Microsoft Convenes Thought Leaders To Bridge STEM Gap

Various community-based organizations gathered at Microsoft's Mountain View campus Thursday to learn how to prepare the youth they work with for Science Technology Engineering and Math jobs in Silicon Valley.

"Microsoft has 6,000 jobs throughout the company that we cannot fill because we aren't graduating enough people in the United States," said Sid Espinosa, director of citizenship and philanthropy at Microsoft. "This divide is slowing increasing and if we don't address it now, it will only get worse."

Microsoft has begun to address this divide with YouthSpark, a company wide initiative to create opportunities for 300 million of youths worldwide, including Silicon Valley.

According to the Brookings Institute's Alan Berube—who joined the morning workshop via Skype—about 32,000 youth in Santa Clara County between the ages of 16-24, primarily poor, Hispanic males aren't in school.

But Berube added there are jobs, but 53 percent of job openings in Silicon Valley required a four-year degree. However, 38% percent of STEM jobs—like in business operations or management—don't require a bachelors degree.

"That's the challenge," said Jay Banfield, executive director of Year Up Bay Area. "Introducing students to those jobs."

YouthSpark, which launched in 2012, aims to get these youths interested and educated in STEM-related careers so that they become more employable. Just as Microsoft did, as corporate sponsors, of the robotics team at Apollo High School in East San Jose.

In its first year, the 14-member Apollo Illuminators robotics team made it to the national championship and despite not winning, the experience in itself changed the students lives. In particular, the seniors wished they had learned about robots as freshman.

"It was a really good experience, not only with electronics, but I've learned how to communicate better with others," said Ana, one of the seniors. "I am more confident now to challenge myself."

The successful case of the Apollo Illuminators resonated with panelists such as Gina D. Palma, who leads the education grant-making at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Palma explained that non-profits and schools need to market their stories more, their success and the challenges of the people they serve, because most corporations donate to global—and not local—causes.

"Corporations see themselves as global citizens," Palma said. "So of the grants that the SVCF give, only $1 out of every $3 dollars stay local." Of that amount, 0.66 cents goes to education, she added.

"Non-profits need to invest in messaging and marketing," she said. "Most funders don't know. Microsoft is an anomaly."

With increased dollars going to local efforts to bridge the gap in STEM education, Silicon Valley corporation could hopefully do more hiring locally.

"We are in a global economy and our young people are competing globally," Banfield said.

Part of getting kids ready would include the State of California's adoption of the "common core standard" a uniform academic plan, which Palma and L. Gay Krause, appeared very pleased with. Krause directs the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College.

"We all need to be in same page collaborating and the common core is something new that we can come together on," Krause said about how the model.

Another collaboration that schools, non-profits and corporations can collaborate on includes apprenticeship and mentorships, Banfield added.

If a regional collaborative environment forms to help disadvantage Silicon Valley youth, then everyone wins, the panelists concluded.

"This is a conversation that has to take place across the board," Espinosa said.