INDIANAPOLIS — Recently, Indianapolis was named one of seven winning cities in the US2020 national competition to encourage STEM mentoring at the White House. The competition was in response to President Obama’s call to action to get more girls and boys engaged in STEM subjects. Public and private coalitions from 52 cities across the nation applied, engaging nearly 600 companies and civic organizations.
The pilot for Indianapolis’ six-year plan will launch in August 2014 with a select group of Citywide Founding Partners. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), in partnership with US2020 and Citizen Schools, has made a total investment of 29 AmeriCorps VISTAs to do the important work of engaging communities in this STEM mentoring initiative. Four VISTAs will be serving in Indianapolis under the direction of the TechPoint Foundation for Youth. These VISTAs will serve as the points of contact to help recruit professional mentors from local STEM-related companies, connect those mentors to previously vetted, hands-on STEM programs, and administer evaluations and collect data for reporting on both a national and local scale.
Some of the pilot schools and community sites will participate in Indianapolis’ plan include Boys and Girls Clubs of Indianapolis,
IPS schools 14 (Washington Irving Elementary), school 15 (Thomas D. Gregg Elementary), Harshman Middle School, New Tech High School at Arsenal Tech, MSD Lawrence Township schools Fall Creek Valley Middle School, Indian Creek Elementary, and the McKenzie Center for Innovation and Technology.