NACCE & Verizon Partner with Community Colleges to Bring STEM

Workshops to Young Girls in Rural Areas

NACCE and Verizon have announced a new program, Verizon Innovative Learning, that focuses on
providing STEM and entrepreneurial skills for middle school girls in rural areas throughout the
country. Five NACCE member community colleges throughout the country are hosting three-week
summer camps that provide free technology, access, and immersive hands-on learning experiences
to kids in need. The first summer camp kicked off this week at North Iowa Area Community College
in Mason City, Iowa.

Springfield, MA, July 14, 2017 --(PR.com)-- NIACC & NACCE Partner with Verizon Innovative
Learning to Bring Hands-on Workshops in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to Young Girls

North Iowa Middle School Girls Get a lesson in 3D Design, Design Thinking and More This Summer

The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), the nation's leading
organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship through community colleges, and Verizon have
announced a new program focusing on providing science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and
entrepreneurial skills for middle school girls in rural areas throughout the country.

Verizon Innovative Learning, the education initiative of the Verizon Foundation, brings free technology,
access, and immersive, hands-on learning experiences to kids in need. The program is designed to address
the need for more girls, especially in rural America, to be prepared for STEM careers of the future.
Through a three-week summer learning experience to be held at North Iowa Area Community College in
Mason City, 50 local middle school girls will be exposed to the fundamentals of coding, 3D design,
entrepreneurship and augmented reality. They will have the opportunity to develop digital media products
with virtual and/or augmented reality, and return to the college monthly throughout the school year for
continued learning. The pilot program is being implemented in partnership with NACCE and five of its
member community colleges.

Why Now
Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM careers, where a staggering 86 percent of engineers
and 74 percent of computer professionals are men. The percentage of women in STEM careers has not
improved since 2001, specifically within the engineering (12 percent) and computing (26 percent)
workforces.12

Verizon Innovative Learning is committed to inspiring and engaging young girls to pursue STEM
studies and careers, said NACCE President and CEO Rebecca Corbin, Ed.D. Through these summer
camps, students will be exposed to new technology and experience first-hand how digital media and
technology impact the world around them. Mentors will guide them through the process of using mobile
technologies to create and deliver innovative solutions to social issues.

NACCE has created the curriculum and provided the teacher training for program instructors. It has also

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secured five rural community college sites to host the summer initiative. Each of the colleges receives a
sub-grant of $75,000 for its participation in the pilot program as well as software licensing, data plans,
and mobile devices, including iPads. The five colleges include: Western Iowa Tech Community College,
Sioux City, IA; North Iowa Area Community College, Mason City, IA; Paul D Camp Community
College, Franklin, VA; Patrick Henry Community College, Martinsville, VA; and Roane State
Community College, Harriman, TN.

About the Verizon Foundation

Verizon Innovative Learning is an initiative of the Verizon Foundation to
bring free technology and access to hands-on, immersive learning experiences to youth in need to prepare
them to thrive in a digital economy. With a commitment of $160 million, Verizon is impacting 300,000
students and 7,400 teachers nationwide. This year, Verizon launched #weneedmore, an effort to bring
more attention to the critical need for more young people to discover the possibilities in STEM fields.
Visit www.weneedmore.com.

About NACCE
NACCE is an organization of educators, administrators, presidents and entrepreneurs focused on inciting
entrepreneurship in their community and on their campus. NACCE has two main goals: to empower the
college to approach the business of running a community college with an entrepreneurial mindset and to
grow the community college's role in supporting job creation and entrepreneurs in their local ecosystem.
NACCE has over 330 member colleges, representing nearly 2,000 members and approximately 3.3
million students.

For more information, visit www.nacce.com. Follow us on Twitter at @NACCE, like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/National-Association-for-Community-College-Entrepreneurship-5230351522
9/
and join our LinkedIn group.

Contact:
Rebecca Corbin
856 404-0388

1 Change the Equation, The Diversity Dilemma, 2015.

http://changetheequation.org/sites/default/files/2015%20Solving%20the%20Diversity%20Dilemma%20F
INAL%206.2015.pdf
2 Work to Do, Carnegie Science Center, 2014.
http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/csc_content/stemcenter/pdf/Work_to_Do_The_Role_of_STEM_Ed
ucation_in_Improving_the_Tri-State_Regions_Workforce.pdf

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Contact Information:
National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship
Carol Savage
978-857-1473
Contact via Email
www.nacce.com

Online Version of Press Release:

You can read the online version of this press release at: http://www.pr.com/press-release/723320

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