Intel Partners with White House to Advance Math and Science Education
Intel Partners with White House to Advance Math and Science Education
November 23rd, 2009 - Today, we had the honor of joining President Obama as he announced a national science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education initiative, called the “Educate to Innovate” campaign. This is the first time a president has made this level of commitment to math and science education. At Intel, math and science education has been a focus of more than $1 billion of investment and the catalyst to train more than 6 million teachers. The President said today that an announcement like this “doesn’t get a lot of focus.” He pointed out that “they’re not what’s debated on cable.” This is exceptionally unfortunate, as we wholeheartedly agree with his opinion that “this is probably going to make more of a difference in determining how well we do as a country than just about anything else that we do here.”
We are very excited to be working with the Administration’s Office of Science and Technology on this effort and, in support of the President’s campaign, Intel has committed more than $200 million over the next 10 years for teacher training. Former Intel Chairman and CEO Craig Barrett will serve as a co-chair of the President’s new program.
The private and public leaders involved in “Educate to Innovate” have set a goal to find and replicate successful science, math and technology programs all across America. The President talked about training teachers and hosting winners of science competitions that are the result of hands-on learning, which he did earlier this year by inviting winners of Intel Science Talent Search to the White House. These are areas where Intel can make difference.
The president also said that winners in science competitions should be honored like winners of NCAA championships. It was only fitting that the students from Oakton High School in Vienna, VA demonstrated an impressive robot that they invented to shoot hoops.
Through years of experience and thousands of hours in classrooms world-wide, Intel has identified two concrete areas that fall in line with President’s goals:
Intel believes that our young people are the key to solving our global challenges. Please share your thoughts with us and help us build a broad commitment to improve math and science education across the country.