The metro D.C. area has one of the highest concentrations of STEM workers in the nation given the large number of federal agencies (NIH, NASA, NSF, EPA, DOD, NSA, etc.) that have their headquarters in the region. These agencies employ thousands of STEM professionals and are supported by thousands of prime sub-contractors. Just as Teach for America has been successful in placing recent college graduates and others in America’s poorest schools we believe there is a unique opportunity now to mobilize thousands of federal STEM experts in the metro area to give back to their communities.
One group of scientists particularly stands out - the thousands of federal scientists and engineers of the Baby Boom generation who will be retiring in the next five years will create a unique talent pool from which to draw hundreds volunteers to place in classrooms alongside teachers in low-income public schools, public charter schools, afterschools programs and youth centers across the metropolitan region.
Currently a total of 28.4% of all federal workers (524,854) have STEM skills according to a May 2013 report entitled “The Biggest Bang Theory” which was released by the Partnership for Public Service. These federal workers along with federal contractors represent a rich nationwide talent pool of possible volunteers.
There are, for example, over 35, 000 civilian employees and contractors supporting the work at Fort Meade, Maryland. There are also over 1,000 companies with 300,000 employees that are members of the Northern Virginia Technology Council. We believe that this highly skilled federal workforce and the hundreds of thousands of highly skilled STEM contractors represent a rich pool of talent to draw from to create a volunteer Federal STEM Expert Corps to advance STEM education in the entire D.C. metro region.
The current Administration has launched a new commitment to encourage federal scientists and engineers to commit to providing One Million volunteers hours to America's school children in the next year . This new initiative is being led by the White House Office of Science and Technology and the Corporation for National and Community Service and AmeriCorps.
There are many highly successful private, non-profit STEM educational programs geared towards helping K-12 low-income students but there is no systematic, organized effort to exclusively tap into the pool of federal STEM experts, current and retired, who are eager to volunteer and share their experience in the classroom. We see the Federal STEM Experts Corps as the bridge to link and place hundreds of federal STEM experts in low-income schools, after school centers and local youth groups in the D.C. metro area.