Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Mentoring Our Future Generation of STEM Professionals

Ed. Note: This was originally posted on the Department of Energy blog.

Yesterday, the Department of Energy unveiled a new mentoring program to pair female undergraduate science, engineering and math students in the Washington, D.C., area with female employees who specialize in those subject areas. The program aims to introduce the students to successful women in science and technology, giving the pairs the opportunity to shape their own activities over the course of the year with guidance from the Department of Energy’s Council on Women and Girls. The program also encourages participating undergraduate students to become mentors to D.C.-area high school and elementary school students.

The new Department of Energy program is just one piece of the Obama Administration’s strong support for mentorship. Today, First Lady Michelle Obama is hosting a series of mentoring events with renowned women, bringing together more than 20 accomplished women to serve as mentors to high school students in the D.C. area. The First Lady has spoken frequently about the importance of mentoring aspiring young students to help them achieve their full potential.

Mentors have proven to be effective teachers for developing our nation’s future leaders. Studies show, for example, that mentored youth have better attendance in school, a better chance of going on to higher education, and better attitudes toward school in general. Mentoring helps reduce the incidence of substance abuse and other harmful behaviors. And, young people who take part in mentoring programs have higher self-esteem. The National Research Council, among others, has documented that mentored female students enjoy a number of improved outcomes later in life compared to women who did not have that benefit.

Additionally, by offering their expertise and encouragement in personalized sessions, mentors can be highly effective in helping prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers. With their focus, in many cases, on groups underrepresented in these fields, mentors help ensure that tomorrow’s innovators reflect the full diversity of the United States.

This attention to diversity is especially critical for women and girls in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Women hold only 27 percent of jobs in science and engineering–sectors that are essential to our nation’s growth in a 21st century economy. This gap starts at an early age. In an American Society for Quality poll of 8-17 year olds, 24 percent of boys but only 5 percent of girls said they were interested in an engineering career.

Female STEM students in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area are encouraged to apply to our new program, and additional female employees at the Department’s headquarters are encouraged to sign up as mentors. Please visit http://diversity.energy.gov for more information.

Bill Valdez is the Acting Director for the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the Department of Energy

Strengthening Our Understanding of a Changing Planet

Appropriately enough, change is underway at the Nation’s primary global change research program. Teams of top scientists and policy makers representing over a dozen different Federal agencies are hard at work drafting a new strategic plan to strengthen not only scientists’ fundamental understanding of our changing planet but also the program itself, known as the U.S. Global Change Research Program or USGCRP.

As part of these changes, the program also has a new leader who will oversee these enhancements at a time of great import for the global-change science community and for society as a whole.

Established by the Global Change Research Act of 1990, USGCRP coordinates and integrates Federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. Thirteen Federal agencies participate in the program, which is also responsible for executing the quadrennial National Climate Assessment, a comprehensive inventory of climate-change-related impacts, vulnerabilities, and efforts across the United States.

Driven by the Obama Administration’s commitment to fortifying the role of science in policy-making, the new strategic plan aims to augment USGCRP’s existing technical research strengths by providing decision-makers with increased access to relevant and sustained science and technology. The result will be an enhanced ability to understand the Earth’s dynamic processes and predict its responses to natural and human-induced stresses, ultimately serving a wide array of users from teachers and students to fishermen and first selectmen.

Taking the helm amidst this sea of change is the newly appointed Director of USGCRP’s National Coordination Office, Dr. Thomas Armstrong. He comes to the position having most recently served as the Senior Advisor for Climate Change at the Department of the Interior, where he was a key figure in the development of the Department’s climate-change-related policies, organizational elements, and budget strategies. 

As the Vice Chair for Adaptation Science on the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR), the steering body of the USGCRP, Dr. Armstrong has been an active participant in the program’s restructuring and the drafting of the new strategic plan. He has worked closely with the SGCR’s chair, Dr. Thomas Karl of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and its executive committee to identify key priorities in the field of adaptation research and oversee the seamless integration of these goals into the larger evolving vision of the program.

The implications of this critical strategic realignment of the USGCRP, an effort directly overseen by the SGCR’s Vice Chair for Strategic Planning, Dr. Timothy Killeen, of the National Science Foundation, extend beyond the program itself. The involvement of these and other talented leaders, such as the remaining SGCR Vice-Chair, Dr. Michael Freilich of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is helping the program maintain strong links between USGCRP activities and broader, related endeavors across the Federal enterprise. Through Dr. Freilich’s leadership, for instance, the Program’s renewed focus on integrated observations will work synergistically with the Obama Administration’s broader strategy for civilian earth observations.

Revitalized by these able leaders and a reinvigorated vision for the future, the USGCRP will be better able than ever to serve its many stakeholders-including Federal officials, local businesses, and community planners—by enriching our understanding of climate change and informing science-based efforts to mitigate and adapt to its impacts.

Shere Abbott is Associate Director for Environment at the Office of Science and Technology Policy