celebrate progress, share best-practices and scalable models of success, and dive deeper into the daily workings of this vast volunteer movement. 

To download the report please click here.