Million Women Mentors Reaches the One Million Mentors Pledge Mark

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 1, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Ahead of its 4-year goal of reaching 1 million mentoring relationship pledges, Million Women Mentors (MWM) and STEMconnector® are proud to announce that as of December 1, 2016, MWM has registered 1,000,000 PLEDGES for mentor relationships. Leadership in MWM has increased the goal to 2 million by 2020. In response to these pledges, there have been over 650,000 completed STEM mentoring relationships counted. The MWM Movement has grown over the past three years by bringing together leaders throughout the country with the shared goal of attracting, developing and retaining more women in the STEM workforce through high-quality mentorships.

“Milestone of 1 million is achieved because of all those engaged with Million Women Mentors; we salute you for believing we can change the lives of women and girls in great STEM careers through mentoring, sponsorship, internships and support,” Edie Fraser, CEO of MWM, shared. Representatives from industry, higher education, government and nonprofit organizations have joined the movement securing sponsorship from 50+ national sponsors and many others on the state committees, 39 state committees, 80+ non-profit partners, and engaging a number of Governors and Lieutenant Governors to serve as the honorary chairs.

The 1,000,000 was reached through the concerted efforts of many of our organizations with special recognition to those members responsible for the MWM technological component and others. These include TATA Consultancy Services (TCS), Science Olympiad, Mind Research, FIRST and many others. Leading sponsor corporations include BP, Cisco Systems, Walmart, PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Intel, Sprint, and others. National nonprofit partners participating also include Mentored Pathways, Girls Scouts, National 4-H Council, AAUW, ORAU, and Girls Inc.

Million Women Mentors aims to increase female participation in the STEM workforce by providing a national platform to engage industry, government, and implementation partners. It seeks to tap into the tremendous human capital potential of our nation’s employers to excite, inspire, and recruit the next generation of STEM professionals.

"Congratulations to all the partners of MWM for achieving this major milestone of one million pledges. Your leadership and passion have made this movement possible, and now let us enable these young women to enter into and flourish in STEM careers. TCS is proud to be a founding member of MWM and provide the technology platform that connects the companies and mentors to youth serving organizations. We are especially proud that we have enabled over 55,000 mentoring relationships for girls and young women globally through our internal talent management processes and external community engagement initiatives." - Surya Kant, President, Tata Consultancy Services, North America, UK & Europe

Sheila Boyington, President of Learning Blade and National States Chair recognizes the MWM state teams and leadership of many Lt. Governors and Governors, particularly Iowa Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds.  As the National Honorary MWM Chair, Lt. Gov. Reynolds remarked “This is a momentous occasion. Million Women Mentors is playing an instrumental role in helping engage girls and young women to pursue and succeed in STEM courses, degrees, and careers. In 2014, Iowa was excited to launch the first statewide MWM model of its kind. It is another component of our statewide strategy to attract individuals to STEM careers. The positive interest in this MWM effort has been overwhelming.”

“As one of the largest girl-serving STEM organizations in the nation, and the recipient of the Excellence in Partner Innovation Award at the 2016 MWM Summit, Science Olympiad is proud to support this movement to excite and engage more women and girls in STEM,” said Jenny Kopach, Executive Director of Science Olympiad and MWM-IL State Chair. “By engaging our network of 7,600 teams in 50 states with MWM efforts, we hope to help close the gender gap in today’s STEM workforce.”

Key Highlights of MWM include:

Newly Updated Online Portal – A new, mobile-friendly Million Women Mentors web portal created by Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) supports mentors and mentoring programs with features such as the ability to log the progress of working with mentees and sharing documents & resources among communities of mentors, companies, and girl-serving organizations.

Women’s Quick Facts – The MWM team released a highly anticipated compilation of compelling data about women in today's society. The publication launched and has sold over 14 thousand copies in the first six weeks.

"Today marks the realization of a dream to engage a million professionals as mentors to inspire the next generation of leaders. The seeds to build interest, persistence, and retention have been shown, putting us on track for greater gender and ethnic equity. Let us resolve not to rest until we convert each of these pledges to a million impactful mentoring relationships for girls and young women across America." - Balaji Ganapathy, Head of Workforce Effectiveness, Tata Consultancy Services & Vice Chair, MWM Leadership Council 

Shelley Henderson, Diversity and Inclusion Manager for FIRST ® shared “Mentors and Coaches are the foundation of our programs at FIRST. Our partnership with Million Women Mentors expands opportunities to engage a historically underserved and often marginalized population in STEM, girls and young women, who are as capable as their male counterparts. These mentorship opportunities are central to our ability to deliver transformative programs to students who would benefit most.”

Walmart Corporation joins a group of leaders and companies who are making an impact across the nation and has taken the lead in Arkansas for MWM and even hosted an event attended by a number of corporate CIO’s to encourage their engagement with the movement at a recent national tech event. “Knowledge makes us stronger and empowers us to take action, and Walmart salutes the commitment to thorough data and facts for women. We are proud to be part of Million Women Mentors…” – Karenann Terrell, CIO, Walmart.

MWM has several committees such as the Partners, States, Technology, Entrepreneurs, Veterans, Communications, and Development. The need to grow the STEM talent in our country is a testament to the ability to reach the million pledges in less than 3 years.

About Million Women Mentors: Launched on January 8th, 2014, MWM is the collective action of over 60 national partners and 50 corporate sponsors (as of September 2015) designed to increase the number of girls and women within the high school to work age continuum that persist and succeed in STEM programs and careers. For more information on MWM, please visit www.MillionWomenMentors.org.  

To join the conversation on Twitter, follow @millionWmentors

About STEMconnector®: STEMconnector® is a consortium of over 160 companies, associations, academic institutions and government entities concerned with STEM education and the future of human capital. STEMconnector® focuses on the STEM workforce and jobs, with a particular emphasis on diversity and women. Our work spans the entire pipeline (kindergarten to jobs) and how STEM education experiences translate into careers. For more information, visit www.STEMconnector.org.