By Kieren Jameson, MLIS | August 10, 2015
Digital Solutions Manager, ETR

For most of my career, I've been a tech worker in nonprofits. I’ve worked mostly within majority-women workplaces. That means that I've seen more women in leadership and technology-related roles than is the norm in corporate America.

I think this is why, until the past few years, I’d completely missed the appalling lack of ethnic and gender diversity in STEM-related workplaces.

Once I opened my eyes and looked beyond my sheltered nonprofit world, the numbers were pretty clear. This is what they tell me: we have a serious diversity problem in tech. 

By Jason Jackson Wallace | May 1, 2015
Candidate for MBA, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

As a little kid, I spent a lot of my time reading and dreaming about space exploration. Often I would read about NASA’s future plans and envision myself as a future astronaut exploring Mars. It seemed like a sure thing to me.

I expected that by the time I’d be old enough to fly, we’d already have a colony on Mars. The idea of exploring and living on another planet would be read about in textbooks rather than science fiction novels.

Disappointingly, my imagination outstripped reality. However, that dream motivated me to continue pursuing science and mathematics throughout my education.

By Shukun Ma | May 1, 2015
Candidate for MBA, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

I believe opportunity and possibility make life exciting, and that education transforms life.

For me, earning my MBA and doing an internship with ETR has helped provide a pathway to my DREAM.

I was literally shaking with thrills when I received the offer to attend the MBA program at Ross School of Business. I saw this as a huge step closer to realizing my career aspiration—using business acumen to empower people. At the same time, it made me look back at my own trajectory. I could not have advanced as I had without resources of various types which had been offered to me and which, I realized, I had been taking for granted.

By Max Dixon | April 28, 2015
Candidate for MBA and MA in Education Leadership & Policy, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Working with ETR these past few weeks has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my first year at the University of Michigan. My classmates and I had the opportunity to fly out to California and visit both the Scotts Valley and Oakland ETR offices, and we immersed ourselves in ETR’s extensive offerings.

ETR’s mission of reducing risk and improving the lives of young people manifests itself in many ways, and each employee has a strong passion for the work. 

By Fulton Breen | April 27, 2015
Candidate for MBA and MA in Educational Leadership & Policy, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

The president of my university, Mark Schlissel, summarized his commitment to social justice and equitable youth development with a simple but powerful observation: Talent is ubiquitous, but opportunity is not.

So what are we to do with this gap between abilities and access?

This question drew me to the interesting work being done at ETR. It’s also what brought me to graduate school to study the intersections of business and education.

By Erica Marsh | December 3, 2014

In my family, libraries were more than buildings that housed and loaned books. They were places with unrestricted access to incredible tools. They nurtured our passion for finding, organizing and sharing information. 

Knowledge is serious stuff in my family. My grandmother, mother and sister were librarians. My father was an American Literature professor and author. My younger brother currently works at a library.

When I was growing up, whenever a question came up that my parents didn’t know the answer to, my mom would say, “Let’s find out!” She would call the reference desk at the local public library. We called this number so often it was posted by the phone.

By Louise Ann Lyon, PhD | November 11, 2014

Everywhere we turn, articles warn of the imminent loss of U.S. preeminence in science, technology, engineering and math fields. How frustrating, then, that computer science has actually experienced a slow decrease in the percentage of female undergraduates over the past 20 years. This trend cannot serve the field, the nation or our future. We need to diversify tech education if we wish to take advantage of our abundant local talent.

By ETR | October 22, 2014

Ready to support greater participation of girls and women in computing and technology? Looking for some great resources to help in the effort? NCWIT has what you seek!