RTP honored at White House for education program
WASHINGTON (WTVD) -- Research Triangle Park was honored Tuesday at the White House Science Fair being one of seven winners of a national competition to get more students engaged in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
The win in the US2020 STEM Mentoring City Competition means the winners will share $1 million in financial, consulting, and staff support over the next year to help start local movements around STEM mentoring.
"We are so proud and delighted to have been chosen to be a grand prize winner in the pursuit of such an important goal," said Bob Geolas, CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation, the not-for-profit organization that operates the park and which applied for the 2020 grant.
Sponsored by Cisco and launched at the Clinton Global Initiative, the US2020 City Competition challenged cities to develop innovative models for dramatically increasing the number of STEM professionals mentoring and teaching students through hands-on projects.
"Research shows that many children have an intrinsic interest in science, technology, engineering and math, but never pursue STEM careers because they have little exposure to professionals in those worlds. We here at RTP are uniquely positioned to connect those children with people who have careers in these industries and with organizations who can help us train those professionals as mentors," said Geolas.
"We genuinely hope this grant is the seed money for what becomes a lasting public-private partnership that will benefit our students, and our regional economy," Geolas continued.
