Inspiring the Next Generation of STEM Experts

When a hospital called for help in the early days of COVID-19, Jeremy Hook and his team responded with immediate action.

On a normal day, Jeremy’s P&G group works in our product and packaging innovation area.

Yet, within hours of the call from the hospital, the P&G people began producing a prototype for face shields to protect caregivers. Within two weeks, the team had sent out their first shipment of a lifesaving item they’d had no experience with before.

“The technologies in science and engineering required to make a face shield were very much in our core mastery of how we make our products today,” Jeremy says.

Now Jeremy, his group and several others at P&G are helping inspire the next generation of scientists.

Their stories are featured in a series of videos produced by Discovery Education.

STEM Skills in the Spotlight

The Discovery Education videos highlight people who’ve put their Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills to work in unique ways, especially during the COVID pandemic.

These include P&G people like product researcher Aaron Byers, who used STEM solutions when the pandemic suddenly made it impossible to conduct in-person research.

She explains, “I had to quickly pivot and find ways that I could get insights from consumers, understand their feedback on different products and how their habits and practices had changed since the start of COVID.”

These stories were brought to life through P&G’s membership in the STEM Careers Coalition™. The group is providing schools with access to resources such as the COVID-19 Solution Seekers and Careers Portal video series, which illuminate STEM careers by showing how they support community needs.

Helping Students Discover their Career Potential

The STEM Careers Coalition is an organization of industry leaders like P&G focused on improving diversity and access to opportunity in the STEM fields, supporting K-12 STEM education for under-resourced schools. The plan is to reach 10 million students in 5,000 schools over the next few years.

The partnership was a natural fit, as P&G relies on the skills of employees with strong backgrounds in STEM. The creativity of these accomplished engineers, scientists, IT experts and innovators helps power our brands and fuel our continued growth.

That includes P&G people like Nicole Epps.

Even before the pandemic, Nicole realized that supporting P&G communities required a unique combination of strengths that involved both science and communication.

“The most important skill is to fall in love with other people’s problems so I can understand what people are going through,” she says.

To hear more from the P&G people in the Discovery Education spotlight, follow P&G’s social channels and visit the Discovery Careers Portal and COVID-19 Solution Seekers page.