Cognizant
Students stand up to bullying in Charlotte with help from Cognizant Volunteers
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At the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina, students in Cognizant’s Flip Camera apprenticeship this spring learned about the world in innovative ways. What better way to teach documentary film and technology skills – than in a hands-on, engaging way? Here are a few examples of how the hardworking volunteers from Cognizant helped Citizen Schools to expand the learning day with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) while making a difference in the Charlotte community:
Bullying is a problem that unfortunately most students and youth in today’s society encounter at some point during their school day. When Citizen Teacher volunteers Saurav Das, Sandeep Jha and Arun Sivanand asked students what they wanted their Flip Camera documentary to focus on the students unanimously chose bullying. In this apprenticeship lead by Cognizant, student’s stories took center stage in documentary films based on their own passions and issues. Students worked alongside their volunteers for 10 weeks learning technology skills for filming and basic film editing to propose solutions to the bullying problem in their community. This became an opportunity for students to share a persuasive film rooted in their own experience. Teams worked together to gather footage and understand the core of the problem they choose. These aspiring film editors gathered comments and reactions from adults at their school like teachers, principals and Citizen Schools staff.
Filmmaking builds student’s voice and confidence and allows students to become advocates for themselves and their communities as leaders and effective team members. Students even created a slogan to stop bullying “Speak Up, Speak Out, Your Voice, No More Bullying.” In addition to developing skills, the Cognizant Flip Camera apprenticeship gave students an opportunity to see their documentary come to life in front of a live audience. On April 26th, 2012 Cognizant’s apprentices screened their documentaries for parents, peers and faculty attending Martin Luther King Jr.’s end of the semester WOW! event showcase. The students’ films were a huge success and the volunteers from Cognizant are already putting their heads together to decide what to teach next year.
PRESS RELEASE: NJ STEM Education Summit
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TRI-STATE BUSINESSES, EDUCATION AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS CONVENE TO ADDRESS SCIENCE AND MATH EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES
Event Aimed at Building a Network of Future Employees for the Tri-State Region
April 17, 2012 – Newark, NJ – On Wednesday, April 18st, local corporations, and education and nonprofit organizations will come together, at the Newark Museum, to address the current state of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in New Jersey and the greater tri-state region. The 2nd Annual STEM Summit is a convening of the tri-state STEM coalition, a group committed to ensuring that all youth, including underrepresented minority and female youth, have access to high quality STEM education.
The group is being assembled by Citizen Schools, a national education organization with programs in Newark and New York City, in partnership with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, in response to a growing concern about STEM education. Many educators worry about the growing STEM achievement gap between U.S. students and students from other developed countries, particularly as jobs in STEM areas are increasing in demand. On the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), U.S. 15-year-olds scored 23rd in science out of 65 countries, lagging far behind powerhouses China, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
At the same time that our students are lagging behind internationally, we are seeing that women and people of color continue to be underrepresented in well-paying, secure STEM jobs here in the U.S. According to a 2011 U.S. Department of Congress report, women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, but hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. African Americans, Latinos, and other underrepresented minorities, who together constitute 24 percent of the U.S. population, represent just 10 percent of science and engineering professionals with a college degree.
At the national level, there are signs of a significant new focus on STEM education. From President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign to the 100Kin10 movement to recruit excellent STEM educators, national leaders are focusing their efforts on solutions to increase STEM literacy among all U.S. students and expand STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including female and minority students.
These programs bring STEM to the forefront of the nation’s education conversation and Wednesday’s event will call on tri-state area companies and organizations to explore how they can play a role in addressing the issue locally. Attendees will discover how organizations are already forming partnerships to make STEM learning accessible for young students and how they can help excel and build upon those efforts.
The event will feature opening keynote speaker Kevin Aspell, Cisco’s Business Development Manager for Education, and closing keynote speaker Navarrow Wright, Chief Technology Officer at Interactive One. The summit will also feature guest speakers and presenters from Citizen Schools, New York Science Academy, Google, Cognizant, IBM, Pfizer, Saint Philips Academy, and Verizon.
“Our future depends on providing our youth with access to first-class STEM education,” said Lucy Castillo, Executive Director of Citizen Schools New Jersey. “Citizen Schools is thrilled to be working with partners like Novartis Pharmaceuticals to bring together a distinguished group of leaders from across the tri-state to build the knowledge, inspiration, and action necessary to make that happen.”
Citizen Schools, which operates in seven states including New Jersey and New York, has recruited approximately 25,000 professionals nationwide, including many scientists and other STEM professionals, to teach middle school students over the past seventeen years. The organization helps improve student achievement, with a focus on STEM, through expanded learning days and skill-building hands-on learning projects called apprenticeships. These 10-week apprenticeships are taught by volunteer experts who teach middle schools students about new careers and fields, including a wide variety of STEM careers, through real-world experiences.
About Citizen Schools
Citizen Schools is a national nonprofit organization that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for low income children across the country. Citizen Schools uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships. The organization’s programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing students in the middle grades for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.
Learn more about Citizen Schools’ programs and results at www.citizenschools.org. For New Jersey specifics, visit http://www.citizenschools.org/newjersey/. For New York specifics, visit http://www.citizenschools.org/newyork/.
Come Together for STEM Education
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Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about the need for better education in our public schools. For our youth to be able to prepared for and successful in the ever-changing and growing global community, they will need a strong set of skills – not just any skills but those in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Citizen Schools is hosting a STEM Summit with leaders and innovators from the field on Wednesday 4/18. Reserve your seat today.
Here are some things we know:
• By 2014, there are expected to be 2 million jobs created in STEM-related fields (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
• Forty percent (40%) of all students test at below basic math level; 70% African Americans and 3/5 Latinos test below math level (2005 National Assessment of Education Progress)
• The number of engineering degrees awarded in the United States is down 20% from the peak year of 1985. (Tapping America’s Potential)
• Concern about America’s ability to be competitive in the global economy has led to a number of calls to action to strengthen the pipeline into these fields (National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Science, Engineering & Public Policy, 2007; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2006; U.S. Department of Education, 2006).
Citizen Schools is taking steps to answer that call to action right now with our 2012 STEM Summit. The event will build the knowledge, inspiration, and action necessary to ensure that underrepresented minority and female youth have access to top class science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
Listen to what is working from our panel guests featuring expertise from New York Academy of Sciences, Infosys, Google, and Cognizant. Participate in workshops presented by IBM, Pfizer, St. Philip’s Academy, and Verizon. Be inspired by our keynote speakers, Citizen Schools‘ CEO & Co-Founder, Eric Schwarz, Cisco‘s Business Development Manager, Kevin Aspell, and Navarrow Wright, Chief Technology Officer, Interactive One.
We invite you stand up to this call to action and be a part of what works. Space is limited and seats in workshops are filling up quickly. Register today to secure your seat!
Corporate Employees Stepping Up to Teach
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This spring, over 1,500 volunteer Citizen Teachers are teaching nearly 500 apprenticeships across the country. About 60 percent of those apprenticeships are being taught by volunteers from partner organizations and almost 300 Citizen Teachers come from ten companies: Google, Cisco, Fidelity, Cognizant, Bank of America, EMC, AOL, Facebook, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard.
These corporate volunteers are teaching our students about electrical engineering, investing, creating and marketing products, the science in baking, documentary filmmaking, LED technology, and so much more.
In New York, 230 sixth grade students from East Harlem and the Bronx visit the Google NY headquarters each week. Google is offering a wide range of exciting apprenticeships this semester including “Gourmet Google,” which looks at the cultural, biological, and economic aspects of food.
In North Carolina, Cisco employees are leading the “Brand You/Networking 101” apprenticeship, which teaches students about key marketing and business concepts. Cisco is also offering a math focused apprenticeship, “Building Blocks with Math,” which focuses on the fundamentals of math and design through the creation of 2D and 3D scalable models.
These are just a few examples of the tremendous learning opportunities our students are exposed to thanks to the support of our partners and Citizen Teachers. Learn more about how your company can get involved.
