DALLAS, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents and educators now
have more resources to help their students make education decisions
with an eye toward the future. Texas Instruments (TI) and Sloan
Career Cornerstone Center (SCCC) are teaming up to promote planning
for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,
collectively known as STEM.
Through TI's Student Zone and SCCC students, parents, teachers
and counselors have access to free, in-depth resources to help
guide middle and high school students in making decisions
concerning their immediate math and science education. These tools
also help them understand how these decisions could impact their
future careers. Detailed information explains to students the kinds
of career fields that require math and science skills.
According to the ACT Educational Planning & Assessment
System (ACT EPAS), students most likely to major in STEM fields in
college - and persist to earn their degrees - are those who develop
interest in STEM careers through early career planning and take
challenging classes that prepare them for college-level science and
math coursework.
TI provides the learning tools and resources that enable
teachers to more effectively teach critical math and science
concepts and to make subjects more accessible to all students. TI
has made a grant to SCCC that will help the organization provide
more STEM career information for students and distribute it more
broadly. This information will help parents and educators answer
the common question from students, "When am I ever going to need
math and science?"
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center includes comprehensive
preparation tips, salary data, job hunting ideas, personal
interviews with hundreds of people who offer candid insight into
their own diverse careers, and updated lists of summer camps,
national programs and projects, and scholarship opportunities for
middle and high school students. A free newsletter is available to
those interested in keeping up with the latest STEM news and career
planning tips. The TI grant to the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
will support the development of state-specific STEM tools and
resources. The new state pages will be available in the fall.
"TI is committed to building student interest and success in
STEM subjects and helping to establish a foundation for the skills
that are critical to be successful in tomorrow's workforce," said
Lisa Brady Gill, executive director,
Office of Education Policy & Practice, Texas Instruments
Education Technology Group. "At TI, we believe STEM education,
particularly math and science, hold the key to economic growth and
to solving challenges facing our world like energy, health care and
national security. Though this relationship with Sloan Career
Cornerstone Center, we are helping to provide students and their
parents important information that will help them make informed
decisions about future career paths."
"We are pleased to have the support of Texas Instruments to help
us provide state-focused portals," said Joanne Van Voorhis, executive director, Sloan
Career Cornerstone Center. "We know that many students considering
STEM careers would like to attend a university or community college
within their own state, and also hope to then find work in a STEM
field in the area where they grew up. The new state portals within
Cornerstone, sponsored by TI, will offer these localized resources
to students and the teachers, counselors, and parents who help
advise them."
"It is heartening to see TI's recognition that simple
exhortation is by itself not sufficient when it comes to seeing
more students opt for engineering, science, and math-based careers.
Students also need to know about the way of life and other
particulars about careers in these fields. TI's support for
Cornerstone will strengthen this information resource in
significant ways, and make it even more useful to a student
contemplating a career decision," said Frank Mayadas, a senior advisor at the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation, which has provided resources to both launch and
expand the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center.
"Despite decades of investment in STEM education in PreK-12
schools, little sustained attention has focused on getting
relevant, timely and comprehensive information about STEM careers
directly to students, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors.
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center is the leading national
organization addressing this vital issue. The opportunity provided
by Texas Instruments for SCCC to start customizing state-specific
portals in six states will make this career planning information
even more targeted and useful for its intended audiences," said
Dennis Cheek, a member of the
Cornerstone Advisory Committee and a senior fellow at the Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation and visiting scholar at the Center on
Contemporary History and Policy at the Chemical Heritage
Foundation.
About The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center is a non-profit resource
center for those exploring career paths in science, technology,
engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). Initial support
from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has made the resources on this
site possible. The extensive site explores over 185 degree fields
and offers detailed education requirements, salary and employment
data, pre-college ideas, and career planning resources. For more
information, visit www.careercornerstone.org.
About Texas Instruments
Education Technology, a business of Texas Instruments, provides
a wide range of tools connecting the classroom experience with
real-world applications, helping students and teachers to explore
math and science interactively. TI's products and services are
tested vigorously against recognized third-party research, which
shows that the use of graphing calculators helps improve the
mathematical skills of students and their attitudes toward
mathematics. For more information, visit www.education.ti.com.
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) helps customers solve problems and
develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier,
safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI
innovates through manufacturing, design and sales operations in
more than 30 countries. For more information, visit www.ti.com.
SOURCE Texas Instruments
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