This was in response to your question above. Sorry it was not inserted in the thread.

My name is Oscar Pedroso, entrepreneur and founder of a fun startup called GradFly. We are based out of Rochester, NY and we recently took 3rd place at Startup Weekend a few weeks ago and have agreed to continue pursuing the idea. The idea addresses a few challenges in the STEM world and we’d love to learn as much as we can about bridging the gap between students, communities, universities, and employers – everything STEM of course! We were hoping we could meet or chat with someone who could hear our idea out and see whether there are ways we can work together.

In a nutshell, GradFly will help high school STEM students research college programs by pooling social media streams from various STEM programs in one place. So for example, instead of researching a biomedical engineering program at the University of Rochester on sites like Facebook, youtube, twitter, and tumblr, users will have access to these feeds on our site, in one place in real time. Over time, we hope to expand this platform by becoming a resource for colleges and employers and create all types of opportunities to fill STEM positions. I was wondering whether anyone would be open to chatting with us about our idea and leveraging what we’re trying to do to fulfill a need. In general, we love ideas so we’re always looking for ways to think outside the box. We’re also new at this and we are happy to start somewhere!

I’ve been reading the conversations over the last few days and I can tell there’s so much going on out there and we are excited to build something that will change the way people view STEM. If anyone could point us in a direction, we’d be grateful.

Thanks everyone!

Oscar

For us at the Council partnerships take the form of stakeholders. We strive to create a relationship value chain that works to honor each stakeholder, working to improve not fix the situation. When we work to interface with school and university systems we start with respect and compassion. We recognize that our need for change is not at odds with our educators it is merely a symptom. Industry does have a different tool set to offer and our approach is to recognize that the first order of business is to assess where our motives and outcomes are in alignment; not that some of our tools don’t fit the legal and traditional models that are sometimes restrained by Federal assessment requirements not school system desire. We also understand that the rate of change inside the education environment is not the same rate of change experienced in the market place. Managing expectations between our corporate members and the education system is very a very important component to partnership success.

School reform is already in motion and from our perspective there needs to be greater emphasis on providing the necessary context for our teachers. We are working with school systems and University partners to provide teachers more hands on experience inside the walls of our member companies so they have a better understanding about what jobs are available and how they can impact student learning by giving real examples of how their education plan relates to the real world. Teachers need to be exposed to current technology tools and be able to apply them in their school settings. This cannot be accomplished simply by the school system purchasing product. Industry needs to work hand in hand to demonstrate what a “day in the life” looks like for a potential employee.

Finally we need to first promote within our respective industries what is at risk if we cannot radically change how we connect with our education partners. Our students are our assets. For us at the National Minority Technology Council we take education and STEM very seriously. There are over 65,000 minority technology companies with over 9,000 in our member database. Our ability to empower our urban community partners and facilitate education reform is not a casual affair. When 50% of African American boys are dropping out of school and our prisons are being filled with minorities at a disproportionate number education reform is not a passive desire but a critical link to our specific industry growth. I congratulate you on you enlightened perspective and remain faithful to our joint efforts in creating sustainable and cooperative change in the US and abroad.

Karl Cureton
Chairman
National Minority Technology Council
http://www.nmtcouncil.org

Reducing the technology barrier is a worthy endeavor, but when we look to gaps in performance between affluent and impoverished communities, all too often these gaps stem from low expectations of students, a culture that does not believe all students can achieve, underprepared teachers and high turnover. Technology will not solve those cultural barries. I would encourage you to take a look at the remarkable gains made at a small school district in Neah Bay in the heart of the Makah Reservation, for an amazing example of how high expectations, effective instruction and leadership – and appropriate use of technology – created a success story that is truly a model for the nation. (http://www.washingtonstem.org/grantee-profiles.asp?gdx=12)