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Change The Equation: Cognizant CEO Says STEM Education is the Fundamental Sustainability Issue of our Time

“In September of 2010, I experienced my first Maker Faire with my family,” writes Francisco D’Souza. “There was a buzz of excitement as we entered the grounds of the New York Hall of Science. Words like cool, awesome, and amazing echoed throughout the crowd. We were suddenly dropped into a multi-generational incubator of creativity and innovation. I returned the next day to learn more and was hooked on the notion that more “Making” was a goal worth pursuing.” Excerpts:

“Companies in all industries are looking for innovators—not just inventors. At the same time, much attention is focused on the innovation deficit in the U.S. and lack of proficiency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and how to address the shortfall.

Cognizant’s view is that creativity and innovation coupled with STEM are essential to producing the products and services we will need in the future…We believe that education, and particularly STEM education, is the fundamental sustainability issue of our time, since the solutions to poverty, global health issues and climate change will require a highly educated and STEM-literate population.

The mission of Cognizant’s Making the Future education initiative is to make STEM fun through hands-on learning opportunities.

Making is important for many reasons. Hands-on project-and design-based learning approaches are more consistent with the cognitive processes and learning styles we attribute to the millennial generation and younger. These approaches spark creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.

Tomorrow’s STEM jobs will place increased demands on the development of new STEM competencies. We no longer live in an Industrial Economy—we are firmly implanted in the Knowledge Economy, or what some call the Era of Digital Business. New technologies are revolutionizing the future of work created by global and virtual environments made up of millennial workers and consumers. Technical skills are not relevant forever, but transforming an individual into a life-long learner is enduring. Making emphasizes the process or the “doing” of the project encouraging collaboration, interdisciplinary problem-solving, risk-taking and the intrinsic motivation. These qualities will be at the core of the change-makers of tomorrow.

Cognizant has distributed over $5 million to non-profit organizations across the country supporting in-school, after-school and summer Making programs for children. Over 70 grants have been awarded to non-profits aiming to inspire the next generation of America’s technology leaders and entrepreneurs. These grants have enabled children—particularly underserved minorities and girls—in 26 states to receive over 375,000 hours of high-quality STEM education across a diverse range of topics, including electronics, robotics, computer programming, digital fabrication, 3D printing, and wearable technology. In the next three years Cognizant is committed to tripling our investment in Making by providing 1.5 million hours of program activities and serving 25,000 children in 200 communities.

Traditional approaches alone are not meeting the demands of future jobs or preparing a trajectory of success for the next generation of workers. Innovation is about taking something we have done traditionally and changing it in a way to do better. Today’s inspiration is tomorrow’s innovation.”

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