So, as I sat there this morning at the stockholder meeting, I thought about what has changed – both in our CSR performance and our reporting – since I started work on my first Intel CSR report six years ago, including:

• Becoming the largest purchaser of green power in the U.S., according to the U.S. EPA, for the past five years, and achieving LEED certification for 29 buildings and factories globally
• Empowering our employees to give back more than 5 million volunteer hours over the past five years, and launching new engagement programs such as the Intel Education Service Corps and Sustainability in Action Grant programs
• Reaching millions of teachers and students globally through our education programs and technology solutions, including new initiatives to address the gender gap in education and technology access
• Driving positive change in our supply chain, including achieving our 2012 conflict minerals goal related to tantalum and encouraging sustainability reporting among our top 75 suppliers

But the most important one change I’ve seen that cuts across all of these highlights?  It’s how corporate responsibility and sustainability have become more deeply integrated into our business – into our reporting approach, into our management practices, and into how we approach value creation.

Integrated reporting.  Over the past few years, we have continued to take steps to embrace the concept of integrated reporting.  In fact, the first section of this year’s report is entitled “Our Business and Integrated Value Approach” and incorporates many of the key elements recommended by the International Integrated Reporting Committee and can be read separately or as part of the full report depending on the reader’s needs.  We also have taken steps to discuss the strategic and business value of our approach to key corporate responsibility areas throughout the report, quantifying the value created where possible.  And because we know that CSR report data is being used by more and more external groups including investors, we again engaged Ernst & Young to provide assurance for key performance indicators in the report.

Integrated management. Increasingly, more and more groups across the company are actively involved in managing different aspects of our corporate responsibility performance, from supply chain to sales and marketing, from human resources to product development.  For example, several years ago we had a few key people working on supply chain responsibility – today, multiple people and groups across the supply chain organizations have been leading strategies and actions to improve transparency among our suppliers,  collaborate on performance improvements through training and key projects, and drive leadership in addressing the issue of “conflict minerals.” In addition to business group integration, we’ve also integrated environmental metrics directly into our employee and executive compensation.

Integrated value for society. Intel technology has been positively transforming the way people live, work and play for over four decades.  However, a few years ago we adopted a new vision for our company: “to create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the life of every person on Earth.”  In support of this vision, we have been developing technology solutions that not only benefit Intel’s business in the long term, but also create shared value for society – from our initiatives to transform education and expand economic opportunities for girls and women, to our work on sustainable and more energy-efficient cities and healthcare innovation.

I invite you to read our new report and learn about the steps we are taking to continue on our path of integration, and share your feedback with our team.  You can read the full report, or access our Report Builder to create your own customized version of the report.

Also stay tuned starting next week for our annual “bite-sized” CSR report series at http://blogs.intel.com/csr and tweet series at @intelinvolved in the coming weeks – where Linda Qian on our team will pull out some of her own favorite highlights from the report.

This blog was posted on behalf of Brian David Johnson (@IntelFuturist). As a futurist at Intel Corporation, his charter is to develop an actionable vision for computing in 2020. His work is called “future casting”—using ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to provide Intel with a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. Along with reinventing TV, Johnson has been pioneering development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and using science fiction as a design tool.

It was hot in Phoenix Arizona, over 100 degrees and rising. As I walked to the convention center, an intense sun banged down through a hazy blue sky and made me wonder if I needed to put on a hat. I’m from Portland, Oregon where I get about this much sun exposure in an entire year. Before I could begin my search for a Diamondbacks baseball hat, I was whisked through a crowd and into the beautiful chaos that is Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair.

Standing backstage at Intel ISEF was like being transported to the command center of an immense and loud space station – and I was standing next to a person that really does know what a command center actually looks like…

I run into Adam Steltzner in the strangest places. You may know Adam as the rock star NASA engineer who worked on the Mars Curiosity Landing team… (Let me remind you…they used a hover craft to land a massive robot on the surface of Mars. A hover craft!! That’s just plain awesome!) …but I know Adam as the guy who pops up everywhere. The last time we had hung out had been backstage in the bowels of Burbank, California on the dark set of Discovery Channel’s TV show Big Brain Theory (New episodes every Wednesday at 10/9c – you can also see a preview of our episode here).

So, like I said, backstage at Intel ISEF was like the command center of a gigantic space station, and Adam knows space stations. Check out his picture from that night.

We stood backstage as a group of acrobats pumped up the already ecstatic crowd of 4000 attendees. I had come to Intel ISEF to introduce my buddy Adam, but also to announce an international fiction competition called “The Future: Powered by Fiction.”

Then it was show time. The stage manager gave me the 1 minute to go signal as they started my introduction. I’ve spoken at Intel ISEF before so I knew what to expect. The opening ceremony is a riot of geeky enthusiasm led by the 1600 finalists that have come to show off their work at the fair. (The other 2400 or so in the room are teachers, parents and the army of supportive adults needed to make the event happen). I had spent the previous hours after leaving the AZ sun walking the fair of the science floor, overwhelmed by the intelligence and creativity of each and every science project. But when I took the stage I knew what I’d be confronted with. The music started pumping, they called my name, I ran out on stage, and was met by 1600 screaming geniuses!

Science and technology have progressed to the point where what we build is only constrained by the limits of our own imaginations (a quote from @intc_rattner), and that’s a big deal. It means that our science and technology are not the things that are holding us back from doing amazing things. What’s holding us back is the limit of our own imaginations. It’s our ability to imagine a wildly different future, to dare to imagine an incredibly more awesome future than we have now.

That’s why we need science fiction! Science fiction gives us a language to talk about the future. Science fiction, based on science fact, allows us to imagine just past the possible and from there, we can build amazing things.

This is where my 1600 screaming geniuses come in. Standing on stage, I told the crowd that as a futurist I needed their help. I needed their visions for the future. I wanted to know what kind of future they wanted to live in and what kind of future they wanted to avoid. It was important because they were the ones who were going to build that future. I’d seen what they could do on the floor of the science fair and the future is in good hands. But they needed to dream bigger and they needed to share those dreams.

The Future: Powered by Fiction is a call for these visions. Over the next six months, we’re calling for young minds ages 13-25 to submit science based stories, essays, comics and videos that explore the future. Working with Society for Science and the Public and Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination, we’ll award ten $1,000 winners and highlight them on The Tomorrow Project site, but we’re going to publish and interview far more young minds, highlighting as many future visions that we can from all around the world. I believe that the future is going to be awesome because we are going to build it. Now I need to hear about that future from the people who are going to build it with me!

The Intel ISEF open ceremony was a blast. Adam did an amazing job giving everyone chills talking about Mars Curiosity and why we need to continue our exploration of space. Afterwards we spent hours talking pictures with the attendees – it turned into a very long night.

As I made my way back through the hot night and to my hotel room, I was beat. I came off the elevator to find an exhausted Intel ISEF attendee sleeping on bench in the hall, his conference badge still around his neck. As I walked past him he woke up, and looking at me through bleary eyes, said, “Hey! You’re the futurist!”

“Yes I am,” I smiled. “Now get some sleep. You’re going to have an awesome few days coming up.”

The thing that I truly love most about my job is working with people in Intel who are not working “in CSR” or “sustainability.”  They work in finance, supply chain, marketing, the fabs, HR – but they end up finding their way to me or others who have CSR or environment in our titles, asking about how they can contribute to Intel’s sustainability efforts in their day jobs.

Like Lou and Regan who have transformed the way Intel designs and puts on our major conferences and events around the world.

Like Courtney, Sarah and Elisabeth who are leveraging their roles in finance to help us better measure the business impact of our environmental efforts.

Like Brad, from our legal group, who kick-started a project to try to grow algae on the roof of one of our fabs.

Like Gopi who started a new internal sustainability speaker series using our telepresence rooms across our different sites.

We’ve had a number of programs in place at Intel for many years to recognize and incentive our employees to initiate projects to reduce Intel’s environmental footprint and also to help people in the community reduce their impact, including the Sustainability in Action grant program and the Intel Environmental Excellence Awards.  I believe that effectively engaging our employees around our sustainability goals creates business value for Intel in the long term. Aside from generating cost savings while driving down environmental impact (e.g. award-winning Environmental Excellence Award projects generated over $200 million in cost savings in the past three years.), they help with employee pride and our ability to attract new employees.

Watch video on: Intel Sustainability in Action program

Watch video on: Intel Environmental Excellence Awards

There’s a lot of talk these days at CSR industry conferences about the importance of employee engagement around sustainability.  In my view, we’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible. We need to think more creatively about ways to effectively integrate sustainability and corporate responsibility factors into people’s day jobs in a meaningful way. We need to share our best practices across our companies – employee engagement needs to match each company’s culture – but the strategies and ideas are applicable across different industries and can be adapted to companies of different sizes. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel on this – we just need to share what’s working to help us all move faster.

So that’s my question for you – what are you doing to make Earth Day an everyday event at your company? What is you best example to share with other companies?

Before the actual bell ringing, I also attended an event at the exchange to discuss trends in corporate responsibility – including the ability of ratings such as this one to drive performance improvements by focusing companies on tracking, measuring and publishing their performance data. We also heard from researchers from MIT and BCG regarding findings from their study 2012 Sustainability and Innovation Global Executive Study and Research Report which looks at the business case for sustainability and corporate responsibility investments and actions.  In the study, they found that 61% of the business executives surveyed said that sustainability strategies were now necessary to be competitive, up from 55% in 2010. 37% reported that they had profited from their sustainability efforts, and more than half said they had changed their business model in some way to better take advantage of sustainability opportunities, whether it was making changes related to their target market, products/services offerings, revenue or cost model, value chain, or organizational structure.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker also spoke at the event – and emphasized the opportunity for governments to work with businesses differently to solve the challenges cities currently face. He noted that governments don’t just need financial investments and donations from companies – infinitely more valuable are the skills and expertise that they can bring to collaborating on new solutions. It’s something that we are committed to at Intel across our corporate responsibility strategies – from our Intel Labs group’s engagement on sustainable cities, to our cross-Intel work on education transformation.

One of the challenges I see for sustainability ratings in the coming years will be how to effectively capture this shift toward business model change and system-level engagements of companies.  While measuring and encouraging transparency around basic environmental and social performance data, policies, and programs will continue to be important – especially in light of demands for better accounting of supply chain environmental and social performance – ratings firms will need to work with companies and other stakeholders to develop better methods for capturing the longer-term positive societal impacts and business value created through more integrated approaches to corporate responsibility and business management.

This blog was posted on behalf of Cheng Gang Bian, Vice president, General Manager of Intel Products (Chengdu) Ltd. in Chengdu, China. Bian leads and manages the Intel Chengdu site where his responsibilities include overseeing factory operations and employee relations; enriching the Intel image and brand; building strategic relationships with communities, media, governments and local authorities; and working with the industry ecosystem, government and society.

As the Site Manager of a bustling assembly/test complex in Chengdu, China with thousands of employees and multiple buildings and factories, I don’t typically volunteer for audits.  It’s not that I have anything to hide or I’m worried about the outcome of an audit, it’s more of a concern that audits can be very time consuming and disruptive to our daily operations. Therefore, when I was approached about undergoing an Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) third party audit covering our labor, environmental, health and safety practices – and taking place over multiple days – I was a little skeptical. However, once I learned that Intel wanted to demonstrate through an audit that we could: (1) successfully operate factories that are compliant with the EICC code, and (2) hold ourselves to the same auditing standards we expect our suppliers to meet; I understood the deeper value in doing this audit. 

I am happy to report that our Intel Chengdu site successfully completed an EICC third party audit and the results were very favorable. While we were not perfect, all of the items found were relatively minor and administrative in nature. The audit did give us insights and data that we can compare and contrast with the audit results of our suppliers. The audit also confirmed that our Chengdu facility is at “low risk” for environmental, social and governance issues, with only eight minor (administrative) non-conformances identified – all of which were closed within a short period of time. We strive to be transparent in our practices so we took the unprecedented step to make a summary of our audit findings public. We leveraged the learnings from this audit to close minor gaps in our training and procedures across our other sites, which is a standard practice across the Intel network. We will continue to not only look at ways to improve our performance in this area, but also the suppliers that we work with.

Intel employees have proved that they can do all of this and more through Intel’s skills-based volunteering program, Mentoring and Planning Services (MAPS). The program matches the skills of Intel employees with the challenges of schools, non-profits and government agencies.

Patrick Grogg, his son, and the Intel Arizona MAPS team after being recognized by the Gilbert Fire Department.

One Arizona MAPS project paired an Intel software engineer named Patrick Grogg with the Town of Gilbert Fire Department. The town’s paramedics were still using a paper-and-pencil system for recording patient data in the field while serving a population of close to 220,000. But Patrick had the power to create a mobile, electronic application using the skills he honed at Intel.

Patrick hopped on a fire truck and rode along with the first responders to get a better understanding of their environment and working conditions. He realized that the best solution would be the one that freed the paramedics up to do their jobs and focus on their patients in high-pressure situations.  

Patrick developed a tablet-based application that combines the best of both worlds for the team: buttons that automatically time-stamp treatments and a digital notepad so paramedics can jot down data in a hurry. Even better: the fire trucks are now mobile hotspots that allow immediate transmission of patient records to the receiving hospital. And a wireless printer produces a hard copy record that accompanies patients as they are transferred.

Back in the office, patient records can now be sorted and searched without the laborious task of thumbing through thousands of paper forms. The Town of Gilbert expressed its gratitude with a special ceremony recognizing Pat’s efforts.

Describing the new system as superior to any off-the-shelf product, Gilbert fire chief Collin DeWitt said, “We have probably the best in the country from the best in the country.”

Chief DeWitt presented Pat with a firefighter’s helmet bearing his name as a special honor. Not coincidentally, Pat is a resident of Gilbert, so he was able to empower his own community through MAPS volunteering.

Intel MAPS volunteers have also engaged with Arizona’s Government Transformation Office by providing Lean training to eliminate operational waste. They’ve helped a technical school rebrand itself to attract more students who can benefit from the school’s remarkably high college graduation rates. Another project trained school administrators in decision-making techniques and effective meeting tactics.

The stories and testimonials keep rolling in, and the consensus is that Intel MAPS mentors make an impact – and not just temporarily. They are, to reference the old saying, teaching these organizations how to fish, so they can sustain their improvement and reach for even higher standards on their own.

“Many times when you’re involved in an organization, you can’t see the forest for the trees. You need someone from the outside, who’s objective, to come in and give you some fresh ideas,” said Dr. Sally Downey, executive director of East Valley Institute of Technology. “It’s almost like having a think tank — for free.”

MAPS mentors say the experience of skills-based volunteering is a win-win because they get to make a contribution, feel great about it, and develop more versatile skill-sets at the same time.

Intel MAPS is expanding from its roots in Arizona to other U.S. Intel site communities in California, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas, as well as sites in Costa Rica and Mexico.

Today is World Water Day, an annual day to focus on the importance of freshwater and advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. At large companies – including Intel – water conservation is essential. In fact, since 1998, Intel’s efforts have saved more than 40 billion gallons of water, which is enough for roughly 400,000 U.S. homes for an entire year. We’ve also collaborated with others on how to help other companies conserve and reuse water, including our recent work with CH2M Hill and Arizona State University on the Water Match project.

To maximize our conservation efforts, Intel engages its employees through various sustainability programs. For example, since 2000, Intel has presented the Environmental Excellence Awards to employees who help reduce Intel’s overall environmental impact.

Each year, winning projects span a wide array of green topics, such as promoting recycling or waste reduction, lowering the environmental impact of Intel’s products and processes, and creating sustainability education programs within Intel’s communities.

In 2012, water conservation was a big theme in the Environmental Excellence Awards. In fact, two of the top three awards went to Intel employees working on water conservation projects, including a team who redesigned processes to reduce the water required for our next two generations of manufacturing processes without compromising product quality, and an employee who initiated a multi-year project to reduce the water used in the equipment that cools Intel factories worldwide (reducing water needed by more than 1 billion gallons of water across our operations over the past five years).

So, how are you celebrating World Water Day? What kinds of employee engagement and sustainability initiatives are working well at your organization? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

It’s a word that can inspire angst for even the most experienced parents. They’re rowdy, rebellious, rambunctious, and generally difficult to deal with. But if you’d been in our nation’s capital just yesterday, you’d have seen the word “teenager” carry a completely different connotation – incredibly talented, inspiring, and just downright amazing.

This past week, we brought together 40 of the brightest high school seniors from across the United States for the Intel Science Talent Search, a program of the Society for Science and the Public. They spent the week together displaying their brilliance to the public, the prestigious panel of judges and at the White House to President Obama.

Each year, the Intel Science Talent Search honors 40 young scientists, many of whom have gone on to receive some of the world’s most prestigious honors. To date, alumni have been awarded seven Nobel prizes, two Fields Medals, five National Medals of Science, 11 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships and even an Academy Award for Best Actress.

This year’s winners are no less impressive. Sara Volz, 17, of Colorado Springs, Colo., won the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for her research of algae biofuels. Second-place honors and $75,000 went to Jonah Kallenbach, 17, of Ambler, Pa., whose bioinformatics study breaks new ground in predicting protein binding for drug therapy. Third-place honors and $50,000 went to Adam Bowman, 17, of Brentwood, Tenn., who successfully designed and built a compact and inexpensive, low-energy, pulsed plasma device.

Over the past 14 years, we’ve invested not our only our financial in the program but our hearts and souls and we think it shows. This is not just a feel good corporate sponsorship (although it does make me feel good); it makes good sense. Education is the foundation for innovation, and the key to reaching our company’s vision: to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.

These teenagers are more than just scientists. They’re leading the next generation of innovators to take on – and solve – some of the toughest problems confronting our world.

Learn more about what we’re doing to make sure our future is a bright one.

This post was written by Samantha Scibelli, a finalist in the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition. Intel STS alumni have made extraordinary contributions to science and hold more than 100 of the world’s most coveted science and math honors, including the Nobel Prize and the National Medal of Science. Learn more about Samantha and the other 2013 Intel Science Talent Search finalists here.

It’s no secret that the number of young girls that are interested in math and science is extremely low. In today’s world STEM careers are being pushed more than ever, and numerous initiatives to get more women involved in these fields are being created.

But with all of these initiatives I think one point should really be stressed if we want to exceed in this goal. I believe that in order to get young girls interested in math and science, they need strong female role models in their lives. Someone they can look up to and say, “I want to be just like her when I grow up.” Female teachers, nurses, doctors, mothers etc. should all be willing to take on the responsibility of becoming a role model to younger girls.

It’s not enough to tell a young girl that she can do anything she puts her mind to; she needs an extra push. A young girl needs to be able to see a woman who has made her dream a reality, so she can see herself doing the same. I have been fortunate enough to have had many great female role models in my life. My mother, my research teacher and my mentor have all taught me that I can be a successful woman in science. In fact, because of the influence of my mentor, I have decided to pursue a PhD in physics. I truly believe that the main reason for all of the amazing success I have with my research is due to the strong female figures in my life. Therefore, I wish the same type of influence for any girl who has even the slightest interest in math and science.

Too many times I have come across girls who tell me that they feel like they could never become a doctor or engineer because it’s too hard.  That drives me crazy! I think that there is this preconceived idea that math and science are the hard subjects saved for those super smart kids. That is just not the case! Anyone can get involved in math and science and it’s not only important in today’s world – it’s fun! I think girls who have a support system of women will understand that it’s ok to try something outside the box and will be willing to take challenges in their education. I hope that someday I can become that role model for younger girls and get them interested in the fields of science and math that I adore so much.

This post was written by Sara Volz, a finalist in the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition. Intel STS alumni have made extraordinary contributions to science and hold more than 100 of the world’s most coveted science and math honors, including the Nobel Prize and the National Medal of Science. Learn more about Sara and the other 2013 Intel Science Talent Search finalists here.

I never could have predicted how much research would change my life—not when my first-ever science project, entitled “Which Freezes Fastest—Water, Milk or Juice?”, won my school’s kindergarten division by dint of being the only entrant; not when, as a 6^th grader at the state fair for the first time, I was in awe of the top senior high projects; and not even when my stunned footsteps finally found the main exhibit hall of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

I found my passion in seventh grade—alternative energy—and it simply hasn’t left me alone. My work on algae biofuels for the past four years has consumed my life, and my bedroom. I’ve spent a good portion of my high school career begging, borrowing, and stealing saving for the materials to convert my room into a homespun laboratory. I’m fairly proud of the result: it comes complete with an appallingly clattery old centrifuge, glassware I got for my birthday, a microscope I got for Christmas, a rather handsome set of micropipettes, and, of course, the requisite bubbling flasks of green goo!

Some people have asked me what inspired my ideas and how I stumbled across a topic that has been so perfect for me. Upon reflection, I realize that in any given year, the truth is I’ve never been all that confident about my project. I always felt like my work wasn’t coming together—I wasn’t getting the answers, or the experiment didn’t work out right, or the analysis still had one or three or ten kinks to be worked out—but I kept plugging away.

My battered notebooks come everywhere with me. I’m persistent in asking for help—the Internet is my best friend in looking up research papers and emailing scientists with questions and for the chance to do some really cool work. This doggedness, more than anything else, has paid off. Thanks to meeting some very generous and wonderful researchers, I can now drive up to a university a few days a week to do chemical analyses, travel a few hours to a farther institution for molecular work, and simply go home to do growth experiments.

The past year has felt a little unreal to me: starting with a summer at the Research Science Institute (the best six weeks of my life, with amazing research and the amazing-er people), building with the news of my acceptance for undergraduate study at the beautiful Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and culminating with being named an Intel Science Talent Search finalist.

My algae have introduced me to a whole new world of vibrant new people and opportunities that I can’t wait to meet.

The fact is that while more students from all racial backgrounds are entering college with an interest in STEM, the vast majority of these students either complete degrees outside of STEM or drop out of the higher education system altogether.¹ Of the students entering college interested in STEM, just over 28% of Caucasian or Asian Americans students complete a STEM degree, and just 16%, 14%, and 13% do so for Latino, Native American, and African American students, respectively.²

That’s a challenge that a group of us with the Arizona Network of Intel African Americans (NIA), one of Intel’s 25 chartered employee groups, recently began tackling.

The Network of Intel African Americans kicked off the new STEMpact initiative in Chandler during National Engineers and Technicians Month by hosting local parents, educators and students.

In typical Intel fashion, we broke out the sticky notes and plastered ideas on the white board. We then applied our business skills, engaged in some healthy debate, and did the analysis that led us to a conclusion: in order to increase the number of under-represented minority students in STEM, parents must be on board, actively engaging in and versed in the possibilities of STEM careers.

We call our effort STEMpact, and are determined to share why and how STEM shapes our lives and our economies with parents and student influencer groups.

Our initial step was to host 50 parents, educators and students in an open forum in Chandler, Arizona. Those who attended agreed that parents play a key role in influencing their children to pursue a STEM education. In fact, those in attendance with STEM degrees shared they had pursued the degree largely because a parent, mentor, or teacher had influenced their decision.

One of the parents, Melvin Polite, remembered how his son had always been curious about how things worked—as evidenced by his son disassembling one of his lamps. He explained one way he had encouraged his son to pursue his technical interests: “I let him explore because as an educator I understood that’s how one learns.”

The Intel STEMpact team pulled together a strategy to engage with parents who can encourage their students to pursue technical degrees.

That type of exploration helped lead another student in attendance, Cameron Smith, to pursue a technical degree: “If someone told me STEM involved race cars and fuel utilization, I would have gotten on board years ago.  Now I know it’s STEM and that’s the reason I’m choosing to pursue an engineering degree.”

STEMpact will bring the message to 10,000 parents and kids to inform them just how influential they can be in the lives of their students. We will do this through fellow employee groups at major Intel sites and train 100 STEM leaders to communicate this to schools, organizations, churches and other key community groups.

Some of the key elements of the STEMpact message are:

• Parents are the most influential in helping their children decide which career to pursue, according to a STEM Perceptions study.³ For boys, parents were twice as likely as teachers or counselors, and four times as likely as friends to influence them. For girls, parents were three times as likely as teachers and counselors, and 16 times as likely as friends to influence them. Another reason parents are so influential is that, according to a recent MTV study, a majority of kids (58%) view their parents as a best friend.⁴
• STEM jobs are more recession-proof⁵ and yield higher paying salaries than non-STEM careers.⁶
• The pay gap in STEM between women and minorities versus Caucasian men is smaller in STEM than in any other occupation.⁷

By providing parents with information about the opportunities STEM holds, we hope to inspire them to encourage their budding scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technologists.

One parent at the open forum summed it up best, stating, “when you know better, you will do better.”  Her impression on the need for STEM jobs was changed within the 60 minute presentation – and we hope to do so with 10,000 more just like her.

Sources:

(1) Higher Education Research Institute (2010)

(2) The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (2010)

(3)   STEM Perceptions: Student & Parent Study By Harris Interactive; commissioned by Microsoft (2011)

(4) MTV Millennials Study commissioned by Intel (2012)

(5) David Langdon, George McKittrick, David Beede, Beethia Khan, and Mark Doms, “STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future,” U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, July 2011, http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/documents/stemfinaljuly14.pdf, accessed October 2011.

(6) Jason Kobler, “Demand, Pay for STEM Skills Skyrocket,” US News and World Report, October 20, 2011, http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/stem-education/2011/10/20/stem-competency-a-foundational-skill-jobs-expert-says, accessed October 2011.

(7) Anthony P. Carnevale, Nicole Smith, and Michelle Melton, “STEM,” Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, October 2011, http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/stem-execsum.pdf, accessed October 2011.

This blog was posted on behalf of Kellie Kreiser, Executive Director of Thunderbird for Good and the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. In celebration of the Half the Sky game launch and Women’s History Month, we asked her to contribute a guest post on the intersection of gaming, education, and women in the developing world.

 Kellie’s work has been featured at the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative for three consecutive years since 2009. In 2010, she was a Deputy Topic Leader for the Clinton Global Initiative, helping to design the “Harnessing Human Potential” track of the Annual Meeting. Read Kellie’s full bio here.

Happy International Women’s Week! Did you know that Friday March 8^th is International Women’s Day? It’s a day for celebrating the accomplishments of girls and women-globally.

I oversee an initiative at Thunderbird School of Global Management called Thunderbird for Good. I’m charged with taking the school’s world-class management expertise and access to business leaders to provide practical training to entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Most often, we work with women entrepreneurs who are starting and growing small enterprises. Over the last 8 years, over 70,000 women have participated in Thunderbird for Good programs across 25 different countries. These women run small businesses in everything from chicken farming to the production of fiberglass motorcycle parts. And they are job generators, employing from a few family members up to hundreds of workers!

I’m often asked why a business school that exists to educate MBA’s and high potential executives would spend so much energy on training women small business owners worldwide. The answer is an easy one… business schools teach us how to recognize good investments, and investing in women makes good business sense. Women are just about the best investment one can make, yet an incredibly underutilized resource.

One of Thunderbird’s signature programs is Project Artemis. In this program, we bring women entrepreneurs to our campus in Arizona for a two week intensive business boot camp. Over the course of the program, they take classes, visit companies, meet with mentors, and are given access to all the tools a businesswoman would need – including technology. In our first Artemis program in 2005, we brought Afghan women to Thunderbird. Intel and Dell teamed up to donate laptops for each woman in the class. I still remember watching the women take the computers out of the boxes and struggle to figure out how to turn them on. We ran another Artemis class for Afghan women this past January, and after the first few days, the women had created their own Facebook page and were friending everyone they met. The impact social media and technology has made on women in developing countries is astounding – what a difference 8 years makes!

This is one of the reasons why I am so excited about the launch of Half the Sky Movement: the Game. Released this week, the Facebook game leverages the global awareness brought about by the Half the Sky movement that developed out of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s bestselling book: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Leveraging the power of both social media and gaming, Half the Sky has the potential to make a big impact by giving players the opportunity to both learn more about the needs of women in developing countries and get involved. While the power of social media might be apparent to most, the potential of using game playing for good is less widely known. Games for Change, the developer of the Half the Sky Facebook game, is exploring that opportunity.

I am a huge fan of using games to make impact and think games could become a critical part of the work Thunderbird does in educating entrepreneurs. Gaming as a teaching tool can create a risk-free environment to learn. Think about flight simulators. Student pilots can crash as many times as they want in a simulator as they learn the skills needed to keep us safe in the air. Now imagine that you want to start your own business. You may have a little seed money borrowed from family or have saved yourself, but maybe not a lot of experience. Having the opportunity to garner business skills through a game could help build your business acumen and confidence.

Games are also just plain fun. People all around the globe face challenges with work-life balance. There just isn’t enough time for all the demands of home, a business, and education. But I have found that people almost always make time for things they enjoy – even if only for a few moments. If gaming can make learning fun, people are much more likely to squeeze game play (and consequentially, learning) into their day.

So I’m going to celebrate International Women’s Week by playing the Half the Sky: the Game, and learn about the inequities women face around the world. And if this game can simultaneously help educate and raise awareness, then power it up! It just might be the best way to help women worldwide “level up!”

Intel is a supporter of Half the Sky Movement – The Game. Follow us on Twitter @Intelinvolved.

The Intel team proudly holding the flags of Namibia and the African Union

Recently Namibia embarked on an exciting initiative to equip schools with education technology based on the Intel Learning Series. I was lucky to be selected to lead an Intel Education Service Corps (IESC) team to support the Ministry of Education by providing additional teacher and technical resources for two of the first 23 schools to deploy the technology.

Working closely with the Ministry of Education and Intel’s education team, we devised a plan to support two “model schools” in the Oshana and Omusati regions of Namibia. Our primary objectives were to (1) Inspire educators on the effective use of technology for Namibia’s primary and secondary schools, and 2) Create a blueprint for the technical environment required to deploy and sustain the use of Intel Learning Series solutions in Namibia’s schools.

Our smiling customer Ms. Hambira

By the end of two weeks, our team made great progress. To inspire educators, we taught 45 teachers and administrators how to use a variety of educational software, content, and resources such as Khan Academy, internet search, email, YouTube, Facebook, Skype, and Microsoft Office, with a focus on developing and delivering effective lesson plans. They were also introduced to the Intel Learning Series classroom management software that allows teachers to share content with students.

For our second objective, IESC Team Namibia optimized 35 Intel classmate PCs and a teacher laptop at each school and enhanced them by adding a number of education software packages. The team ensured the proper configuration of internet connectivity to the school, the wireless local network and the classroom server to allow for the smooth functioning of all elements of the solution. And by documenting our work, our efforts will be shared with the other schools in the deployment to maximize the effectiveness of the technology.

Learning new tools to teach new skills

Our visit was near the end of the academic term, and the teachers taught all day before attending our training sessions. Despite their busy schedules and the intense heat, the teachers showed high interest and particular enthusiasm for our instruction on email and social networking tools as well as Microsoft PowerPoint for its capability as a story telling medium. Before IESC Team Namibia left, a number of teachers expressed how technology helps them feel more connected to the rest of the world.

Making friends and building connections

Our team was honored and humbled to represent Intel and help expand the use of Intel Learning Series solutions in Namibia. Using their new skills, these teachers and administrators will reach more than 1,200 learners at the Ondjora and Oshikulufitu Combined schools. We are optimistic that our work can help Namibia’s teachers and their students hone new skills necessary to become self-sufficient, proud participants in today’s global world.

At the opening of my talk, I told the attendees that I don’t often get to the beach as I live in Arizona. Therefore, before the conference started I took a walk in the morning on the beach to admire the beautiful view. As I was walking along the beach, I came across an old bottle which I picked up to examine more closely. As I wiped away the sand on the bottle, a genie escaped from the bottle and said he would grant me one wish.  As I was in quite a bit of shock at the presence of the genie, and I had been thinking about the beach and the ocean that morning, the first thing that jumped into my mind and out of my mouth was, “I would like a bridge built from San Diego to Hawaii”….You see I enjoy the beach in Hawaii, but it is expensive to fly from Phoenix to Hawaii and unlike San Diego, I can’t drive to Hawaii from Phoenix.

After making my wish, the genie became very incredulous at my over-the-top request, and he replied in a stern voice and said,  “Do you know how much steel and concrete it would take to build a bridge all the way to Hawaii?….”Do you know how deep the Pacific Ocean is and how incredibly difficult this would be to do?…… “Don’t’ be ridiculous, can you please give me a wish that is more reasonable and doable?”  So I told the genie that I was speaking later that day at the water reuse conference, and one of my goals was to make the public and all of society excited about saving precious water, through increasing water reuse; so I said to the genie, “my wish is to make water reuse sexy!” The genie thought for a minute, shrugged his shoulders and then replied to me, “How many lanes do you want on that bridge to Hawaii?”

Learn more about the WaterMatch initiative here.

But what really matters – what’s bigger than all of the exceptional technology in and of itself, is how this technology is transforming lives, accelerating results and increasing impact.

This year at CES, we asked Alex Bernadotte, Beyond 12’s Founder and CEO, to share the story of her quest to improve graduation rates of low income minorities through tracking and coaching with technology.  Launched in 2009, Beyond 12 acts as a feedback loop between K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions to make sure high schools are preparing students for future success. The program also matches at-risk students with a college coach to assist in the transition, and provides students with a network of peers to turn to in tough times.

Alex is just one of the social innovators that Intel is currently supporting through a partnership with Ashoka that identifies entrepreneurs who utilize technology to make a difference in the lives of girls, women and families.

At a show where so much of the focus is on what the next new technology is, we’re challenging others to demonstrate what that technology can do.

Learn more about our vision for a better future here.

This blog was posted on behalf of Jocelyn Cascio, a manager in Intel’s Supply Chain Environmental, Social and Governance organization.

 
As Winston Churchill once said, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.” During the holiday season, I spent some time reflecting on the work Intel’s Supply Chain Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Team did during 2012. I’ve been part of this effort for the past 3+ years of my 16 years at Intel and I think this was a year of genuinely meaningful progress in supplier sustainability that gets me energized for what it helps make possible in 2013. I’ll focus on just three of the key programs that are representative of our broader efforts: an expanded focus on supplier transparency, our audit progress; and, our first annual Supplier Sustainability Leadership Summit.

Intel employees during the EICC audit of our Chengdu, China factory.

In 2012, we increased transparency expectations of our key suppliers by setting specific requirements and timelines for CSR Reporting for our Top 75 suppliers. To support this initiative, we provided training, in partnership with the Global Reporting Initiative, to help suppliers get started or make improvements to their reporting practices. This training was made available to all Intel suppliers, both live and on-demand, free of charge. Additionally, we partnered with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard to successfully propose the creation of a Supplier Transparency Work Group to the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Board of Directors and we are now part of the Work group, collaborating with other member companies to drive better industry standards.

We also expanded and improved our supplier ESG auditing in several ways in the past year: we increased the number of audits by 63%, to ensure we were gathering data from a robust cross section of our suppliers; we expanded and strengthened the ESG content of our Quality Assessment audits for closer integration and broader reach; and, we proactively commissioned a 3rd party audit of Intel’s own Chengdu, China factory. Collectively, these actions resulted in a significant increase in our organization’s competency to analyze, understand and improve upon the current state of ESG in our supply chain. The deep dive analysis of both our 2011 and 2012 audit data has helped us move from simply managing compliance to identifying broader system-level issues and opportunities for supplier education and capacity building around  challenges such as working hours and rest days. And, we’ve been able to compare and contrast our own audit results to those of our suppliers and identify areas where we have internal strengths and can share best practices, very similar to what we have done with quality and engineering challenges for many years.

First Annual Intel Supplier Sustainability Leadership Summit - Shanghai, China, September 2012

While we had previously incorporated ESG topics into our supplier training and events, for the first time we held a two-day conference in Shanghai (the 2012 Sustainability Leadership Summit) dedicated to supplier sustainability, to share some of our best practices and bring together a multi-stakeholder group to collaborate on key challenges. Because it was a first time event, we weren’t sure if our suppliers would be interested enough to invest the time and we were also uncertain how openly a diverse group of stakeholders would work together. We had hoped for 100-125 attendees and invited a mix of senior executives from suppliers with operations in China, government officials, leading NGOs, press, and fellow travelers from other industries. What transpired in the months leading up to the event in late September was both exciting and a bit daunting: we were overwhelmed by the positive responses and had an attendance of 185!

Intel employees from Supply Chain and our Chengdu and Dalian, China factories at the Sustainability Leadership Summit in Shanghai, China

It was eye opening and encouraging to see the very diverse group of participants at the Summit openly engaging, some for the first time, on very real and pressing challenges like overtime, employee health and safety, environmental management and corporate social responsibility reporting. We heard many different perspectives and learned a tremendous amount from the various panel discussions, keynotes and conversations. The Summit also included interactive small group roundtable sessions which helped create a resource guide that contains a collective list of key challenges, best practices and recommended next steps. And, all of the learnings we’ve gained will be integrated into our work moving forward and based on the positive response to this year’s event, are already beginning planning the 2013 Sustainability Leadership Summit.

We know ESG challenges and issues remain in our supply chain and we continue to work diligently to ensure meaningful progress happens at as fast a pace as possible. Looking back on 2012 and on the progress we’ve made inspires me as we move ahead into 2013.

 This post was written by Huihui “Angela” Fan (pictured, center), a winner at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. As part of her prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Angela received a trip in December 2012 to the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar (SIYSS), an annual weeklong event for young international scientists that provides opportunities to attend various Nobel festivities, including the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.

Collaboration, they say, is the heart of scientific discovery.

 During my recent trip to Stockholm, I spent eight days with 25 young scientists from 16 different countries. Each of us had interesting aspects of culture to share, remarkably different school experiences, and fascinating stories to tell about growing up. It was wonderful that such a diverse group could be connected by our love of science research.

Despite our research in different areas, we spent hours explaining our projects to each other and discussing what it was like to pursue research in different parts of the world. Some of the students had performed research as part of school classes, while others simply liked to build objects in their free time. Others required laboratory assistance from nearby universities, while some students performed research independently. We swapped stories about our experiences at science competitions and discovered that many of us had been at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair together, and we all wondered why we didn’t meet earlier.

Science did not only connect us as students, but on the professional level as research collaborators, as well. For instance, on day three of the seminar, we attended a series of Nobel lectures, where the laureates explained their lifetime of work. All of the lectures had a huge emphasis on research’s collaborative nature. It was wonderful to see all of the people who contributed to the effort of discovering such landmarks in science.

At the end of the week, I couldn’t believe that we were all going to leave and return to our respective countries. It seemed impossible to me that a mere eight days ago, we were complete and utter strangers. We had been through so much together – from running around in the Stockholm cold to sitting eagerly in anticipation as this year’s laureates received their awards. A common interest in science brought us all together, gave us initial avenues of conversation to pursue when we were all awkwardly scared to talk, and connected us all deeply. We traded emails and “friended” each other on Facebook, swapped home addresses with the promise to send postcards, and hugged and cried on the last day as taxis shipped us out to the airport. My trip to Stockholm was an incredible, irreplaceable experience that truly revealed that science, at its core, is an international effort characterized by friendship and collaboration.

With more and more data shared every day, data centers, which are often comprised of hundreds of servers, have an increasingly important job. In fact, in just one minute, more than 200 million emails are sent, 20 million photos are viewed and 60,000 hours of music are played. And, of course, more data means more energy.

As data continues to expand, Intel is exploring innovative ways to absorb this growth while minimizing environmental impact. This week, you may have heard about Intel’s new Atom processor family, which is designed to power microservers and a new class of energy efficient storage and communications equipment. That’s pretty interesting when you realize that improving processing technology can generate significant improvements in data center performance. In fact, in some cases, processing technology can yield a 60 percent increase in computer efficiency. 

Intel is also exploring other innovative and eco conscious technologies within its data centers. For example, on its Rio Rancho, New Mexico campus, Intel conducted a pilot program with mineral oil cooling. For an entire year, the Rio Rancho servers were completely submerged in vats of mineral oil, which removed any excess heat and in turn, improved cooling for the entire data center. At first thought, the idea of placing technology equipment in mineral oil sounded pretty strange, but the results quickly changed my mind: The mineral oil cooling allowed us to save 7 percent of the server power by removing the fans, and modeling suggests it could result in a 90 to 95 percent reduction in energy use for the overall data center cooling system.

It’s pretty incredible to think about the technology-driven society we live in and how much data we share everyday – emails, text messages, photos, apps, etc. That’s why it’s now more timely than ever for large companies like Intel to start thinking about how to process this data in an environmentally friendly way.

This blog was posted on behalf of Renee Kuriyan, Intel’s Director of Social Impact.

“We have access to thousands of bits of information, millions, but why memorize something that you can just look up in 3 seconds? No, you should know how to use that information…it’s regurgitation that is kind of killing us.” said Jack Andraka on a panel hosted by Chelsea Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative this October. Jack is Intel’s 15-year-old Science Fair winner who developed a new method for detecting pancreatic cancer.

In my research, I have had countless experiences watching students in East Africa, India and the United States memorizing and regurgitating information rather than being taught critical thinking, problem solving, and ways to communicate ideas effectively. These transferable skills are often missing in educational systems, but are essential to innovate and compete in a global workforce.

For technology corporations like Intel, a properly trained workforce is the foundation of our business and ability to innovate. That is why skills development is a key component of Intel’s education strategies– whether that’s equipping young people with digital or information literacy skills, or training teachers to use technology to deliver 21st century learning skills. Unfortunately, access to skills training is unequal – poor young women are least likely to have skills to become a productive force in the economy. 

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) just released an assessment of the Intel® Learn program, an education initiative that provides technology education to youth around the world, that examines its impact on female learners. ICRW found that Intel Learn has been able to reach large numbers of girls and women and enhance their technology and critical thinking skills, as well as their self-confidence. All this improves their effectiveness as students, community members, and businesswomen.

The report found that in most of the Intel Learn countries:

• Girls’ self-confidence increased
• Girls’ sense of power—their ability to control and share in resource use—increased while taking part in the program, as well as their ability to define and make choices
• Girls improved their ability to use technologies to communicate, collect, share and organize information
• Girls improved their collaboration and problem solving skills in all countries, and their creativity
• Girls used technology to design and develop new product

Developing technology skills coupled with critical thinking is a powerful force to combatting unemployment, inequality and poverty and to promote economic growth.

Check out the full ICRW report at:  http://www.icrw.org/publications/intel-learn-program-through-gender-lens

Intel Vice President Christian Morales accepts the award on behalf of Intel.

Today, Intel was honored in a ceremony at the London Stock Exchange – one of four companies recognized by FTSE4Good with the newly created awards named in honor of the late Sir Mervyn Pedelty, former Chief Executive of the Co-operative Bank, and former Chair of the FTSE4Good Policy Committee. The awards were designed to recognize companies who set themselves apart through a clear demonstration of integrating environmental and social performance into corporate strategy, setting ambitious goals and measuring their progress against them.

Intel has been included in the FTSE4Good Index since its inception and is the current technology supersector leader in the FTSE4Good ESG Ratings. This new Highly Commended award from FTSE4Good is especially meaningful to us given its emphasis on CSR governance, integration and performance – things we have prioritized and invested in at Intel in recent years.

Governance. We have worked to embed a focus on responsible business practices and a strategic focus on sustainability into our corporate vision and strategy and into governance structures at multiple levels of the organization, from the board level, to our executive management team, to front line employees. For example, since 2003, the Board’s Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee has had formal responsibility for reviewing and reporting to the Board on corporate responsibility and sustainability issues at Intel. Since 2008, we have also linked a portion of every employee’s variable compensation—from front-line employees to our CEO—to the achievement of environmental sustainability metrics.

Integration. For CSR to effectively create business and shared value, it is necessary to integrate it into decision-making and key business functions – from supply chain to IT to finance – rather than treat as a stand alone issue.  For example, over the past five years, we have taken steps to integrate environmental, social and governance requirements into our supplier selection, evaluation and management processes, including integration of metrics into our supplier scorecards, awards and contracts. Our supply chain organization has also taken steps to address system level challenges across the global electronics supply chain, including the issue of conflict minerals in the supply chain.

Performance. For more than a decade, we have set public CSR goals and published detailed performance data on our progress in our annual corporate responsibility report.  Over the past decade, we have achieved reductions in key environmental impacts while nearly doubling our manufacturing output. For example, by the end of 2011, we had reduced absolute GHG emissions 60% below 2007 levels. In 2011, we also reached our goal of training over 10 million teachers in more than 70 countries through the Intel® Teach program. Earlier this year, we released our new 2020 environmental goals to continue to drive improvements in our performance in the coming years.

In recent years, we have seen more and more companies view CSR not just as something nice to do and being about philanthropy, but instead as a management approach to better manage risks and opportunities.  We have also seen companies recognize that it is not enough to just focus on CSR issues in isolation, but to address system-level issues by working with their supply chains, NGOs, and governments.  From working with CSR Europe on sustainability standards, to working with the EICC on supply chain responsibility, to working on the concept of measuring shared value with FSG, and to working with 10×10 to address the critical importance of girls education to economic growth, we are focusing on leveraging the full assets of our company to help address some of the most pressing issues of our time. 

We are very honored by this recognition from FTSE4Good– and I know that personally it will serve as a motivation to continue to our work in 2013 to integrate and embed CSR to help create value for Intel as well as our stockholders, customers, and society.

Intel, Microsoft and British Council are working closely with World Vision on this initiative to provide training and on the ground support to complement World Vision’s extensive educational programs in Africa.I’m very excited about this initiative for several reasons. One, it builds on the six Intel Education Service Corps (IESC) teams that have helped World Vision set up Intel classmate PCs in Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia. For this work the US Chamber of Commerce nominated Intel for a “Best Partnership” award last month. And two, I worked with a World Vision microfinance project in Mauritania when I was a Peace Corps volunteer going on a decade ago. That experience is what inspired me to pursue a career in international development and technology.

When I was in elementary school in the 1980s, my classrooms tended to have a single computer if we were lucky, and they were typically looked at as a kind of appendage, something to play games on if I didn’t feel like going to recess. Through this program, students in the poorest parts of Africa can use technology in ways that I never dreamed of at their age, taking pictures and video with their webcam, inserting them into presentations, drawing pictures, composing stories for a literature course….the sky is the limit so long as teachers have a foundation in basic PC skills and training on integrating technology into their curriculum, two things that Intel has been working on for years.

To contribute to the enablement of African schools with the technology that many of us take for granted, go to the Spark a Child’s Digital Future home page.

In China, a shortage of sign language experts has caused a communications gap between deaf people and the hearing world. Deaf children are at an even greater disadvantage because there are so few people to teach them sign language in the first place.

A team of three engineering students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong used Intel technology to help bridge the gap. T Chan Chun Kit, Liu Ruifeng, and Shu Jianfei created a system that translates Chinese sign language into text and sound.

Their project, the Chinese Sign Language Recognition and Translation System, won top honors at the 2012 Intel Cup Undergraduate Eletronic Design Contest—Embedded System Design Invitational Contest in Shanghai.

“Intel has a vision of using computer technology to connect and enrich lives, and this was a perfect example of applying that technology for a noble course,” says Jackson He, one of the Intel sponsors. “Applying computing technology to improve communication with disabled people is an invaluable effort.”

Using the Intel® Atom™ processor-based platform and Microsoft Kinect,* the team recorded the 3-D position of sign languages hand gestures, recognized them with learning-based techniques and then translated them into sound and text.

“During the course of the project we faced many difficult problems and solved them,” says T Chan Chun Kit, one of the student winners. “The Intel Cup taught us to persevere with what we believe and not to give up easily when facing difficulties.”

From October 10 to November 7, the Changemakers online community voted for the digital technology solutions they thought deserved to be at the fingertips of girls and women worldwide.

This community, made up of tech users like you, had a chance to pick its favorite innovations from a pool of 11 finalists in the “She Will Innovate: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives Girls” competition, supported by Intel Corporation. These finalists emerged from a pool of nearly 300 entries from 56 countries, and then were selected by a review panel of industry experts.

The three ideas selected as winners will receive a cash prize of $10,000 each from Intel to scale-up their solution.

Meet the winners

Hesperian Health Guides, a nonprofit health information and health education source, created a mobile app called Safe Pregnancy and Birth that provides pregnant women and health workers with lifesaving health information that is medically accurate, easy to understand, and empowering.

To support hiring in the developing world, DUMA created an SMS-based job matching service that connects short-term laborers and potential customers in emerging markets. With the click of a button on a basic cell phone, DUMA’s unique software pairs employers with local job seekers to whom they are socially connected.

Aware that 796 million adults lack basic literacy skills, two-thirds of whom are women, Cell-ED created a mobile phone platform, using audio and SMS, to bring basic literacy to learners anytime, anywhere, and in any language.

Intel employees also selected a fourth winner, the start-up phase entrant iSaveAGirl. It’s an SMS-enabled web application, powered by the Facebook platform, that will encourage anonymous reporting and proactive intervention in cases of female feticide in India—where sex determination persists despite an existing legal framework that stipulates equal rights.

High-Tech Fellows

And there’s more! Intel is also sponsoring four new Ashoka Fellows who are helping girls and men live healthier, smarter, and more meaningful lives through the use of technology.

Alexandra Bernadotte (USA) is creating a powerful feedback loop between K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions with Beyond 12, so that high schools can better match their priorities and teaching practices to the skills that students need to succeed in college and after graduation. Beyond 12 has tracked the post-secondary progress of nearly 12,500 students and worked with more than 90 partner schools and organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

James Whelton (Ireland) is building a citizen movement of young technology experts that have the necessary skills to keep up with the rapidly evolving field of technology. He has crafted a global network of free coding clubs with CoderDojo, which is built on action-based learning, collaboration, and open-source principles.

Daniela Silva (Brazil) is creating an initiative called Transparencia Hacker (Transparency Hacker) to spread government transparency and civic participation by gaining access to government data, and sharing this information in an accessible manner.

Tulin Akin (Turkey) is bringing together Turkish farmers and information technologies with Tarimsal Pazarlama. It gives farmers the up-to-date information, know-how, skills and professional development they need, while also creating opportunities for them to reach alternative markets by bypassing traditional intermediary structures.

These Fellows will each receive strategic, three-year financial support through this partnership with Intel, and also will have access to the community of 3,000 Ashoka Fellows—the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. This combination of resources will allow these new Fellows to engage full-time in scaling-up their ideas at the most critical launch phase of their life’s work.

“Our goal was to shine a light on the innovative uses of technology that break down barriers to access, accelerate digital literacy, and promote economic resilience for girls and women around the world,” said Shelly Esque, vice president and global director of the Corporate Affairs Group, Intel Corporation. “We congratulate the winners with the hope that becoming a changemaker accelerates solutions to challenges impacting their communities and world.”

This blog was posted on behalf of Shelly Esque, Intel’s Vice President of Legal and Corporate Affairs, and President of the Intel Foundation.

Each November, The Tech Museum holds its annual black-tie event, The Tech Awards Gala, recognizing individuals or organizations for their innovative approaches to solving global humanitarian issues using technology. Held in the heart of Silicon Valley, naturally this event draws a crowd of some of the biggest names in the tech industry. It’s an inspiring event where you walk away in awe of the passion, energy and vision of these social innovators. The Tech Awards are proof positive of the power of technology to change lives.

PHOTO CREDIT: (c) Charlotte Fiorito Photography 2012, All Rights Reserved

Since its inception in 2001, Intel has presented the Intel Environment Award to outstanding environmental innovators. This year’s recipients are: Dr. Arup K. SenGupta of Lehigh University, and Captain Bernardo Herzer of LEHR, who both took approaches to addressing global water issues. Dr. SenGupta’s work to remove arsenic from drinking water impacts hundreds of millions of people worldwide—from Arizona to Vietnam and India. Captain Herzer developed outboard motors and lawn equipment that are propane-fueled to eliminate gasoline spills, helping protect the air, lakes, rivers and aquifers we all use. What’s interesting is that both Laureates used technology to solve issues involving water – one of our earth’s most troubled resources.

At Intel, our commitment to the health and well-being of the planet influences every aspect of how we do business. We vigilantly pursue new ways to reduce emissions and improve energy management through conservation, renewable energy, efficient building design, and other efforts. To that end, recognizing the efforts of those around the world making a difference to better our planet is our honor, and Dr. SenGupta and Captain Herzer are prime examples of today’s environmental stewards using technology to change lives.

To read more about Dr. SenGupta’s work, please go here.

To read more about Captain Herzer’s work, please go here.

A room filled with inspiring MBA students, eager to take on the major challenges of the world, were very anxious to hear from companies on how shared valued was working in each organization. Bob Corcoran from GE, Kathy Brown from Verizon, and myself, who made up the panel – were in agreement that our journey towards creating shared value and being able to measure it effectively is still in its early stages and is one of intentionality to further drive social improvements with an integrated business model.

The question on the minds of most students was a deep desire to understand and mentally map the advantages of this new shared value model versus existing sustainability and CSR strategies, i.e.  “How does shared value differ and what is the value companies expect to receive by shifting to this new framework?”  These are natural questions for anyone approaching change and implementing new strategies.

At Intel, we have processed in detail this very question.  We define “corporate responsibility” or “CSR” as an integrated business approach that creates value for both society and for Intel by managing risks and embracing opportunities arising from global economic, environmental and social trends and developments.  We approach corporate responsibility such that it covers a portfolio of activities, from strategic philanthropy and the work of the Intel Foundation, to our efforts to develop new products and solutions to address global challenges such as education and climate change.  It is also integrated into our company’s overall vision and strategy – Intel’s vision over the next decade is to “create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.”

We see the application of shared value methodology as a unique opportunity to further unleash business and social value by approaching these huge challenges through a different lens and achieve our company’s vision by bringing the core of our business to bear on solving global challenges. We believe that shared value provides a useful framework with the potential to enhance our ability to:  

1)   Strategize with more focused intentionality around achieving both business and social value simultaneously.  

2)   Collaborate and multiply results by bringing together internal and external stakeholders to find new ways to unlock the full suite of our capabilities and assets in solving global challenges.   

3)   Develop Shared Value Metrics to inform critical business decisions and strategies that result in deeper social and business value creation.

We are excitedly at the beginning of our shared value metrics journey and see next steps as working diligently on developing strategies and metrics to put this methodology to work. We’ll update you periodically with our key lessons learned. Critical to any change of magnitude is learning and unlearning. We are on a path to doing just that.

There are many ways that you and your friends, coworkers and family can celebrate this day. There might be an event in your local community, or you can take the pledge to learn more about what materials can be recycled and act to reduce your own personal waste by recycling more. Since 2011, more than 28,400 people have taken the pledge.

Recycling isn’t always as simple as aluminum cans and cardboard. Not sure where to dispose that dead battery or old phone? Check out the Recycling Locater to find out where you can toss your old household items.

Intel has a long history of recycling in our own operations.  In 2011, we recycled over 80% of the waste in our operations and earlier this year set new 2020 goals to challenge ourselves to reduce, reuse and recycle even more.  In addition to large scale recycling initiatives, we also recognize the importance of incentivizing our employees to innovate to find new ways to recycle and reuse materials from our organization.  So, in celebration of America Recycles Day, Intel is recognizing an employee project that has reduced the company’s plastic waste. A team of employees on the Chandler, AZ campus are turning leftover plastic from Intel’s manufacturing facilities into pencil boxes to benefit the local education community. Starting with plastic reels that originally held yards of computer chip components (similar to a movie reel), the group collaborated with local organizations to remove the reels’ labels, grind them into small bits, and mold them into the pencil box shape.

After producing nearly 4,100 pencil boxes, volunteers from Arizona Science Lab and National Engineers Week filled them with school supplies, including a bookmark that describes how the pencil boxes were created, and ways for students to incorporate sustainability into their own lives. The final pencil boxes were then donated to local schools in need.

The effort is funded through Intel’s Sustainability in Action grant program, where employees submit project ideas that foster environmental sustainability worldwide. In 2011, Intel provided $125,000 in funding for nine employee projects—including the installation of a rainwater harvesting project at a school in Israel, and design of a zero-emissions heating and cooling control and supply system for a local community building in China.

So, how are you celebrating America Recycles Day? Let us know about your efforts and innovative ideas in the comments section below.

This will all be in my mind this week, as I head to New York for an annual workshop on best practices on stakeholder engagement and transparency and also have the opportunity to attend an event to celebrate the launch of The Civic 50, a new ranking of “the top 50 community-minded companies.” The ranking, conducted by the National Conference on Citizenship and Points of Light in partnership with Bloomberg LP, is based on an analysis of S&P 500 corporations that best use their time, talent, and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.

I am very proud that Intel was included in the top 20 of the ranking– coming in at #17. When I think about which aspects of Intel’s approach to corporate responsibility and community impact I’m most proud of, it’s the way we work to balance driving impact at the global level through large scalable programs with focused investments in the communities where we operate. This is true not just in the ways in which our employees and the company have supported our local communities in the face of natural disasters, but also for the ongoing “disasters” that confront people in our communities every day. 

Many people think of companies’ contributions and work in the community as just charity work and something that is the right thing to do.  I will say that “the right thing to do” argument is an important component and motivator and shouldn’t be discounted – but increasingly, I think companies are also seeing that there is a real business value created by being strategic and focused in their sustained community engagement efforts.  At Intel, over the years we have seen the benefits of strong relationships with our local communities and have learned valuable lessons where we’ve gotten it wrong. We’ve found that being transparent in our communications, including the launch of new real-time reporting websites called “Exploreintel.com” can help preserve and build trust with our neighbors.

Perhaps most importantly, we are seeing more employees and prospective employees expect their employers to be good corporate citizens, as was discussed in this CNN article earlier this week. Based on surveys of our own employees in the past year, we know that our support and encouragement of volunteering at local schools and nonprofits contributes to their overall job satisfaction. In 2011, our employees volunteered more than 1 million hours in our local communities around the world, raising $8.2 million in much needed funds for local schools and non-profits through our Intel Involved Matching Grants Program. From serving as mentors and judges in local science fairs leading up to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, to our legal team giving back 4,800 hours last year of free legal services to people in need, to our software engineers participating in a “hackathon” to develop solutions for improving technology access and education for girls and women, the commitment and skills of our employees are making a meaningful difference and helping us be the “community-minded” company we strive to be every day.

As I prepare to head to New York to meet with other companies named to the Civic 50 list this year, my interest is in sharing best practices and learning how can we further engage employees in corporate responsibility and community investment. Against the backdrop of Sandy and given the current state of the economy – more than ever before, we need to continue to innovate to find new ways to connect, empower and incentivize individuals and companies to be more community-minded to solve the challenges in front of us.

Intel's "Team Inshuti" in Rwanda, which means "friendship" in Kinyarwanda

The tea break would be shorter on this muggy day in the Land of a Thousand Hills. Why? The teachers from G.S. Nyamata Catholic and G.S. Nyamata E.P.R. were eager to return to their Intel classmate PC’s so that they could spend more time improving their computer skills.

Our IESC team was assigned to work with World Vision Rwanda in Nyamata, a city 19 miles south of the capital Kigali, with two main objectives: 1) Train local teachers to improve learning through the use of technology, and 2) Help World Vision establish a Community Knowledge Center (CKC) where residents can receive computer training and use the Internet to open their horizons.

Our training was based at E.T.O. Nyamata, a vocational school that offers courses in topics ranging from carpentry to computers, and where the new CKC is based. Our training included the E.T.O teachers as well as World Vision staff and teachers from local secondary schools. Topics delivered to the 17 recipients included computer basics, productivity suite skills, Intel’s classroom collaboration software, and social media. We also incorporated pedagogical concepts from the Intel Teach program on how technology can improve the quality of education.

Teaching programming with LEGO WeDo kits

Participation was great, and you should have seen their excitement when we demonstrated a Skype video call! Also, they loved working with the LEGO Education WeDo Robotics kits. It was fun to watch the participants, some with little or no computer experience, construct an alligator, connect it to the classmate PC, and write code to make the alligator sing and move about!

After our initial training modules, we divided into two groups, honing computer skills with the secondary teachers, and working with the World Vision staff and E.T.O. teachers around how to run a self-sustaining CKC. Jacky, one of the teachers at G.S. Nymata E.P.R., role-played how she would teach spreadsheets the following week. Innocent, one of the E.T.O. teachers, created an impressive flyer to draw community members to the new CKC.

Rwandan students learn computer skills on Intel classmate PC

In our second week, we found ourselves training at the Nyamata Catholic Church, which 18 years ago during the genocide was the site of a massacre that claimed 10,000 lives. We watched proudly as our teachers delivered OpenOffice lessons to their students, most of whom had little computer experience, and all of whom were born after the genocide. It was gratifying for our IESC team to observe the newly-trained teachers and to interact with students as they all learned new skills.

Amandine demonstrated formulas for adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying cells on a spreadsheet. We had 19 classmate PCs for 66 students but no one complained about sharing. One student would take a turn typing as their neighbors watched attentively, often with arms of friendship around each other. Many didn’t understand how to select more than one cell, so with one hand I guided a student’s finger to the shift key, and with my other hand I helped another student slide his finger on the touch pad.

After computer lessons, we taught the students how to throw a Frisbee.

Towards the end of this session, which also included word processing and creating slides, we rewarded the students with a fun diversion: WebCam Companion! Through this Intel Learning Series software, students stared at their animated faces on the screen, and then turned away laughing. At this point they were sold: one student asked how he can get his own Intel classmate PC.

It was a privilege to work with World Vision staff and my Intel teammates to help introduce Intel classmate PCs to schools in Nymata, Rwanda. I now have a better perspective on the challenges that the Nyamata students face and am optimistic that the technology can help them to acquire additional skills to help them compete in today’s world. I look forward to learning about their progress in the coming months.

The young scientists crafted and test-landed small-scale replicas of the Mars rover Curiosity and problem-solved their way out of a moon landing gone wrong. They extracted DNA from strawberries and sat down with a panel of engineers for a no-holds-barred Q&A session.

Students discuss Mars landing strategies with an Intel volunteer.

The name of this free community event is Hermanas: Diseña tu Futuro, or Sisters: Design Your Future. The one-day conference brings high-school and now middle-school students to a local college campus to let them experience STEM firsthand – so they’re more likely to envision themselves in a STEM major and career.

According to Intel’s Marge Goodman, the experience is key to increasing the number of Latinas in science and engineering. “Without that firsthand glimpse into what is truly possible, they may never conceive of themselves in a rewarding STEM career. We’re here to show them it can be a reality.”

Why Latinas?  A 2011 National Science Foundation report on Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering revealed that minority women make up less than 10 percent of employed scientists and engineers. Hispanic women represent just 1 percent of this group.

In her welcome speech to the students, Maricopa Community Colleges Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Dr. Maria Harper Marinick said that choices made now can lead to more choices in the future.

“The Arizona economy is dependent on you. It’s growing fast and many Latinas are choosing not to graduate from high school and college,” she said. “But eight out of 10 jobs require a college degree.”

During the Mars rover design workshop, a student named Asia Robles represented her team as she dropped a “space craft” from a stage. The vehicle was made of straws, a paper cup, rubber bands, index cards and marshmallows – for their shock-absorbing properties.

The aim was to make a soft landing without tipping over or falling apart. Asia’s team’s design landed upright and intact. “Fourth time’s a charm!” she declared. She said she already has a STEM career in mind, but didn’t know where to start or what classes to take.

“I actually Googled ‘how to get into college,’” she said.

Asia wants to go to veterinary school in England and plans to be a small animal vet. She said she took notes during the panelist Q&A session and has a clearer picture of what she needs to do now – while still in high-school – in order to be ready for a STEM major.

Yesterday we reached ten thousand followers on our @Intelinvolved Twitter handle – a big milestone since I started tweeting for the account back in June of last year. THANK YOU! To celebrate, we’re highlighting ten of our friends on Twitter – though undoubtedly we have many more (9,990 friends, in fact). If you’re not following these folks already, you should be! In no particular order:

@Society4Science – Intel is the lead sponsor for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, as well as the Intel Science Talent Search, which are both programs of the Society for Science and the Public. Their twitter handle is a great source for the latest science news, as well as upcoming science rock stars!

@BSRnews – BSR is a must-follow for emerging issues in the CSR and sustainability space. Fantastic articles and other resources I often use in my own research.

@elainecohen – Elaine writes some of the most interesting, balanced (and sometimes controversial) CSR articles that I’ve read in my short lifetime; she also wrote a pretty cool book called CSR for HR. Did I mention we share a mutual love for ice cream?

@jackandraka – Jack was awarded the Gordon E. Moore award at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, for his work in developing a new method for detecting pancreatic cancer. He is FIFTEEN years old. ‘nuff said.

@Ashoka/@Changemakers – Ashoka Changemakers showcases the latest in innovation and social entrepreneurship. We’re currently sponsoring a competition with them focused on equipping girls and women with new digital technologies. Voting ends today – more information at http://www.changemakers.com/girltech.

@susanmcp1 – If you’ve ever joined one of Fenton’s #CSRchats, you already know who Susan McPherson is. I attend them whenever I can, for in-depth discussions with movers and shakers in social entrepreneurship, global innovation, and cause marketing.

@10x10act – 10×10 is a social action campaign and film to reach global audiences and inspire individuals to take action for girls. Though the film isn’t being released until spring of 2013, you can watch the trailer now and get involved at http://10x10act.org/!

@chamberBCLC – We’ve been a member of the Business Civic Leadership Center for years, and they are doing some really cool things in the CSR space; their business for good map is one of our favorites!

@AmanSinghCSR – I had the pleasure of meeting Aman at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Conference earlier this year (another of our favorite orgs), and her blogs and tweets are as cool as she is. I look to Aman for the latest news in the CSR space.  

@NetImpact – I haven’t had a chance to make it to a Net Impact conference (next year is my year!), but as a millennial, Net Impact provides tons of great resources for us next generation of leaders.

Thanks again for the follows – and let us know if we’ve missed anyone! Reply in the comments section with your favorites on Twitter.

This blog was posted on behalf of Arvind Sodhani, executive vice president of Intel Corporation and president of Intel Capital.  Intel Capital, Intel’s strategic investment arm, directs the company’s external investments, mergers and acquisitions in support of Intel’s strategic objectives.

Some of the world’s most promising young innovators are gathering November 5 – 8 on the UC Berkeley campus to compete in the Intel Global Challenge (IGC), a competition where entrepreneurs share cutting edge ideas and business plans to vie for USD 100,000 in prizes. Their goal: get their businesses off the ground – maybe even become The Next Big Thing.

At Intel, we get it. After all, a few decades ago, a silicon semiconductor chip venture was simply the dream of Intel founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. Since then, Intel has grown into one of the biggest and most successful international corporations in the world.

It all starts with a good idea. And good ideas can come from anywhere. Not just Silicon Valley, the U.S., or countries that typically spring to mind when one thinks about innovation. In the most remote places in the world, people come up technology solutions to everyday problems. Innovation is everywhere.

And because we believe innovation is the key to economic growth and prosperity, both in small communities and in the world at large, Intel Capital scours the globe to find cutting-edge and relevant technology innovations. In fact, at Intel Capital, our focus is to seek out innovation and invest in its growth in support of Intel’s mission to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.

That’s why we take special interest in the young entrepreneurs who have earned a spot to compete at the IGC. These finalists, who have won regional competitions or been nominated by a school affiliated with the global IGC network, present their work to judges including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and other industry experts. To win one of the coveted prizes, they must demonstrate their venture has great potential for a positive impact on society through the commercialization of new and truly innovative technologies.

To date, many of the IGC winners and finalists have gone on to build successful businesses, not only because of the funds they secured as a result of their participation but also from the learning that resulted from their interaction with judges and other professionals at the event.

OsComp, a business from the Dominican Republic which took First Place at IGC in 2010, developed a system through which oil and gas could be pumped through a single pipeline for industrial use, resulting in cost savings, as well as less environmental impact. This year alone, the company generated revenues of USD 6 million, with expected revenues for 2013 to top USD 30 million.

Wormhole IT, a 2009 IGC finalist from Argentina, designed software to help professionals and businesses save time and money through Web-based meetings, conferences, and training. Today, the business is the most awarded web conference and online education platform provider in Latin America.

Speaktoit, a 2011 IGC semifinalist founded in Russia and one of our Intel Capital portfolio companies, created talking interfaces for computers and smartphones. Already, Speaktoit is working with engineers at Intel to pilot new products.

We at Intel and Intel Capital are proud to have played a role in the success of these ventures -and we look forward to seeing what innovations this year’s IGC finalists have to share.

Follow @Intelinvolved, @IGCHaas, and @IGCHaas2012 for updates on the competition. 

Jean-Robert from Intel works with a student on the Intel classmate PC

There are some moments in life that you will never forget. One of those happened today for students at L’Ecole de Choix, when they sent their first email.

We had been at the school (which means “The School of Choice” in French) for nearly two weeks, providing technical and training support to the teachers and students. This was our last day, and we were all tired, hot, and looking forward to seeing our families after a successful project.

Then it happened.

The 4^th grade students walked into the computer lab and powered up their classmate PCs. They didn’t know it, but today they would be sending their very first email to Laura Hartman, founder of L’Ecole de Choix. It took nearly two hours, but under close supervision of our team and the teachers, each student opened their anonymous account, composed and addressed a new message, typed a brief message, and then hit “send”.

They were content to have accomplished their assignment, and they had little idea what would happen next. Within minutes of hitting “send,” each student received a personal reply from Laura, with an attached photo from her office in downtown Chicago. Each student read their email, and beamed, as their connection to the world took on a new dimension.

4th grade student reading his very first email

This may not sound like a big deal to people in the US or Europe, but in the town of Mirebalais, Haiti, this is little short of miraculous. These children are the poorest of the poor. None of the other schools here have computers. And very few Haitians have ever experienced a conventional postal service, let alone email.

I emailed Laura and thanked her for responding so quickly to the students, and to tell her how much each of her messages meant to the students. Her response summed it up nicely: “You do not know how important this is….To give their voices life throughout the world, you have given them power.”

This two week assignment has been marked by other milestones, including working closely with the teachers on integrating technology into their classrooms and leveraging the computer lab in their teaching. We also provided additional training on the reporting features of Waterford Early Learning so teachers can better track the progress their students are making in learning English. And we upgraded the computer lab to run Waterford’s rich multimedia content wirelessly to increase mobility.

Our team feels proud that our assignment has made a small contribution towards the larger effort that is L’Ecole de Choix, which is profoundly changing the lives of hundreds of children in Mirebalais.

IESC Haiti 2H'12 team (L-R): Jean-Robert, Cheryl, Eric, Alice, Emiliano

Dr. Claudia Styles, second from left, and colleagues representing Legacy Elementary School in Madison, Ala.

This blog was posted on behalf of Dr. Claudia Styles, principal of Legacy Elementary School in Madison, Ala. Legacy was the 2012 winner of the Intel Schools of Distinction Elementary Science Award. 

The Intel Schools of Distinction Award is truly one of the most exciting events that has ever happened to Legacy Elementary School. Our students, teachers, and parents have worked many hours on our Pond Project to create a special learning environment for our students and Intel has made our hard work pay off!

The Intel Schools of Distinction Award has placed Legacy on the map.  We already knew that we had a great school with a one-of-a-kind teaching and learning environment, but it seemed to be a “hidden secret” shared only by those who lived in the community and had the luxury of sending their children to our school.

Now, our school is known nationwide because of Intel’s emphasis on education.  I have realtors call me and thank me for the job we do.  They say that because of Legacy, it makes their job easy! I have had parents contact me and tell me that they wanted to move into the area and buy a house in our district just so their children can attend Legacy.   If it weren’t for Intel’s award, we would not receive this national status and many families would overlook us.

Legacy Elementary students gathered around Project Pond, part of Legacy's outdoor learning laboratory.

The students were ecstatic about winning the award and they are ready to celebrate. We have been planning some BIG outdoor classroom days that will be devoted to our Intel Schools of Distinction win as well as our student success.
We have already received calls from other schools and have scheduled days that they will come out to meet with our teachers.  These schools will also get to see science at its best as they experience Project Pond activities and experiments conducted by the students. The Intel Schools of Distinction Award definitely brought our schools together to collaborate around the great things we are doing.

The grant that was provided to our school was very helpful as we plan our science units and purchase some new technology that we have been wanting.  However, it is the Award itself that brings the greatest excitement to our entire school system. When one school in our system receives an honor such as this, it is celebrated by EVERY school…elementary, middle, and high school.  It is also celebrated by the local community and business leaders. Since Legacy is located at the back door of Research Park, the Space and Rocket Center and the Redstone Arsenal, awards such as this provide an avenue for all of us to come together to celebrate the science, technology, and math and the effect that it has on our youth.  Legacy will be hosting a top-notch gala event on the night of November 1st.  We cannot wait to see our Schools of Distinction buddies again!

We got in a plane on September 9th and flew to Washington, D.C., not knowing what to expect.  When we arrived, we were treated like royalty!  Our team of teachers and superintendent and wife had the time of our lives!  Intel Schools of Distinction Award really made everything so enjoyable all the way from the food and drinks to the entertainment and collaboration among fellow educators.  I was so impressed by the entire venue.  I have been an educator for 23 years and have worked very hard in the field and this experience will definitely go down as one of the most memorable.

Read more about the 2012 Intel Schools of Distinction Awards from Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation. 

This blog was posted on behalf of Minea Moore, a Strategic Sourcing Manager in Intel’s Corporate Strategic Procurement. Follow her on Twitter @mmooreaz. 

You have heard the statistics. Women earn 72 cents for every dollar earned by men. Only 18 Fortune 500 companies are led by women. Only 10 Fortune 500 companies have women in board positions. But many companies—including Intel—are working hard to help empower women to advance in the business world.

This weekend, I had the privilege of attending the 29th annual MBA Women International’s (MBAWI) Leadership Conference. There, Intel received the Hall of Heroes Corporate Top 10 Award in recognition of our commitment, dedication and performance in the development of women’s leadership for the 21^stcentury.

Hematite necklace and bracelet given to the conference speakers and attendees.

The mission of MBAWI is to advance businesswomen as corporate leaders, executives and entrepreneurs—enriching diversity around the world. Conference participants included powerful and successful role models in business, namely: former ambassador Barbara Barrett, Interim President of Thunderbird School Global of Management; Ann Bordelon, CFO of Sam’s Club; and Leon Hindery Jr., Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners and former chairman of AT&T Broadband. These speakers shared stories of their failures and successes and encouraged the audience (many of whom were current MBA students) to create and enhance their vision for the future.

The stories were powerful and personal; the inspiration palpable. But one of the most impactful take-homes of the conference was a gift we received from Gail Romero, the newly appointed MBAWI CEO. A bracelet made of hematite beads was accompanied by a symbolic message: “Hematite comes from the earth, it’s stronger than iron, and lasts forever.”  The hematite bracelet was a powerful reminder of what women in business must do to be successful:

Stay grounded. We must stay true to our authentic self. Our success is directly linked to the alignment of our values, goals and competencies. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t effectively take care of anyone else. We must have confidence and remember that the acronym, MBA, also stands for Master of Being Amazing.

Be strong.  As MBAs, we have proven that we are smart and dedicated to enhancing our skills through higher education. Education is empowering and it should be the right for all women and girls. Educating girls has a positive impact on society and creates a stronger economy. It’s #basic math. If we don’t like the system, we can change it.

Graphic Facilitation Piece by Zoe Hillenmeyer

Endure. Pushing against the glass ceiling can become tiresome. But in our pursuit of breaking it, we should never give up. Find a mentor who can counsel, encourage and help you push against the glass. Surround yourself with a group of people that are committed to seeing you succeed. How? Assess the following:

• Do you cultivate the relationships that you have created?
• Do you leverage your network when searching for career opportunities?
• Do you know how to communicate and collaborate?

This conference has reminded me that while we have a long way to go in order to achieve gender equality in corporate America, we must take the time to recognize the progress we’ve made. We must celebrate our amazing-ness and honor the companies that are dedicated to the education and advancement of women and girls.

Personally, I am proud to be an MBA woman working for a company that understands that investing in women and girls can change the world.

Follow us on Twitter @IntelInvolved and @10×10 to stay informed about Intel’s commitment to women and girls.

Intel volunteer shares with Rwandan students

We often use the term “sugar daddy” as a joke, but imagine if you needed one to stay in school? This is one of the issues faced by girls in Rwanda, who now have equal access to primary and secondary education, but still face higher drop-out rates.

At ETO Nyamata, a vocational school around one hour from Rwanda’s capital Kigali, I talked to a number of female students striving to get a good education and jobs despite economic pressures and the frequent call to help their families back at home.

Olive, who tells me proudly "I have no sugar daddies!"

Olive, who was raised by a single father, sang proudly to me, “I have no sugar daddies!” She told me how grateful she was to her father for supporting her education and protecting her.

Not all of the girls here have been so lucky. Alice lost her father many years ago, and she now struggles to pay her fees. She wants to become an electronics technician, and moreover, “a person of value.” But sometimes she is turned away from school when her fees have not been paid.

Alice, who struggles to pay her school fees

Betty told me about her parents’ sacrifices to support her education. Both subsistence farmers, her parents had to sell their land to generate the cash to pay for Betty’s fees.

I was also able to speak with Josepha, who teaches micro-computing and is the only female teacher in the computer science department. After finishing secondary school, she was accepted into university but had to work her way through and was lucky to have assistance from her husband and her school.

She tells me that most of her female students come from poor families. “When they don’t have money for fees,” she said, “some girls get help from some men and in exchange they give their body.”

Josepha, the only woman on her computer science faculty

So when the girls here speak proudly of not having any sugar daddies, you can see that they are deadly serious, and that it’s not easy to avoid such pressure.

When I told a group of girls that I was a computer engineer at Intel, they broke into applause. I have felt so welcomed here by all of the students at ETO Nyamata, but especially the girls. It’s an honor to share their stories of perseverance on this International Day of the Girl.

A theme underlying this year’s CGI event was “the case for optimism” in addressing these daunting issues—reasons to be more hopeful about opportunities to create positive change. For me, one of the highlights of the week was watching 15-year old, Jack Andraka, Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) grand prize winner speak on a panel with Chelsea Clinton about “hope.” He lamented the fact that kids in school are taught to memorize things rather than to think critically (why memorize when information is at our fingertips?). He impressed a plenary full of world leaders with his vision for the changes needed in the U.S. education system, as well as drug and medical test approval systems. Only 15 years old and he is an optimistic visionary.

Intel and Intrahealth recognized for their commitment to support technologies for mobile health workers

Another highlight for me was participating in the U.S. State Department’s Equal Futures event, where Secretary Clinton highlighted real commitments by both the public and private sectors to women’s social, economic, and political participation. It affirmed the signs of progress that women around the world are gaining social and economic power that they have never had before.  The UN Secretary General also made an unprecedented commitment to put Education First in the UN agenda in partnership with governments and business around the globe.  Speaker after speaker from CGI to the UN focused on the power of technology in playing a significant new role in addressing global challenges. Now, that’s reason for optimism.

Four teams of Intel employees have traveled to Senegal and Zambia to set up Intel classmate PCs in schools, as well as to provide training to teachers and students so they are able to effectively use technology to improve the quality of learning.

Students at World Vision sponsored school in Senegal gain PC skills with training from Intel

The importance of this program was best summarized by one of the teachers in Senegal, who told the team of Intel volunteers: “It’s a high tech world, and if we can’t use computers, then we are illiterate.”

Currently, two IESC teams are assisting World Vision with new projects in Rwanda and Tanzania. I asked Russ Earl, a software engineer at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon, to describe his team’s preparations to travel to Rwanda this October to work in a World Vision Community Knowledge Center.

“What kinds of computer skills should we teach?” “What software should we bring?” “How should we dress?” These are some of the questions that my Intel colleagues (Harini, Cong, Daman, and Mani) and I have had over the past month.

This journey started in July when I submitted my application for IESC. Shortly after getting the exciting news that I had been selected for this competitive program, I met my teammates and we shared our motivations for participating.  I talked about serving as a missionary in French Polynesia, where I often had to go without luxuries such as hot showers and microwave.  My teammates talked about volunteering in Costa Rica, working at a women’s shelter, starting a tutoring business, and having a life objective to “leave it better than I found it.”  I felt renewed in my efforts to volunteer as I considered the examples of my colleagues.

Teachers in Zambia use LEGO robots to inspire students to learn computer programming

In addition to our training plan, gathering software, and planning our wardrobe, we also needed to start getting vaccinations. And I mean a LOT of them!  I received seven shots in two visits to the Intel clinic in Oregon, a dizzying list including rabies, yellow fever, typhoid fever, DTaP, hepatitis, and meningococcal.  On the final visit for my third rabies shots, the nurse asked me if either of the first two caused me any soreness. I certainly felt soreness but didn’t know how to determine which of the shots was responsible!

I have always found that volunteering greatly enriches my life. I’m looking forward to my experience in Rwanda and am proud to work for a company like Intel that gives such opportunities to its employees.

Russ is one of the 30 IESC volunteers who have put aside their busy day jobs for two weeks to assist World Vision in their mission to help children around the world. Again, please vote for Intel and World Vision today in the 2012 Corporate Citizenship Awards sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center!

Nine years ago, Vanessa Looper did something that no other woman in her extended family had done before: she earned a college degree. Now Vanessa channels her drive for achievement into a commitment to help other young women overcome their own barriers.

A third generation Mexican-American from El Paso, Texas, Vanessa was the oldest of four children in a single parent home. By age 14 she was working part-time to help make ends meet. “My mom did her best to keep us involved in sports and activities and always pushed us to do our best in school so we could one day live a better life,” she said. “I knew that I needed to get scholarships to go to college, so I was determined to do well in school and also be a well-rounded student.”

In high school, science was Vanessa’s best subject. “I knew that I wanted to be an engineer when I was a freshman in high school,” she said. For two summers between high school years, Vanessa attended a pre-engineering program at the University of Texas at El Paso. Vanessa took all Honors and AP classes, lettering in academics and physics. “On graduation day I was proud to sit on the stage because I was in the top 2% on my class,” she said.

To attend the University of Texas at Austin, Vanessa earned scholarships and need-based grants. Her science professor encouraged her to apply for more, and she got them: Vanessa received an American Chemical Society scholarship and a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium scholarship. In 2003 she earned her BS in Chemical Engineering

Vanessa earned two internships with Intel and was recruited into the company’s Rotation Engineering Program. She was placed full-time in February 2004 and currently works as a process engineer at Intel Rio Rancho in New Mexico.

Since 2005 Vanessa has been active in the Society of Women Engineers, dedicated to encouraging and inspiring the next generation of engineers. She has served as an officer for the last six years and currently acts as a local SWE champion for Intel’s New Mexico Site.

Today as a wife and mother of three balancing home and career, Vanessa has a message to young women considering a career in engineering: “You can do it! Work hard and stick with it. Fight for what you want in life.”

Phew. I’m exhausted. As I sit here in the lobby of the hotel, I reflect on my week. Three cities in three days, where my colleagues and I have literally been on planes, trains and automobiles (and, when we made the brilliant decision to arrive at Penn Station at rush hour, on foot dragging luggage through Times Square amid a sea of people…)

All of this for a great series of meetings with leading research and investment firms in the sustainability and social responsibility space. Our team – which included representatives from our Corporate Responsibility Office, our Environmental Health and Safety and Supply Chain Responsibility groups – met with analysts from about 20 different firms in DC, Boston and NY to provide an update on our corporate responsibility efforts and learn from them about their priorities and questions for the coming year.

In these meetings we covered a number of topics – including human rights, supply chain responsibility, conflict minerals, water conservation, renewable energy, employee engagement – but three key themes ran throughout the discussions: including transparency, integration and leadership. As we look out at the next few years, we believe that these trends will continue to inform Intel’s corporate responsibility strategy and will continue to transform the way in which companies and investors more broadly integrate environmental social and governance (ESG) factors into their decision making.

• Transparency: Transparency and improvements in the quality of sustainability data drive improvements in performance and better decision making. Intel published our 11th annual CSR report in May 2012, and for the first time achieved third-party review-level assurance for a number of report indicators. We also are focused on transparency in our communities and in our supply chain, rolling out new exploreintel.com websites to provide our local communities with real time information on our environmental performance and asking our top 75 suppliers to begin preparing sustainability reports based on the Global Reporting Initiative.
• Integration: Increasingly, we see corporate responsibility integrated across many different parts of Intel’s business. We see this in the work our supply chain organization has done to improve supplier performance through audits and capacity building (including an upcoming supplier summit this month on ESG issues for many of our top suppliers in China). From our IT teams to our events marketing group, we see employees in many different business functions integrating sustainability issues into their day jobs more than ever before.
• Leadership: In the coming years, companies will play a more critical role in addressing complex sustainability challenges. At Intel, we have been focused on identifying opportunities where we can lead based on our assets and expertise. And leadership will increasingly be about collaboration with others (a good example is where Intel worked with others in our industry to address the issue of conflict minerals in the supply chain.)

Importantly, these themes also played out in another way for us this week: Intel’s inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the 14th year in a row and our addition to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Carbon Performance Leadership Index (in both the S&P500 and Global 500 lists). Our commitment to transparency and long history of CSR reporting is a key driver in our strong performance of leading sustainability indexes such as DJSI and CDP.

Our work to integrate considerations regarding our energy use and climate change impact into our operations management, product design, and collaboration with others in the ICT sector have helped us to achieve meaningful reductions in our impact and identify new market opportunities related to energy efficient products.

Finally, leadership is about sustained performance improvements and commitments. One of the things that I am most proud of when I study the various ratings and rankings on sustainability is that we have often been included in these lists for many years, and we also look for opportunities to continue to improve over time. In the DJSI for example, we have seen a steady improvement in our supply chain responsibility sub-score and our operational eco-efficiency sub-score over the past few years.

Looking forward to digging into this year’s results next week with our different teams to see where we can improve for next year. But first, I’m going to work to recover from my week and stay in the same place for a little while.

It may be difficult to imagine a world in which engineers are considered rock stars and teachers get the red carpet treatment. But, as executive director of the Intel Foundation, I’m proud to say I get to help create that world every day.

Last night, I had the pleasure of welcoming leaders representing 18 schools from across the nation to the Intel Schools of Distinction Awards in Washington, D.C.  Dozens of teachers, principals, superintendents, and education thought-leaders enjoyed the limelight they deserve while sharing their recipes for success.  Their stories are nothing short of inspiring.

Representatives of Ossining High School, Intel Schools of Distinction Star Innovator.

When 90 percent of your students live in poverty, low expectations are endemic. At George Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Ala., the decaying school grounds reflected a community’s surrender to generational poverty. But that’s not the end of the story.

After a complete re-staffing and retraining effort in 2004, a new set of expectations took hold. Math proficiency scores in the 30 percent range were no longer acceptable, so George Hall’s students set off on a staggering upward climb – with a dedicated faculty leading the way. Today, test scores are holding steady near the summit of 100 percent proficiency.

While George Hall Elementary students savor the present moment as they study interactive math, engineering, and even finance, they also gain a clear vision of the future. Through programs such as Fast Forward, fourth and fifth graders venture to college campuses to experience higher learning firsthand. “If they can see it, they can own it,” said Principal Agnes Tomlinson, who believes that college and career readiness must be addressed well before high school.

Too many adults go through life mired in limiting beliefs such as, “I’m not a math person,” or “I’m not a scientist.” The fact is that every kindergartner arrives on the first day of school a curious, creative, inquisitive scientist. But evidence suggests that before kids even enter middle school, the mantra, “I’m not good at math and science,” arrests many of their potentially brilliant minds. Intel Schools of Distinction are turning that around.

Meet our Star Innovator – and this year’s winner in the high school science category – Ossining High School in Ossining, N.Y. Inclusion is the name of the game at Ossining High. All students – not just the high achievers – are encouraged to enroll in specialized science courses. The students’ individual interests lead the way toward that magical spark where enthusiasm, curiosity and unrestrained inquiry collide. It’s no wonder that Ossining – a public high school, with no special admissions policies – has consistently produced Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalists – including four students this year alone.

At Ossining High School, technology is woven so artfully throughout the curriculum, it’s like an extension of the students’ hands, fingers, and brains. Laptops, tablets, interactive whiteboards, and Web 2.0 tools make up the Ossining toolkit, and the results are presented at an annual science project symposium. At Ossining, technology is the native language, but not just for the kids. Ongoing professional development keeps teachers in a leading-edge position so they can offer nimble support to their excelling students.

The Intel Schools of Distinction Awards are designed to identify and celebrate schools that put forth more than just great math and science test scores. There is a dimension of academic achievement that can’t be measured, because the world of the future – Intel’s world – evolves at lightning speed. We must prepare our children for jobs that don’t yet exist – not because of a lagging economy, but because the technology they’ll develop hasn’t been dreamed up yet.

The children we’re counting on to drive tomorrow’s innovations are counting on our schools today. We’re thrilled to honor our winning schools and all 18 finalists, who work day-in and day-out to prepare kids for a future that we can’t quite imagine. These teachers and administrators dissolve the traditional four walls of a classroom through the use of connected, interactive technology; their students emerge armed with critical skills for the 21^st century workplace.

Congratulations and thank you to each of our winners:

Elementary School Math          George Hall Elementary School

Elementary School Science      Legacy Elementary School

Middle School Math                  TAF Academy

Middle School Science              Penn Alexander School

High School Math                     School of Science/Engineering Magnet

High School Science                 Ossining High School

Star Innovator                         Ossining High School

Many thanks to our generous co-sponsors for making Intel Schools of Distinction a truly enriching event for all of our participants: Adaptive Curriculum, BrainWare Safari, DreamBox Learning, LanSchool, Pearson and SMART.

WaterMatch is similar to on-line dating in that its purpose is to initiate dialogue between people (waste water treatment plants) that produce effluent or waste water, with people (industrial and agriculture) that might be able to use waste water in lieu of using fresh water. One important aspect of increasing water sustainability in our local communities, especially in arid regions such as Arizona, is to increase the amount of water reuse. If we can use waste water for many applications instead of fresh water, we can increase our water sustainability.

 
We (Intel) liked the idea so much that we partnered with CH2M Hill, ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability, and their Decision Center for a Desert City to understand how this tool could be used in Arizona. When I first met with CH2M Hill, I looked at their map and typed in “Tempe, Arizona” into the database. There were no “water drops” in the entire State of Arizona. A water drop represents a waste water treatment facility, or in our analogy here, a potential partner in a water match-up. After working with students at ASU to populate the website with water drops, we now have over 130 water drops in the system. In addition to the water drops, Intel is sponsoring research at ASU to “deep dive” into the topic of water reuse in the State of Arizona, and understand how WaterMatch might play a role in increasing water reuse. I encourage you to check out the site – if you are interested, leave a comment or send me a message via Twitter.

Intel is working with an organization called Girls Who Code which is a new organization working to educate, inspire and equip underserved 13- to 17-year-old girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in technology and engineering. They started this year with an 8 week course in New York City for 20 girls from a diversity of backgrounds. The course includes computer programming science education, paired with intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development.

In just the past six weeks the girls have worked on developing applications that help families locate events and activities and guide tourists throughout the city. They have designed websites and built apps that range from spreading awareness on environmental factors to providing real-time stats of the upcoming elections.

We collaborated with them to lead a two day ideation camp where the girls developed solutions to address the problems faced by immigrants in NYC. This was a topic they selected because they felt it was relevant to their lives and communities. The winning team focused on helping immigrant youth who “are not learning enough in their ESL programs.” Another team focused on how to help female immigrant domestic workers learn about their rights and entitlements.

A week later, Intel hosted a full day hackathon with the girls to turn their ideas into reality- whether it was creating a plan or prototype for an app to solve the problems, or developing strategies for their final projects. They learned about developer culture, what it’s like to intensively work on a solution in a constrained period of time, and the art of collaboration and working in groups. At the end of the day, when asked what the biggest challenge they faced during the hackathon was– many girls replied “coming up with an idea”. They were surprised how challenging this was, but it was a good challenge, that really engaged their creativity.

This organization, like many of our strategic collaborations, gives us hope that the new generation will change the status quo, get more girls excited, interested and inspired about STEM, and bring great leadership and energy to the tech industry.

Follow girls who code on twitter for more info: @GirlsWhoCode

1. Does Intel support the pending regulation?
Our public position has always been that we support government involvement in this issue including fair and timely regulations that align with our own efforts to create a conflict-free supply chain. We were working on this issue before there was a proposed regulation and we believe the rule will be helpful in bringing others to the table and maintaining broad momentum on this important issue.

2. What are your thoughts about the rule related to compliance, costs, etc?
We haven’t seen the final rule (assuming it’s approved) so it will take some time to go through it and understand the details. 

3. Did Intel do any work on the development of the SEC rule?
We were working on this issue prior to the rulemaking processes. Clearly our efforts have been targeted towards putting the systems and processes in place to establish a conflict-free supply chain.  We have a published a white paper which describes in detail our ongoing efforts on this issue, and we shared that white paper with the SEC; also, Intel’s leadership was referenced in congressional testimony supporting the SEC rulemaking.  Additionally, we have already put information in our most recent Form 10-K report referencing conflict minerals.

4. Some industry groups have suggested they may bring litigation against the rule. What’s Intel’s position on that?
I’m not going to speculate on potential actions that industry groups might take.  As I said, Intel has publicly stated our support for fair and timely rules. We believe rules will be helpful in bringing others to the table and maintaining broad momentum on this important issue.

5. Intel has been criticized for being a member of industry groups that have raised concerns regarding the rule. How do you reconcile this apparent conflict?
We recognize that our positions do not always align 100% with those of the industry and trade organizations to which we belong, given the wide range of issues addressed by these organizations.  In areas where we may have differences, we often publish our position separately as we have done with our conflict minerals white paper. Large trade associations such as U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers’ have many members and adopt positions on numerous issues, and it is not realistic or necessary to assume we will agree with each position of each association of which Intel is a member. This does not detract from, or distract us from, our substantive efforts with regard to conflict-free minerals.

6. What’s next on the horizon for Intel regarding conflict minerals?
Obviously, we are going to thoroughly review the rule, assuming it’s approved, and determine how our already existing efforts align with the new rule. We are going to continue to pursue our goal of manufacture the world’s first microprocessor fully validated as conflict-free across all four minerals by the end of 2013; and we are going to continue to work with our industry partners in the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition in support of the conflict-free smelter program.  We are also proud of the recent recognition and top ranking we received from the Enough Project for our work on this complex and challenging issue.

Rob Polston was a logistics officer with the 82nd Airborne Division in southern Afghanistan.

Rob Polston understands the meaning of ‘adaptable’ better than most. He started working in finance for Intel in 2004. As part of his service in the U.S. Army National Guard, he was called to active duty in 2011.

Polston spent several months in southern Afghanistan, where he experienced the kind of things most of us only hear about in the news. Now he’s serving veterans who are trying to make the transition from military to civilian life – and the workforce.

Polston is Intel’s Veteran Recruiting and Staffing Program Manager. It’s his job to identify candidates with military backgrounds whose skills match up with positions at Intel. Once veterans are hired on, Polston helps to ensure that they receive specialized, individual support as they adapt to working at Intel. Polston said the staffing team is still developing its strategy, but one focus will involve training managers in how to effectively manage and integrate veterans.

When asked why veterans make excellent employees, Polston said he could go on “for days.” He said that their team mentality, high level of discipline and adaptability are the main factors.  Adaptability has served Polston well, but he admits the transitions have not been easy. “The military is not just a job. It’s a lifestyle,” Polston said. “People have different experiences, and Intel definitely recognizes that.”

Transitioning from the high-stakes environment of a war zone to life in corporate America presents obvious obstacles. “For me it was a challenge to go from a combat zone to sitting in my cube again,” Polston said. “There’s a bit of a challenge there.” He said it can be difficult for those who haven’t served in Iraq or Afghanistan to truly understand veterans’ experiences. As part of the support system for veterans reentering the workforce at Intel, Polston can offer his firsthand experience and understanding.

Intel’s Chandler site recently announced a $300 million investment in building a new research and development facility. After its completion in the second half of 2013, the new building will house several hundred new employees. About half will be individuals with advanced engineering degrees. Other positions will be open to those with technical degrees and relevant training. Polston will be leading the effort to recruit veterans for some of these positions over the next 18 months.

Polston will visit military bases, colleges, recruiting events and career fairs in his search for the best candidates for Intel. He said that most veterans hired by Intel have at least an associate degree, and many possess elite technical training that they can apply to their work.

Intel has already hired approximately 400 veterans in Arizona so far this year. With the planned 2013 completion of Fab 42 — a $5 billion high-volume chip manufacturing plant — in addition to the new R&D facility, that number is set to rise.

The veteran recruiting and support effort is a corporate program that Intel is developing in more sites outside Arizona. Follow @JobsatIntel  on Twitter for hiring updates.

Now that we have quality data from instrumented homes with rooftop solar and electric vehicles, we’re able to create compelling visualizations and insights that help both homeowners and utilities. It’s much more about big data than it is smart meters. One of my favorite examples of something we’ve learned is that homes with west-facing solar panels are generating more electricity than south-facing panels. This is very useful information for new home construction, and even for homeowner associations as they provide guidance to their communities.

Please check out the video and let me know what you think! What research questions would you like to see included in the program? How do you see this benefitting communities at large?

This blog was posted on behalf of Rachel Sutherland, Communications and Media Relations Manager for Intel’s Chandler, Ariz. site.  She is responsible for defining and implementing communications strategies to tell the story of Intel’s presence in Arizona. She also contributes media plans and storytelling on national projects that support Intel’s corporate responsibility initiatives. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Rachel_Ariz.

For kids who don’t have much to call their own, an item as simple as a plastic pencil box can become a special treasure chest. This year, hundreds of children in Chandler, Ariz. are receiving pencil boxes from Intel, but they will hold more than just pencils, erasers and glue. They also contain a story about how creativity and dedication can change the way kids think about the environment.

Team member Anthony Kong at Fiesta Plastics in Mesa, Arizona with the pencil boxes

A team of Intel employees helped design and manufacture thousands of pencil boxes using sustainable methods and local business partnerships. They started with more than 1,500 pounds of discarded polystyrene reels collected from the Chandler factory waste stream.

The team secured a Sustainability in Action grant from Intel to fund their effort, which they called the Grave to Cradle (G2C) project. Through the Sustainability in Action program, Intel employees can apply for a grant to pursue their ideas in environmental sustainability.

“The goals of this project were to repurpose Intel’s clean plastic waste stream, to help provide local students with the resources they need, and to find paths to zero waste,” said Anthony Kong, one of the team members.

The majority of the recycled plastic once formed reels that held yards of microprocessor components arranged in plastic sleeves – much like a motion picture film around a reel. The reels were first sent to a Glendale, Ariz. organization called Gompers Habilitation Center, which offers vocational training for people with developmental disabilities. Gompers removed labels from the reels so they could be ground into small chips.

Nearby Tempe business Plastics General Polymers completed the grinding process. Terry Weir, who handles PGP’s business development, said his company charged Intel only for the cost of labor to operate the grinding machines.

Susan Duncan and Anthony Kong collecting the plastic reels

The next local destination for the ground plastic was Fiesta Plastics in Mesa, Ariz. The Intel team worked with Fiesta Plastics to design the mold, which required several iterations. Finally, the plastic chips were transformed into pencil boxes with the Intel logo on the lid and the messages “Sustainability in Action” and “Made in AZ of Recycled Materials” on the bottom.

Kong said that, aside from the recycling component, keeping the manufacturing process local was key to making the project truly sustainable. The pencil boxes each come with a bookmark that tells the story of the pencil boxes’ origins, along with kid-friendly tips to help the environment.

“The best thing is the kids will be able to learn from it,” Kong said. “We can go to classrooms. And the boxes were made in Arizona, not overseas. It’s neat for the kids.”

Intel has donated the pencil boxes to several local organizations, including Improving Chandler Area Neighborhoods (ICAN), Kiwanis Nuevo Club, Chandler Education Foundation, and Fans Across America, which aids homeless children.

According to the team’s analysis of the pilot project, recycling the 1,500 pounds of polystyrene avoided 19 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions – that’s equivalent to the effect of 487 trees over 10 years.

The G2C team includes Anthony Kong, Susan Duncan, Jeanne Forbis, Joni Hansen, Michael Hwang, Joseph Jarrell, Paul Bustamante, Arthur Lin, Ted Martin and David Valade.

Correction: we had previously overstated the estimate of CO2 emissions saved – the correct estimate is 19 metric tonnes.

The Intel Israel CSR report, which was officially launched last week, is a localized version of the Corporate CSR Report, and its purpose is to shed light on our community service work in Israel. President Peres’ visit was a major highlight in an already exciting year for Intel Israel. With more than 40% of our 8,200 employees volunteering within the community, 17 million NIS contributed to education, academics and community programs in Israel, and more than 450,000 children taking part in the Intel® Learn program, there is indeed much to report (and be proud of).

The success of Intel Israel’s CSR program over the past year (and years past) also inspired us to enhance our social media presence. We developed a new Corporate Responsibility tab on Intel Israel’s Facebook page, which serves as a wonderful platform for presenting our CSR report in electronic format and allows us to reach new crowds. The new tab also allows anyone who is interested in what we do to connect with us directly through “Feedbook”, an exciting new app that serves as a virtual guest book. It so happened that President Peres was our very first Feedbook visitor, and he left us a few warm words. We really could not have asked for more. Check out his post in Hebrew.

Revital Bitan leads corporate responsibility at Intel EMEA – Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

An ice breaker I find really fun is the “60 second” game: describe yourself in 60 seconds. It is always such a challenge choosing what to say. How do you present yourself to others in such a short time frame? What of the many facts about yourself should you include; what should be left out?

This year, we’ve used this same game idea to present a summary of our regional CSR reports – creating one minute movies that squeeze all our 2011 activities into bite-sized clips. If you think summing up yourself in 60 seconds is difficult – try summarizing a whole year of CSR work. Intel is well known for its broad CSR activities and it’s an ongoing struggle to present it all in a short, crisp manner. But we think we’ve done it.

Click here to see the clip about our activities in Europe and here for the clip about CSR in Israel (in Hebrew) – both just one minute long. The movies cover the various categories of our CSR activities by focusing on one big fact and then using a personal story to flesh it out – for example, the experience of one of the tens of thousands of our employees who volunteered in their communities in 2011.

In the Europe report video, the story of Dario from Intel Italy is center stage. Dario volunteers at a children’s hospital. His dedication to helping children with leukemia is awe-inspiring. As a result, he was our candidate for the Intel volunteer hero award, a yearly award that recognizes the ten most dedicated Intel employee volunteers.

For all of you who are time-constrained (and aren’t we all?), finding time to read our CSR report might be too much to ask. I hope that watching a 60 second video is not only doable but also enjoyable. See you there and send me feedback !

In April 2012, I had a challenge. Bring the coolness of the world’s largest science fair, which Intel sponsors, to young adults around the world in a way they can relate to. How can I make science cool to young people when there are literally hundreds of languages to contend with worldwide?  In my home country of the U.S., some concerned policy makers have been feverishly trying to improve the number of students going into technical studies to keep high-paying engineering jobs at home. Let’s face it. Science is cool to the people that know science well or at least respect what it can do for society, but that’s not who I am trying to talk to.  

Digital Leaf Color Chart from the Intel SciArt series

The idea…a Trojan horse!  Art, like science, uses an international language of sorts. Anyone can look at the Mona Lisa and wonder what is going on behind that mysterious smile. What if Science is the same way?  Create art to articulate the impact behind brilliant science projects to bring people into the conversation about science. It’s natural to see a work of art and respond to it internally, then share it with others when you resonate with it on some level. But this is art about science! What better way to spread the word? We wanted to not only offer the art, but tell the story behind the art and the science that inspired it. This is why we created the Intel SciArt Series. It brings radical science concepts to people in an interesting and universally-friendly way.

Some people – of the older sort – ask about the term “SciArt.” In true science form, I describe it as the collision of genius science and artistic talent. It’s a new genre of art created by young people for young people, but like art and science, it’s a source of fascination and enjoyment for anyone who sees it. It’s like visiting a virtual art gallery about scientific breakthroughs you had no idea existed. You can’t help but come away in awe of what these high school students can imagine and do. They are tackling more ambitious, serious issues than we ever imagined before with the vision of making the world a better place.

Take a look at it the series for yourself and leave a comment about your favorite piece or about the series overall. If you think this is a novel way to bring science to people, I encourage you to share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter  or Pinterest. The Intel SciArt Series runs through August with new releases every Wednesday. Follow @intelinvolved on Twitter for regular updates.  Read more about the 2012 Intel International Science & Engineering Fair from another great blogger, Wendy Hawkins.

When CSCI was founded in 2007, we deliberately created a board of directors that wouldn’t always agree with each other. And looking back, I’m a little awestruck by the leading lights of sustainability in our industry and the NGO community who contributed to the organization. For most of the life of the organization, my co-chair was Bill Weihl, Google’s Green Energy Czar. It was a privilege to work closely with him on the strategy & goals for the organization. Bill’s now at Facebook and over the five years of CSCI’s effort, we saw great contributions from those who came and went from CA, Dell, EDS, Emerson, F5, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, NRDC, WWF, and more recently Cisco, Juniper and Samsung. Very different organizations, but ALL individuals committed to a common agenda.

We established CSCI with the audacious goal of reducing the emissions from computing by 54M tons/year as measured in mid-2011. Our focus was on improving the efficiency of power delivery – mostly through improvements in power supplies – and driving the use of power management. We were happy to partner with many other organizations with aligned goals: 80+, Energy Star, Japan’s Top Runner Program, the Green Grid for example. To support this goal, manufacturers committed to aggressive roadmaps and nearly 700 companies pledged to buy more efficient systems and deploy power management on their PC fleets. And 9000 individuals also made similar pledges. Our latest audit shows that this very collaborative effort hasn’t quite hit 54M tons, but did get to the 40-44M ton range.

CSCI also expanded its charter to include networking equipment with great contributions from Broadcom, Cisco and Juniper and that work plus our original efforts on PC/server power supplies and power management will now roll into the Green Grid’s Technical Committee. All of our members are invited to join TGG and the pledge we’ve had for IT buyers now becomes the foundation for TGG’s Sustainable Computing Initiative.

So the great work of CSCI continues – now as part of a larger, broader organization with more combined resources. Giving up my President title is very worthwhile!

This blog was posted on behalf of Rachel Sutherland, Communications and Media Relations Manager for Intel’s Chandler, Ariz. site.  She is responsible for defining and implementing communications strategies to tell the story of Intel’s presence in Arizona. She also contributes media plans and storytelling on national projects that support Intel’s corporate responsibility initiatives. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Rachel_Ariz.

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Amanda Snodgrass has engineering in her blood — her dad is an electrical engineer and her uncle works for Intel. So when a high school counselor discouraged her from taking engineering classes because “girls shouldn’t be taking those classes,” Snodgrass laughed it off.

Now a chemical engineering sophomore at Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Snodgrass is immersed in subjects typically dominated by men. ASU’s undergraduate chemical engineering students were slightly more than a quarter female in fall 2011, and just 17 percent of the entire engineering undergraduate population at ASU is female.

Amanda Snodgrass

In a classroom setting, Snodgrass said it can be difficult to earn the trust of her male peers, who, she suspects, disregard her input because she’s a woman. “It’s a challenge,” she said. “But then you finish a project early and you’re twiddling your thumbs – that’s when they notice you and respect you.”

This summer, Snodgrass was one of 21 female engineering students who participated in the Intel Ultimate Engineering Experience. The six-week internship program was designed to improve engineering major retention rates by offering students a glimpse into the potential rewards of being an engineer.

One hundred twenty freshmen and sophomore engineering students — male and female – were invited to participate, representing ASU and Chandler-Gilbert Community College in equal numbers. Students and mentors gathered for four hours a day, five days a week for six weeks in a Chandler Hilton ballroom. The students received tools and support to build robots, design apps, network with professionals and explore engineering career paths.

Lori Bryant, a retired director of engineering at Intel, left her home in Denver for seven weeks to mentor students in the IUEE program in Arizona. She said she wanted to send a message to engineering hopefuls that “we want to see you graduate — to get your degrees and change the world.”

Female students like Snodgrass and Tamara Dunbarr, a 33-year-old mother of two, stand a much better chance of achieving that goal with the acceptance of their male counterparts. At IUEE, both noted an absence of the usual distrust they’ve come to expect from some of their peers.

“Here it is a meritocracy,” Dunbarr said. She added that, as the only female in many of her CGCC classes, it was refreshing to work alongside more female students and mentors. “The teams were really supportive and played up everyone’s strengths. As long as you show inquiry, you’ll do well.”

Dunbarr was recruited straight out of high school for an IT position during the dot-com boom. After her father died, Dunbarr saw a plaque on his desk that read, “I am always learning.” The message resonated and she decided to quit her job and enroll in engineering classes. “I want to build things,” she said of her ambition to become an aerospace engineer.

Snodgrass and Dunbarr agreed that the engineering world could use more women within its ranks. “Women communicate better than men, in general,” Dunbarr said. “They can bridge the gap between communicating technical ideas and speaking about business.”

Snodgrass said she believes women are better at focusing and staying on task. “When there’s a study session for a class, it’s always a girl who organizes it,” she said.

IUEE’s intensive learning environment provides hands-on technical engineering experience through a variety of technical skill development activities, team-based project work, competitions, professional skill development, networking and social activities.

The program was designed to support Intel’s efforts to help produce more engineering graduates in the U.S. to meet demand for highly skilled workers. Part of that strategy includes doubling the number of interns at Intel. IUEE allows students to experience the real-world environment and networking opportunities of an internship in a condensed, convenient off-site format.

IUEE launched this summer at six locations near select Intel sites including Chandler, Ariz., Folsom, Calif., Columbia, S.C., Hillsboro, Ore., Austin, Texas and Rio Rancho, N.M.

Closing festivities and awards ceremonies took place Friday at The Castle at Ashley Manor in Chandler. The event included a luncheon with guest speaker Michele St. Louis-Weber, an Intel microprocessor factory manager.

Students received a stipend and a scholarship from Intel for successfully completing the program.

JSims students using Intel classmate PCs

A red dust cloud trails our Land Cruiser as we bounce along this dirt road in rural Zambia leading to Jonathan Sims Chikanta High School. Corn and cotton fields line the road, but no signs can be found. If you aren’t careful, you’ll drive all the way to Zimbabwe.

Luckily for us our journey has been expertly coordinated by Alf and his World Vision Zambia colleagues. World Vision supports Jonathan Sims, a school that changed dramatically in May 2011 when Hoops of Hope provided funding for a solar-powered computer lab with 20 Intel classmate PCs. The first IESC team set up the lab and provided initial training, and this year’s team returned to build on the foundation of PC literacy skills and help the school’s teachers integrate technology into their curriculum.

The team: Jason, Naveen, Merciless (deputy headmaster), Sisley, Mr. Kanjambo (headmaster), Andris, Cristina, Wendy

We hit the ground running, and in our first week we worked with teachers using Open Office Calc, Impress, and other software to teach PC literacy classes to more than 300 students. We demonstrated resources like Khan Academy and the Intel Learning Series classroom management software as well as the eGranary (a hard drive containing Wikipedia and 14 million educational resources). We even helped the deputy headmaster create the school’s first student ID cards.

We also demonstrated WeDo Robotics kits donated by the LEGO Foundation, showing the teachers how to create a program that lifts a robot man using a LEGO crane. The headmaster and teachers were excited about helping the students organize a robotics competition, as they were looking for an engaging, hands-on way of teaching engineering concepts.

Teachers using LEGO WeDo Robotics kits

After a year of having classmate PCs at the school, change is already palpable. Charles, the World Vision regional coordinator, noted that “enrollment is up this year because word is spreading that Jonathan Sims has a computer lab.” This is a significant leap since high school students in Zambia rarely have a chance to interact with computers. In fact, we were told that even university students often don’t get to use computers until their final year of studies.

During the second week, our team would travel to Makonkoto Basic School, but not before enjoying a rousing farewell assembly organized by the school’s headmaster, Mr. Kanjambo. Add a few speeches, a photo session with students, a final lunch with teachers, a few more speeches, and we were starting to feel like Justin Bieber. But it was time to get back out onto that dirt road, tired, but satisfied with what we accomplished.

After long day of training, enjoying a soccer game at dusk

On a sunny Friday in May 2012, five bee boxes at our Intel Folsom site. Emma and Raphael Hitzke, two Intel employees, got interested in the fate of honeybees a few years back when they were working on a documentary film called “Vive La Food!” about two French Chefs in Sacramento. As part of the research, they explored the local food system and saw firsthand the importance of honeybees. They went on and made another fiction film called “BEE” that focused on honeybees. Besides installing bee boxes on the Folsom campus, the team organized in May a very well received beekeeping class for Intel employees.

The project is being funded through the Intel “Sustainability in Action” grant program. Through this program, employees can apply for funding for innovative environmental projects. Employees are encouraged to include external stakeholders in their projects, and many focus their efforts on addressing environmental issues in their local communities.

In 2011, we provided funding for nine employee projects—including the installation of a rainwater harvesting project at a school in Israel, recycling of plastic reels from our manufacturing process to create pencil boxes to donate to local schools in Arizona, and sustainability discussions with students in Oregon schools.

For more information, read our 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report.

The world is continuously changing – and it is critical that education systems change as well. Countries worldwide increasingly recognize that transforming their educational system is crucial for global competitiveness. Access to quality education for all is the key to sustaining economic development and the social inclusion of students around the world. The holistic approach in policy reform, integration of ICT, along with changes in curriculum, assessment, research and evaluation, and teacher professional development, is critical in this process to equip students with 21st century skills that enable their full social and economic participation. Intel developed a model of this holistic approach and supports governments in more than 70 countries with 200 programs transforming education systems. The Intel Teach program, which has trained more than 10 million teachers in developing 21^st century skills in their students, is just one example.

One of the biggest challenges that education still faces is the assessment of students’ skills, especially 21^st century skills like critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, digital literacy and social networking. In 2009, together with Cisco and Microsoft, we founded ATC21S, – Assessment and Teaching for 21^st Century Skills - a research project to investigate and develop cutting edge methods to support the teaching and assessment of 21^st century skills in students. It is a collaborative venture involving more than 260 international researchers, developers, education specialists, practitioners, and other experts, headquartered at the University of Melbourne and led by Professor Patrick Griffin. It includes national governments  (Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Netherlands, Singapore, and the United States) and is supported by intergovernmental organizations (Inter American Development Bank (IADB), International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), The World Bank), researchers, teaching institutions, and commercial companies.

I’m excited to announce that the team will be launching an integrated system for assessment, reporting and teaching of 21st century skills in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on July 2, 2012 – on the eve of the International Test Conference.  The project represents an international effort to broker common standards, assessments and terminologies in 21st century skills.  Where previously people cited the importance of 21st century skills, ATC21S provides a system for understanding them, measuring them, and helping teachers to teach them.  This is a major milestone in helping our education systems successfully prepare students for the 21^st century. It has been recognized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as filling a critical gap between existing basic research on assessment design and methodologies, and the implementation of large-scale assessments that provide reliable data at reasonable cost. 

Please visit www.atc21s.org to join your community of interest.

Meg teaching Kisaruni students to use their new Intel classmate PCs

Most teen girls love to sing and dance, and that is how our week began at the Kisaruni Secondary School on a rural hillside village Kenya’s Maasai Mara. Our IESC team was welcomed with a touching and profoundly memorable cultural ceremony, and we quickly found ourselves on stage, learning the rhythmic moves alongside the school’s 91 students.

These students are amongst the fortunate few to attend the first girls’ high school in the area. Our assignment was to empower them by expanding the school’s classmate PC deployment and training the students and teachers on Intel Learning Series software and basic computer skills through the Intel® Easy Steps program. The school now has 50 classmate PCs, and the teachers and girls have embraced computing into their curriculum and daily lives.

In return for our efforts we received far greater enlightenment from the girls, the school’s fantastic teachers and our Free The Children guides: Justus, who taught us about sustainable development across Africa; James, a Maasai warrior, who protected our team and shared stories of his rich heritage; and Jane, a local Kipsigi mama and community leader who has helped her own beekeeping business and many other woman-owned enterprises to prosper through a “merry-go-round” lending program.

Kisaruni welcome ceremony, which included dance lessons for our team!

An Internet connection is not yet feasible at Kisaruni, so we trained the students to use their eGranary – a hard drive containing Wikipedia and millions of other educational documents – which dramatically changed their world. After introducing them to the concept of search, they quickly began looking up areas of interest: Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai was most popular, followed by Michael Jackson and articles on Maasai and Kipsigi culture. It was a thrill to see them empowered with all this information at their fingertips.

One morning we discussed what they were most curious about in the world. Given their introduction to computers, they asked a series of fascinating and intelligent questions: What is the Internet? What is this Facebook thing a previous visitor had mentioned to them? What is email? Would they get to use these tools when they went to college? What makes a computer think? How would computing affect their future careers in medicine, social justice law and teaching?

Meg and team visit with Jane, a community leader, in her new house

Their curiosity created a euphoric buzz at the school. After each lesson, one student would stand up and graciously share her appreciation for what she had learned. At the end of the day, the girls had to be convinced to leave the lab – as they were so energized to discover and absorb new skills.

Technology is only as good as what it will do for people. Experiencing the Kisaruni girls connecting their new access to information to the ability to realize their dreams was the thrill of a lifetime. It reinforced my passion to help others change the world – which these girls are certain to do. “Asante sana” (thank you) to Intel and Free The Children for giving us this opportunity!

Group photo after goodbye ceremony and "we will never forget you" song. Asante sana!

70% of consumers expect the manufacturer or retailer of a product to own the End of Life (EOL) process for the product; Interface, the modular carpet company has an interesting model for EOL. When you change your carpet they take your old carpet and recycle it. EBay has an instant sale site for electronics; the intention is to enable someone like me who doesn’t sell on eBay to quickly sell an old cell phone or other electronic device while it still has a useful life. I’d say about half the room raised their hand when asked if we had an old unused cell phone at home.

15% of a 3M employee’s time can be spent on a non-core duty. This policy enables employees who have a passion for a particular topic, like sustainability to spend 15% of their time working on the idea. 3M shared how through innovation they were able to eliminate water from their adhesive-making process. Adhesive making has historically been a water intense process, so this was amazing – but they aren’t stopping there – they are now looking for ways to make adhesives without petroleum-based ingredients.

50% of material is lost when making a plaid shirt. REI talked about understanding where the greatest impact is – if you are making plaid shirts, the greatest impact is on the cutting table. Anyone who sews knows that directional fabric requires more fabric because the pieces have to be cut to match when sewn together. This doesn’t mean you stop selling plaid shirts, but maybe you look for a way to use the scrap material or make the material so it is easier to recycle.  

Many speakers talked about the point of greatest impact and earlier in the conference I thought maybe the Life Cycle Analysis was the key to understanding impact. But after attending the workshop on LCA tools I think the key is talking with engineers and operations personnel to understand the areas of greatest impact. I know many of our suppliers are already working to reduce their environmental impact on those “hot spot, high impact” areas. I think sometimes they just don’t know that they are making a sustainable improvement.

This blog was posted on behalf of Mike Gann, Director of Intel’s World Ahead Healthcare Program. Follow Mike on Twitter @mike_gann.

Intel is very pleased to be a part of the “mPowering Frontline Health Workers Alliance” announced yesterday by USAID and the mHealth Alliance. 

I’m very impressed with the different organizations that have come to the table to share their expertise, successes, and deep passions for improving healthcare for women and children in underserved regions.  I have travelled to more than 35 countries over the last ten years and have met with many Ministers of Health.  One of the common messages  I hear over and over again is the need to find better ways to have the public and private sectors work together to solve some of these common and long-standing challenges in healthcare. 

Creating this alliance is a big step in the right direction.  As a technology company, we are very eager to share our expertise in forming global public policy, establishing national broadband plans, providing choices for mobile platform technologies, and creating sustainable business models. 

My challenge to the current organizations who have joined this special alliance is to constantly challenge the status quo and move quickly from Powerpoint® to broad deployments…there is just so much at stake every day.

Let’s start by thinking of people’s use of technology as a pyramid.

We all start at the big base of the pyramid – communicating, playing, seeking information. In other words, as users of technology. Then we move up a level as builders – we use technology to build our communities, do our jobs, help our families, improve our lives. And at the tip of the pyramid we have the creators – envisioning and creating technology.

Today, all around the world, women and girls are underrepresented at every level of that pyramid. If Intel truly wants to enhance the lives of every human being on earth, we’ve got some catching up to do with the female half of the population. But we’ve made a good start! Twelve million teachers around the world have learned to use technology with their students thanks to Intel Teach. Well over half are women. Think of the impact that has on the girls they teach, and on their own lives.

Women empowered by technology to teach more effectively and to take on greater leadership roles in their schools and families. Women role-modeling for girls that technology is cool, fun, and life-changing. Two million children – half of them girls – have learned to use technology to improve their communities, envision careers and create businesses thanks to Intel Learn.

Girls who have saved lives by advocating for improved sanitation in their community. Girls who have stopped the practice of child marriages in their village. Girls who have learned to think of themselves as competent users of technology, able to build their own lives and help others. Eleven to thirteen year old girls enriching their lives and the lives of their community with technology. We have witnessed the impact of technology on the lives of girls and women all around the world. We want to do more.

Working with Ashoka, one of the first and most effective organizations promoting social innovation around the world, we want to find the very best social entrepreneurs who are working to put technology in the hands of women, and who are giving women (and girls) the skills they need to use it. And you can help!

This link provides details about this competition and how to enter before the August 15 deadline. Winners will be recognized with more than $30,000 in cash and in-kind prizes awarded to the best and most innovative solutions that equip girls and women with new digital technologies—enabling them to live healthier, smarter and more meaningful lives.

Share the e-card with your social media networks and encourage anyone you know to make sure that people with good ideas hear about the competition and have a chance to participate. Let’s help close that gap for women and girls around the world! After all, we have a lot of work to do to reach every person on earth by 2020…

Rusinga's solar lab brings Intel classmate PCs to the furthest corners of the island

“Our dream is that someday, every classroom in Rusinga Island will have computers.” This hope was expressed by one of the teachers we are working with here in Kenya.

Rusinga Island is a remote location by Kenyan standards, with many men catching fish at night and women drying it and selling it by day. It’s safe to say that computers have not been a part of most people’s education here.

The Rusinga Island Trust is helping to bridge the digital divide through its mobile computer lab that visits this teacher’s school and several others on a weekly rotation. The lab uses Intel classmate PCs charged by an SUV with solar panels mounted on the roof, so it can provide training in even the most remote places.

Meet Mike, Vinesh, Vera, Haw and Glenn!

But, as we learned on our first day, it’s not always easy to get there. In fact, we were stuck in the mud for an hour en route to our first class (this article talks more about the extreme rains this year) and are getting plenty of exercise digging our car out of the mud on a regular basis, often with the assistance of complete strangers.

Our team’s mission is to deploy new classmate PCs purchased by the NGO and to provide training on advanced applications, including Excel, PowerPoint and the internet for the teachers, and working with the students on Scratch and LEGO WeDo, two simple computer programming tools.

After arriving on the island, our team and our NGO liaison Alphonce sat down with the local teacher’s council to discuss our training agenda, which was extremely useful to understand their priorities and also logistics for dividing teachers into groups. Since then we have visited five primary and secondary schools in addition to the Orphan Community Center.

Vinesh leading a class on Scratch animation

Our trip has been an adventure since we arrived. Every day has been very demanding, with multiple morning and afternoon sessions with the children, and then evening lessons for the teachers. Time-permitting, we squeeze in a soccer game where the Intel team gets to show off whatever little skill we have! In between our sessions, I am greatly enjoying the feel of the air, the smells, and the weather, which brings back childhood memories of the Fiji Islands where I grew up.

All of us are exhausted at the end of each day, but the excitement on the students’ faces and the warm greetings from the principals and teachers tells us how appreciated and welcome we are. Also exciting for the students is our two teaching assistants John and Eve. They grew up on Rusinga Island and are now university students in Nairobi, which is a huge inspiration for the students here who can now begin to dream about university and even a career in computer science.

Tri Tin, Tad, Erin and Duc setting up classmate PCs for new orphanage

One year after implementing Orphan Impact’s after-school program, administrators of an orphanage in Tam Binh, Vietnam have observed an interesting benefit: the “run away rate” has decreased.

Orphan Impact currently operates after-school programs using the Intel classmate PC in more than a dozen orphanages in Vietnam. The organization wants to ensure that they are able to impart the necessary skills and values on new teachers as they expand their program to new locations, which is part of the scope of work of our IESC team.

After observing classes at Tam Binh to learn more about their teaching methodology, our team returned to Orphan Impact’s office in Ho Chi Minh City to facilitate “train the trainer” sessions with three staff teachers. Our goal is to develop training content for bringing new teachers on board, with a focus on promoting skills in areas ranging from collaboration and problem solving to “love and care,” which includes showing respect for the children and recognizing their accomplishments.

No IESC teacher training is complete without Intel t-shirts!

It was very nice to see the kids so engaged, and it’s exciting to learn that a child’s ability to create something using the classmate PC and share it with their teacher and peers can have an impact on their desire to stay at the orphanage and continue learning.

Next week we travel to Can Tho, where Orphan Impact is launching a new program at an orphanage there. This involves training a new teacher, which will be a great chance for the teachers to practice what we are helping them to prepare this week.

Because Intel has a site in Vietnam, we were able to add two local volunteers to our team – Aikido and Tri Tin, who along with Duc (based in Santa Clara, CA but originally from Vietnam) have provided valuable Vietnamese language skills to our team. We have divided into two groups, one focusing on “train the trainer” sessions and the other configuring classmate PCs and setting up network connection protocols for the new site.

Trying a local umbrella on walk to orphanage

Can Tho is a three hour drive southwest of Ho Chi Minh city and the orphanage is in a much more rural area, so we are preparing for issues like power outages and intermittent internet connectivity. All of our hard work and preparation will be put into action as we set up the new classroom, meet new children, and prepare the next Orphan Impact instructor.

Cue our “Explore Intel” website. Initially launched in early 2011 for our New Mexico campus, the site shares quarterly, or even real-time environmental data, as well as a live webcam of the air scrubbers on the roof (sunny and cloud free as of 11:20AM today).

Based on the feedback we received, we launched similar websites this year for our new wafer fabrication facility in Dalian, as well as for our operations in Costa Rica. This is just one of the ways that we’re committed to transparency and accountability in the communities in which we live and work.

Learn more about our approach to transparency in our full 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report. And follow us on Twitter.

What are your thoughts on transparency and reporting? Are we headed in the right direction?

Karibu students using new Intel classmate PC convertible to study the alphabet

A toddler navigating a computer is an impressive sight anywhere, but it’s especially head-turning in the slum areas surrounding Thika, Kenya. At the Karibu Centre, pre-schoolers receive a hot meal and an education – including lessons on the Intel classmate PC – thanks to Orphans Overseas.

During our IESC assignment in Thika, a local TV channel ran a story praising these “Computer Wizards at the Age of Two.” That’s a slight exaggeration (the 3-5 year olds get most of the computer time at Karibu), but it’s not far off, and we marveled at students navigating the mouse to breeze through literacy and numeracy exercises.

It’s clear evidence of the ability of computers to not only teach ICT skills, but increase student engagement, attendance, and as NGO director Jorie Kincaid aims to demonstrate, test scores. In Karibu’s case, they are looking closely at the admissions test given by local primary schools prior to enrollment.

On a tour of Gachage slum, this boy caught my eye

In the nearby Gachage slum, John the tribal chief led us on a walk through the neighborhood to show us the daily challenges that families face. Despite the power lines overhead, the single room dwellings are un-electrified, and most parents are lucky to find work busting rocks at a local quarry. During the rainy season, standing water is everywhere.

One of the highlights of our trip (in addition to the adorable students!) has been working with the Karibu Centre teachers. Karibu recently launched an initiative to take classmate PCs into nearby public schools to teach basic ICT skills. Our team is helping to develop an ICT training curriculum that maps to the Kenyan learning objectives for early childhood development.

Jane is one of Karibu’s field teachers and is the perfect embodiment of the organization’s mission. Jane comes from the Gachage slum, where she experienced the challenges of growing up on one meal per day and going to public schools.

Now Jane is helping to lead the organization’s expansion into the community. Jane takes classmate PCs to local schools on a rotation, providing computer lessons to students, and in the future teachers so they can improve their own PC skills using the Intel Easy Steps program.

Jane demonstrating lesson plan using classmate PC on a chair instead of monitor due to power cut

I asked Jane if anything like the Karibu Centre existed when she was growing up. “Oh no,” Jane recalled, telling me about her school. “It was made using mud, so sometimes when it rained it would be swept away.”

The solid foundation of the Karibu Centre was evident to our team, as we hunkered down in the school’s covered courtyard while rain pounded for hours on our first day. Personally, I feel that empowering teachers with technology has felt as satisfying as building a school. After training them on how to document a lesson plan using PowerPoint, the teachers told us it was the first time they had ever given a presentation to their colleagues using a computer.

“Working with Intel is something that is so awesome!” Jane told me when I asked her for a message to take back to my colleagues in the US. “I so enjoy every visit.” We feel the same way about working with Orphans Overseas!

At first glance, it sounds a little strange – after all, we’re a tech company, not a transportation or shipping company. But we have cars, and our employees rent cars, and when we identify opportunities where we can reduce our impact, we do.

To achieve this goal, we’re taking a number of steps – from promoting SmartWay here in the U.S., to offering more hybrid rental options, to making hourly electric/hybrid car rentals available at our sites, to setting MPG and carbon emissions targets for our leased vehicles, Intel is “driving” our way to a 100% “green” fleet. Pun intended.

Get the full story in our 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report, and follow us on Twitter.

Teacher learns new PC skills while baby sleeps

IESC is back in Tattaguine, Senegal! Our assignment is to deploy Intel classmate PCs and train teachers at a primary school (Ecole Elémentaire El Hadj Moustapha Sarr) in collaboration with World Vision.

We are building on the foundation of the last IESC team, which deployed classmate PCs at the local high school. Besides the age of the students and working with new teachers, the main difference with this deployment is the weather. At this time of year, Tattaguine (around three hours southeast of Dakar) gets extremely hot, note the “feels-like temperature” of 129 from our iPhone weather app (photo below)!

The community has welcomed us with open arms; teachers, students, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) members, and local leaders were anxious to begin using the classmate PCs. Their goal is to give students early exposure to computers and the Internet, enabling a smooth transition into the high school curriculum.

Note "feels-like temperature" of 129F (or 54C)!

The teachers are enjoying the combination of hands-on classmate PC training and the Intel Teach Getting Started program, which blends 21^stcentury technology with pedagogical training. “I’m excited to learn some new methodologies and incorporate them with technology into my classes,” said Professeur Augustin, one of the teachers participating in our training.

It’s also exciting to see the results of last year’s IESC training six months later. Two teachers from the high school are attending some of our sessions and one of them, Professor Ba, who is also the IT Manager at the high school, volunteered to present the Intel Learning Series classroom management software sessions. It’s great to see “train the trainer” in action.

IESC team with community members, World Vision staff and students after arriving in Tattaguine

Besides the heat, challenges we are working through include power outages, internet connectivity issues, and LOTS of dust! As an experiment we left a classmate PC open all day in the lab to see how much dust accumulated: the results are visible in the photo below… you might see a familiar logo! Luckily the classmate PC is built to withstand tough conditions, and has even been used in the 4 Deserts race across Antarctica and the Sahara, Gobi and Atacama deserts!

Check back soon to read more about how the teachers incorporate their learning and technology into their lesson plans at the Tattaguine Ecole Elémentaire El Hadj Moustapha Sarr, the latest school in Senegal to benefit from the Intel Learning Series.

This week, we’ll kick off the next phase of our report launch – our “bize-sized CSR” series.  We know that most people won’t sit down and read the report start to finish in one sitting, so over the next few weeks, our team will be publishing a series of posts taking a closer look at a number of the highlights and features in this year’s report. Some of these posts will profile our colleagues who are the real people behind many of the results and innovative projects covered in the report. We’ll also be rolling out a tweet series with key report facts through our @intelinvolved twitter handle. And we’ll be reaching out to different stakeholders – both internal and external – for feedback on the report to begin to collect input for next year’s report (although admittedly – hard to think right now about starting the process all over again… (-:)

But first, I wanted to kick off the bite-sized series here with a quick overview of some of the new features in the report this year. I am personally very proud of this year’s report and the changes we’ve made based on reader feedback. We deliberately do not try to reinvent the wheel each year, but we do incorporate stakeholder feedback and take into account recent trends in reporting best practices. A few new elements you’ll notice in this year’s report:

• New “integrated value” section. Over the past few years we have continued to integrate sustainability information into our Annual Report and 10-K and other investor communications. This year, we have also made changes to the Corporate Responsibility Report itself to further address the topic of integrated reporting.  We have taken key elements recommended by the International Integrated Reporting Committee and included them in a new section of this year’s report entitled “Our Business and Integrated Value Approach.” This section includes: information about Intel and our operating context, risks and opportunities, strategic objectives, governance and remuneration systems, performance and goals, and future outlook. This new integrated value approach section can be read as part of our complete Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based report, or it can be downloaded as a separate document from our Report Builder web site. Our hope is that this modular approach could meet both the needs of those readers interested only in an integrated report, as well as those stakeholders who are looking for more detailed sustainability information. We are interested in readers’ feedback on this approach, and hope that it serves as a helpful example for other companies as they move along the path toward integrated reporting.
• Report assurance. Understanding the growing importance of assurance and data verification to report readers, Intel began down the path of report assurance this year and engaged Ernst & Young LLP to conduct an independent review of selected indicators contained in our report in accordance with AT 101, Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements, of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
• New human rights discussion. Based on feedback received through our stakeholder engagement process over the past year (including a stakeholder panel facilitated by BSR in early 2012), we expanded our disclosure on human rights in this year’s report and updated Intel’s Human Rights Principles. The 2011 report includes a new human rights section that unifies information previously covered only in separate sections, and adds additional information on our management systems and processes across our own operations, our supply chain, and product responsibility.
• Expanded supply chain disclosure. We continued to expand our disclosure on our actions to promote accountability in our supply chain, including discussion of the increased supplier audit activity in 2011, our summary findings from these reviews, and our planned course of action going forward to address them.  We also added more information on our work to address the issue of conflict minerals and our plans to request our top 75 suppliers begin producing sustainability reports in 2013.
• Increased interactivity and new web interface. Based on reader input, we continued to produce our full GRI report in an interactive PDF format, with the option of building customized reports through the Report Builder web site. We added some additional interactive features to the report this year, including new highlight boxes throughout for additional stories and information, and new video features. We also launched a new web site interface for the report, to help readers get quickly to key elements of the report, such as the letter from our CEO, summary performance data and goals tables, the GRI Index, the UN Global Compact Communication on Progress.

So stay tuned for more tweets, and bite-sized posts from the report in the coming weeks and please let us know what you think of our new “baby.”

Many of these students have been the smartest kid they know for most of their lives, so this is the first time they have ever been in a room filled with hundreds of kids as smart as or (gasp!) smarter than they are. It is the first time they have been surrounded by other people just as excited about science and engineering as they are. It may be the first time they have felt ‘average’ in their entire lives. And for most of them, that feels kinda good. 

One thing I have learned after years of living and working with scientists is that for them the world is truly flat, as Tom Friedman tells us. There are no country boundaries – science connects the world. A physicist in one country knows a network of physicists all around the world. And for these 1500 students, this week has formed the kernel of that network. From this single hub, they will return to their homes and connect all of the young scientists they already know, as well as those they will meet in coming years, at their universities and in their careers. This is truly a transformative experience. 

And these young scientists are not simply thinking in academic abstracts. More than 25% of these finalists already have patents or patents pending on their work. Monday morning we hosted a panel of experts in entrepreneurship here: a venture capitalist, the head of Intel’s patent law group, the chair of UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurship program, our own Intel Futurist, and Ben Gulak, a former Intel ISEF participant and now young entrepreneur. More than 150 of the Intel ISEF Finalists attended the session and peppered the panelists with so many questions that we shifted to a ‘speed mentoring’ format to give as many of them as possible a chance to interact directly with these experts. The energy in the room was electric.

As I find each year, I am reassured by what I see here: students from around the world, excited and eager to work together, not simply learning about science, but being scientists. It is our task, we adults, to offer this same opportunity to more students, indeed to all students. To have the chance to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty doing research into a subject which they choose themselves, and which has genuine importance – and therefore interest – to them. That is what it takes to engage them as scientists and engineers for the rest of their lives. For those who choose other paths, it will at least give them an understanding of the importance and value of science which will inform their decisions as citizens and consumers, their choices about their health and energy consumption, about the challenges that face the human race all around the world. We need to change the way we teach science to ensure this kind of understanding and engagement for all students. We owe it to them, and we owe it to ourselves.

Now the closing remarks, as powerful as they may be, were not the only time being a responsible corporation was mentioned in the meeting. In fact the meeting started with a video on our efforts to produce conflict free minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Paul mentioned several times the positive impact of our more energy efficient products and he shared our accomplishments in 2011 to help achieve our corporate strategic objective to care for our people, the planet and inspire the next generation.

For the last 11 years we have published our Corporate Responsibility report at the shareholder meeting.  

Some highlights from this year’s report include:

• Intel maintained its position as the largest voluntary purchaser of renewable energy credits in the United States according to the EPA, recycled 87% of the solid waste generated in our operations, and achieved LEED Silver Certification for 18 buildings and fabs across five sites.
• Increased audit activity of our supplier facilities nearly five-fold and expanded our transparency in our reporting on this topic, and continued to take leadership actions to address the issue of conflict minerals in the supply chain.
• Invested over $299 million in employee training and development, recorded improvements in our Organizational Health Survey scores, and again earned a spot on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work list.
• Surpassed the milestone of training over 10 million teachers in more than 70 countries through the Intel® Teach program and expanded our entrepreneurship programs and competitions and programs for girls and women.
• Achieved a worldwide employee volunteerism rate of 50%, up from 48% in 2010, with our employees logging over 1 million volunteer hours in 2011 in 5,100 schools and nonprofit organizations in 45 countries.

As you can imagine there is an immense amount of work that goes into developing our report not just from my team but including people throughout the company that are content owners and experts. But more importantly the report itself is a reflection of the commitment of all of our employees to the highest level of excellence whether developing a new technology that will enrich lives, adhering to the highest level of ethical conduct or applying their skills in their local communities to help solve a community challenge.

I am so pleased to say that at Intel, corporate responsibility is a crucial component to the overall growth of our business. From product to customer to employee to environment, the integration of corporate responsibility allows Intel to have a greater and more influential impact on industries, communities, and the global economy.

I trust that you will find that to be the case as your read our 2011 report and see the changes we have made this year to reflect this ongoing commitment to further integrating corporate responsibility into our business.  Each year, we make improvements to our report based on stakeholder feedback – we welcome your input on this new report – available at www.intel.com/go/responsibility.

This blog was posted on behalf of Greg Fagan, Intel Corporate Affairs. Follow him on Twitter

Intel is sponsoring this year’s Maker Faire Education Day- held two days prior to the weekend event- where students get a tour of the grounds at Maker Faire while exhibitor booths and workshops are being setup. They’ll see the sights and hear the sounds of select “Makers”, while participating in activities and previewing their demonstrations.

Employee volunteers from across Intel will lead approximately 1500 students on their tours as part of the Intel Involved volunteer program. Intel and the Intel Foundation invest more than a $100 million a year in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs because Intel believes that the next generation of innovators needs those skills as the basis for critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving. As leaders in the maker-movement, Intel believes those young innovators are the key to solving global challenges in our future.

What’s exciting is that some of our very own Makers will be manning the booth on Education Day. Many of Intel’s brilliant minds will be sharing projects they’ve made at work and home; including electric vehicles, 3-D printing projects, wearable electronics, and even renewable energy generators. Intel’s history is deeply rooted in “making things” and continues to be the core of our company culture. These internal ambassadors inspire the rest of us to think critically and creatively, and I enjoy working alongside them every day – though, some mornings it is a bit odd pulling in behind an electric tricycle.

Meet some of Intel’s Makers on Thursday, May 17 from 11:00am – 2:00pm. Preview tours are ninety-minutes with staggered start times.

For more information about the event, visit the Maker Faire web site.

“Intel is a company built by people who dreamed big and made the future with their own hands. We believe in a world of innovation and a world of possibilities. Maker Faire shares these values as well as Intel’s commitment to hands-on learning that inspires student interest in design, technology, engineering, and science. We look forward to partnering on Education Day to put the power of innovation in the hands of as many young people as possible.” -Genevieve Bell, Director, Interaction & Experience Research Intel Labs

The Intel Foundation is committed to Intel ISEF because we believe these students represent the most valuable resource we have on the planet and the competition is just one of the ways we are empowering them to create a better future for us all.

This year’s projects offer inspiration for our collective futures with projects ranging from robotic advances in prosthetic limb control, to paint capable of harvesting solar energy, to devices that can predict earthquakes. I’m confident the solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems reside in the minds of these 1500 young people in Pittsburgh this week.

This year, we are making Intel ISEF available to communities around the world through a LiveCast [Monday, May 14th at 7pm EST, and Tuesday, May 15th at 2pm EST]. No matter where you are, you can follow these inspiring stories and projects on this blog and on our Twitter handle @Intelinvolved. We are excited to host the opening keynote presentation by former three-time finalist and now inventor and entrepreneur, Ben Gulak. He is truly a role model for young scientists that want to make a difference in the world.

Winners will be announced this Friday, May 18^th – check back on this blog for updates.

Last week you may recall our focus on getting the school’s systems running smoothly and working closely with Jean-Claude, the computer lab manager. After that, we moved to our next major objective: to provide extensive training to the teachers with the goal of integrating technology more deeply into the classroom.

To start things off, we organized a teacher training party at Mary the principal’s apartment and invited all the teachers for food and games on our first Sunday in Mirebalais.

We used LEGO Education’s WeDo Robotics kits as an icebreaker. The second grade teacher Moise was joined by his 8 and 10 year old sons, who provided much needed expertise in LEGO assembly. After that we used the Intel Learning Series Classroom Management software to deliver a quiz on what we had covered. The teachers appreciated how this software lets you do real time assessments in the classroom.

Programming LEGO robots with the teachers

We were struck by how motivated the teachers are. Many of them traveled a long distance for the party; in Jean Claude’s case, he had a two hour journey home, in the pouring rain, on his motorbike!

The following week, we continued working closely with the teachers, providing follow up training on a variety of software and content. The teachers love BrainPOP, which provides educational videos on a variety of subjects in English and French. We watched first graders learn how caterpillars turn into butterflies, while second graders got lessons in arithmetic. More importantly, the teachers practiced searching for relevant lessons and developed appropriate usage models for Haiti, such as playing a video with a projector, and pausing for Creole translation.

Working with Romain, 1st Grade Teacher

Previously I wrote about the Waterford Early Learning program, which contains thousands of lessons that students take individually with headsets. But Waterford didn’t forget about the teachers. In fact they created a powerful reporting tool that closely tracks the progress of individual students. A teacher can see that Christophe is doing well in letter recognition, or that Francine needs extra instruction in counting.

We also reviewed the science sensors and software donated last year by PASCO. These USB-powered probes can be used to perform science experiments with very simple materials like a cup of water, which is great in an environment like Haiti where not all supplies are readily available.

In addition to training, our team focused our final days on the unglamorous task of documentation. Our tri-lingual team was able to document important processes in English, French and Creole, and we even shot videos showing step by step how to connect, boot and shut down the Critical Links server.

On our last day, we received the best reward for our hard work, as the second graders demonstrated the LEGO robots that they created. The students called each other “Engineer Joseph” or “Engineer Whitney” which was so inspiring. These children are beginning to see a bright future ahead of them!

We also were treated to a message on the blackboards that said “Thank you Intel, please come back.” We would love to! In return, we would like to thank all the teachers and the students at L’Ecole de Choix for this wonderful experience.

Finding a solution is a daunting challenge; yet it is also an opportunity to wholeheartedly embrace. The challenge is complicated. Yet, rather than spinning on the declines, hanging on to notions that STEM graduates will become extinct, Intel has shifted focus to finding bright spots and hoping to get energy around the good stuff that is making an impact.  And in this case, it’s happening right here in our very own back yard.

Bright Spot #1 –Introducing kids to STEM in a fun and non threatening way will hook them! Just last week, we spent time with the Carl Hayden High School (Falcon Robotics) team in Phoenix. They are just one of the many teams that Intel supports via mentors, donations and competitions. Over the years they have repeatedly won the right to attend the US First international championship in St. Louis, and are recognized as one of the top robotics teams in the world. 

Their mentors will tell you that despite so many things that are stacked up against them, such as being from an underserved community or parents who never made it beyond sixth grade, nothing stands in their way. As soon you walk into their robotics cave, it is game on – the place is humming with high energy, passion and commitment. The kids are electing to stay every day from 3-6pm because of the small things. This amounts to over two thousand hours of hands on technical experience over their high school career.

What stands out most aren’t the big things. It is the small things that are going right that matter the most.  Below are just a few of the small things that stand out about these kids:

1.      Kids are working on things that they love and are given the freedom to “play.” 

2.      The afterschool program creates a sense of community.  Immediately you notice you are in a family-like environment. 

3.     A caring teacher that expects all of them to do well; we felt it as soon as he opened his mouth to talk about the kids. He maintains an inventory of kids in that room, what they are doing now, their hopes and aspirations, and for those that had graduated; he could tell you about them too. When somebody cares, lives can be changed.

4.     Trust is very visible and the ability to fail is widely accepted. No fixed answers but a “just try stuff” attitude is the tone of the instructor.

Intel is a proud sponsor of competitions like this because we know these amazing kids will be inspired in unique ways. These kids are more likely to go to college, twice as likely to major in sciences and, for girls, are four times more likely to study math and science – and that’s good for all of us.  This program is a bright spot.

What bright spots you have experienced while working with kids and STEM?

The 1H12 IESC Haiti Team: Yvonne, Anne Mieke, Nancy, Jonathan and John

Upon arrival at the airport in Port-au-Prince, we were greeted by a band playing tropical music. This is an impression of the country that would stay with us throughout our two week IESC assignment: warm, colorful and lively.

Maybe a bit too lively, we realized on our first day at L’Ecole de Choix, when 30 youngsters stormed into the school’s computer lab and started hitting every key on their Intel classmate PCs simultaneously. As computers crashed and the students grew restless, we huddled with the lab manager Jean-Claude and came up with a new process. All the students were told to line up outside the computer lab, and they entered one by one to learn how to sign-in to their computer.

L’Ecole de Choix (The School of Choice, or simply “Choix”) was conceived in 2010 to educate the future leaders of Haiti. Choix opened in 2011 with a beautiful campus, 180 students (pre-K through 4) and a computer lab installed by the Intel Education Service Corps.

Lab Manager Jean-Claude with students

We knew from our communication with the school that the students had been using the classmate PCs – mostly basic apps for typing and drawing. But a problem with the school’s server had developed shortly before our arrival, preventing the use of the Waterford software for learning English, math and science.

Thanks to their thorough preparation, our technical gurus John and Jonathan upgraded the server platform and had the Waterford software up and running quickly.

Jonathan sets up the Critical Links appliance

Soon students were tugging at our sleeves to show us their screens as they advanced through their Waterford lessons. They called us maman (mommy), papa (daddy), mademoiselle, and blan (white person), which they used to address even Yvonne, who is from Ivory Coast!

Most of the students at Choix are from poor rural households and have never been to school before. We were reminded that it takes time to learn how to be a student: to sit quietly, line up, use the toilets, wash your hands, and raise your hand to ask a question.

It’s incredible to see how quickly the children learn and to watch their dedication to the computer lessons: at the end of one session, one of the girls tried to hide under her desk, hoping she could join the next session too!

Smiling students at L'Ecole de Choix

In our next week at Choix we have a great deal of training material to cover with the teachers on educational software and content. Please look forward to my next blog about these hard-working educators – the key to the sustainability of the school’s e-learning efforts.

The 18 finalist schools for 2012 were just announced and they are just as awe-inspiring. The finalists will be honored in September at an awards reception in Washington, D.C., where six of them will be named Intel Schools of Distinction and one a “Star Innovator.”

Check out the 18 finalist schools to see what makes them so distinctive:

Mathematics

Elementary Schools:   Dana Elementary School, Dana, N.C.

                                    Forest Hills School, Florence, Ala.

                                    Legacy Elementary School – Madison, Ala.              

Middle Schools:        Dowell Middle School – McKinney, Texas

                                   St. Therese Chinese Catholic School – Chicago, Ill.

                                   Technology Access Foundation Academy – Kent, Wash.   

High Schools:           Baruch College Campus High School – New York, New York

                                    Peachtree Ridge High School – Suwanee, Ga.

                                    School of Science and Engineering – Dallas, Texas

Science

Elementary Schools:   Gary And Bobbye Jack Minshew Elementary School – McKinney, Texas

                                    Legacy Elementary School – Madison, Ala.

                                    West Melbourne Elementary School for Science – West Melbourne, Fla.

Middle Schools:         Edison Computech Middle School – Fresno, Calif.

                                    Ni River Middle School – Spotsylvania, Va.

                                    Penn Alexander School – Philadelphia, Pa.

High Schools:             Boston Latin School – Boston, Mass.

                                    Gatton Academy – Bowling Green, Ky.

                                    Ossining High School – Ossining, N.Y.

For updates on Intel’s other education programs, follow @Intelinvolved on Twitter.

By now I am sure most Intel employees can recite the corporate vision of creating and extending computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth. It is so cool to have a vision with such a powerful purpose. I am sure most of us are also aware that we have a corporate strategic objective to care for our people, the planet and inspire the next generation. Our vision and our strategic objectives chart a course for Intel to not only achieve tremendous business success, but to also help solve global challenges and impact society in a meaningful and positive way.

It is this commitment that extends from our board and Paul Otellini, to our engineers, to our employee groups, to our Intel Involved volunteers, to all of our employees that brought me to Wall Street today. I had the privilege to represent Intel as the 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2012 were being announced by the Corporate Responsibility Officer Association, CRO Magazine and the NYSE. I am very pleased to announce that Intel ranked 4^th on the list of the top 100 corporate citizens.

I should also note that Intel has made it on the list since its inception and has never been ranked lower than 15^th. As our director of corporate responsibility I had the honor of accepting the award and ringing the bell, but I did so knowing that each and every Intel employee made the recognition possible. I hope each of our employees is as proud as I am to work for a company that is committed to unleashing its full capabilities to create value for our shareholders, as demonstrated by our earnings announcement,  and for society, as demonstrated by this ranking.

An example I wanted to share is our LEED-certified wellness center: a building designed to reduce energy and water consumption, and a space to promote physical wellness and activities to Intel’s employees (such as physical therapy, dancing, games and even massages and nutritionist guidance).

I never had time to exercise before - you know, a full-time job plus two small kids and family activities take up most of your time, and by the time you’re done, what you want to do is… well, nothing else. But it’s not a sustainable life style, so I worked the new wellness center into my schedule: drop my kids off at school, come to Intel, exercise, take a nice shower and then work until is time to go home to do homework and house chores.

What surprised me is that my energy levels have increased – instead of feeling more tired, I could even stay awake after putting my kids to bed to chat a little with my husband. Throughout the day I am more focused on my job, and I’ve even lost some inches from my waist!

Then I realized… it makes sense; investing in “our people, the planet and inspire the next generation” could also mean that I, as a worker, am more energetic, healthy and focused, and the planet is more in balance through the use of less resources (almost half of the energy for the wellness center comes from solar panels, skylights and natural lighting, and the efficient water system saves 44% of the overall water consumption of the building) and I’m inspiring my kids to follow an example of a more balanced and healthy life style. Once again, Intel proves to me that it is a Great Place to Work.

This entry was posted on behalf of Carolyn Duran, “Conflict Free Minerals” program manager at Intel.

Last month Intel announced two key goals around manufacturing a “conflict-free” microprocessor – a stretch goal for us in which all the pieces to achieve this goal have not yet come together.  In pursuit of these goals, we mapped our supply line and identified smelters in our supply chain. We worked with these smelters to encourage them to participate in the EICC-GeSI Conflict Free Smelter (CFS) program so that they can be validated as conflict-free.  Some smelters have started that process, and we are very thankful for their commitment to conflict-free sourcing; others have not.  When we probed these smelters on what was “holding them back”, the financial burden of the audit was often cited as a reason for not participating.   With that in mind, we wanted to see if we could help to reduce that barrier, thus encouraging more smelters to become “early adopters” of the CFS program. 

We decided this was the right thing to do; so we committed funds, we were joined by two other companies (HP and the GE Foundation) to join in funding the effort, and we engaged an independent third-party, RESOLVE, to help us develop the program.  We worked with RESOLVE so that we could a) ensure any program implemented would be objective and independent, and b) facilitate additional companies contributing funds to support the cause.  I am very pleased to share the results of this effort with you.  On Monday, RESOLVE formally announced the CFS Early-Adopters Fund (here), in which smelters who successfully pass their initial CFS audit can receive an incentive to help offset their costs. We hope this incentive program will increase smelters adoption of CFS, and hasten the speed in which the supply chain moves towards “conflict-free.”

Intel employees develop apps on challenges for girls and education

As one of the organizers and being a non-techie myself, I was floored at how Intel’s employee teams came up with functioning solutions and prototypes in 1 day. It was my first exposure to how a hackathon works and its method of problem solving. When we first came up with the idea, my colleague, Josh Bancroft, in the Software Service Group and I talked about what a cool collaboration it would be to tap into the technical skills and brain power of Intel’s employees to solve some of the hardest challenges facing the globe. Given Intel’s focus on supporting the education and economic empowerment of girls and women through technology, we decided to focus Intel’s first Code for Good hackathon on the challenges girls face to get an education in many parts of the world. We worked with incredible nonprofits such as Room to Read, 10×10, World Pulse and Global Campaign for Education, for about 6 weeks to define a set of problem statements that our employees could tackle.

With access to the internet, good food, power - and coffee, teams formed and worked tirelessly with our nonprofit partners all day. The atmosphere was charged with energy given the magnitude of what had to be accomplished in such a short time. One of my favorite moments was hearing one team consisting primarily of men try to get into the heads and understand the constraints of their target end user – girls and women in Africa struggling to get an education – so that they could develop the right technical solution.  Many teams went home that evening and kept working throughout the night to finish. The second day of the hackathon consisted of presentations by each team, a judging process and celebration of what the teams had accomplished.  Amazingly, the impact of the solutions doesn’t necessarily end with the hackathon event itself. Several teams are committed to working with the nonprofits to see that their apps get implemented and deployed. 

Water, entrepreneurship, and more education challenges—all ideas employees are proposing as a must do for a future Code for Good event.  The evidence made a compelling case– give Intel employees 24 hours and we can start making a dent (one app at a time) towards these global challenges.

Follow @intelinvolved and @10x10act for more information about Intel’s work around girls and women.

Working for a company that is committed to corporate responsibility makes it easier – you know that issues such as water conservation and waste reduction are being addressed.  But Intel engineers are taking it one step further.

“There is a lot more we can do”, insists software engineer Bob Steigerwald, who along with the rest of his team, focus their energy (pun intended) on innovative solutions that take advantage of ‘downtime’ periods to impose low power states and reduce energy use. Their energy-saving solutions are chronicled in the book “Energy Aware Computing” – a new release by Bob, Chris Lucero, Chakravarthy Akella, and Abhishek Agrawal.  “The techniques in the book may seem like they make a small difference, but computers are ubiquitous now, so the aggregate effect is big,” says Bob.

If you’re a software engineer, or are lucky enough to have one in your life, we are offering a limited number of copies of “Energy Aware Computing” at no cost. The first 100 people to email us their name and mailing address can score a copy. Intel is committed to protecting your privacy - we will not use your personal information for any other purpose, and once the book has been sent out, we will delete your information. For more information, please see our online privacy notice.

And while you’re waiting for your copy, check out this list of what you can start doing now to reduce your computer’s energy use.

-          Make your computer go to sleep when not in use

-          Use a balanced energy profile instead of “Performance”

-          Buy Energy Star* rated PCs

And, for the engineers:

-          Design with energy-efficiency as a high priority

-          Measure and compare your solutions against others and strive for best in class

-          Market your successes to build awareness

Questions, thoughts? Leave a comment.

This blog was posted on behalf of Jyoti Parikh, Intel’s Global Marketing Manager focused on Intel’s innovative solutions for education and empowerment of communities around the world. Since joining Intel in 1995, Jyoti has held several positions in marketing, finance and operations.  Jyoti has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a BE in Electrical Engineering from Mumbai University, India.

It’s my first trip to Vietnam and I attended Hanoi’s 1^st Science Fair affiliated with Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF).  First off, it was amazing! There were 28 projects, lots of creativity and a room full of bright, excited and totally fun students.  They all were science enthusiasts and had a passion for finding solutions to local challenges. Best of all, it seemed like they could break into song and dance at any time.

The students had gone through three rounds of competition to be invited to this fair and the winner has the opportunity to attend Intel ISEF in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May. I expected committed students, curious thinkers and young adults in tune with their surroundings - and wasn’t disappointed. But I was more surprised by the community engagement that was like a scaffold for these kids.  Parents, science teachers, counselors, younger siblings and even language teachers helping them articulate their projects were there supporting and cheering them on.  

I felt so proud to be representing Intel at this event. Intel had worked with the local government to provide critical logistics on conducting successful science fairs. We also worked with the schools and education ministries to set up the process that gave them the opportunity to truly compete at a global level. That opportunity was key to increasing the aspirations and enthusiasm of all the participants. 

When the winners were announced, the cheering was deafening! There were some very emotional moments when students realized they had moved up to compete at the national level.  My biggest inspiration was a young student who embarked on a mission to figure out how a blind person could sense the difference between real and counterfeit money, because of her own challenges as a blind person. While she didn’t get the final prize, her independence, confidence and ability to overcome her challenges really touched my heart. 

Best of luck to the winning team of three students from Amsterdam High School, Hanoi! Keep a look out for them at Intel ISEF and their project: treatment of hazardous waste with biological process.

Accepting the award with Michael Jacobson, Intel's Director of Corporate Responsibility

But what does it mean to be an “ethical” company?

The methodology for the WME ranking includes reviewing codes of ethics, litigation and regulatory infraction histories; evaluating the investment in innovation and sustainable business practices; looking at activities designed to improve corporate citizenship; and studying nominations from senior executives, industry peers, suppliers and customers. 

So on the most basic level, being included is external confirmation that we’re doing a good job. On another level, the ranking allows us to collaborate with other ethics leaders, sharing best practices and challenges, and helping us to advance our practices and policies.

See the full list of companies included here.

Andrey Sushko of Richland, Washington, took second place with a 7-millimeter motor powered by the surface tension of water. Mimi Yen took third place studying intriguing behavior among male worms. In all, the forty finalists in this competition took home $600,000 in awards (more on the winners here).

Which of them might win a Nobel Prize some day? Hard to say – the seven alumni Nobel Laureates to date have come from many areas of study, and not all have been among the top winners. But we do know that the 40 finalists assembled here this week are well on their way to becoming science game changers. They are talented, brilliant, passionate, and they are able to communicate that passion and the science they care so deeply about to others in terms we can all understand – a necessary talent for an aspiring scientist. (Hard to convince others to support – and fund! – your great ideas if they can’t understand them…)

Andrey recently applied for a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s smallest model sail boat. Nithin started a research club for middle school students. Other finalists are varsity sports team captains, editors of their schools’ literary magazines, and even a Homecoming King. 

We are so proud on behalf of everyone at Intel to have a role in encouraging and celebrating these wonderful students, and we are committed to improving the quality of STEM education in the US and around the world.  We are equally committed to encouraging as many students as possible – especially young women and students from other under-represented groups - to pursue careers in these fields. 

Whether we think selfishly in terms of Intel’s need for talented young engineers and scientists to ensure our own future success, or think more broadly about the critical needs for STEM talent to solve the great challenges that face our world, it is absolutely clear to us that investing in these young students, and highlighting them as an inspiration to others, is one of the best investments that Intel can make. 

So… Who will be the winner of the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search?  You?  One of your children?  Someone you know? Make sure they know about the opportunity to apply, and encourage them to roll up their sleeves and do some real science starting today. 

Even better - find a student who could use the support of a mentor as they launch their science career, and offer them your advice and support. Either way, you can make a real difference for all of us – just as someone else made a difference for Nithin, Andrey and Mimi.

For more information about Intel’s education initiatives, follow @Intelinvolved on Twitter.

A student in the Republic of Malawi shows off his Intel powered classmate pc as part of the Textbooks and Learning Materials USAID project

I coordinate Intel’s overall relationship with USAID. This entails working with USAID to define a strategy, vision, and plan of implementation for our partnership. Two new areas of collaboration are particularly exciting.

First, I am particularly excited about a new way of partnering with USAID– a strategy we’re calling “go deep.” In the past, we’ve had partnerships with USAID country offices (Missions) without necessarily looking at synergies with other USAID activities within the same country. 

To have a deeper impact across multiple sectors, we want to think strategically with USAID Missions about how technologies intersect with their overall strategies and development domains. We believe there are many synergies to be had by looking across a Mission’s portfolio and we want to build on our existing relationships and initiatives we have.

Second, USAID also shares our enthusiasm for activities that provide education and economic empowerment for girls and women.  Together, we’re exploring how to support women entrepreneurs in a variety of ways by building on Intel’s programs focused on entrepreneurship and education.  We’d love to hear your ideas on potential joint initiatives, how our partnership should continue to evolve, and where we should collaborate.

For more information, see the USAID Press Release, and the USAID/Intel partnership fact sheet.

This blog was posted on behalf of Rachael Herold, a Process Engineer with Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group, and former Intel Science Talent Search (and Intel ISEF) finalist. Rachael received her Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Chemical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2008, and is currently working on her Master’s degree in Enterprise Systems Innovation and Management at Arizona State University.

It is a surreal experience to return to the Intel Science Talent Search eight years later as an alumnus. I had the opportunity to meet this year’s finalists today at the public exhibition at the National Geographic Society. A few things about the STS have changed since I attended in 2004: different hotel, public exhibition is at a different location, and the students have “abstract business cards.” Despite these small changes, the emotions of nervousness, passion, and overwhelming excitement afflicting the finalists remains the same. Each finalist described their project with pride and enthusiasm before we swapped “war” stories from the interviewing process. Like the finalists from 2004, many feel overwhelmed that they did not know the answer for every question asked during their interviews. I remember these same emotions and encourage the finalists to understand that knowing how to find the answer is as important, if not more, as knowing the answer.

This visit has given me the chance to look back at the role that the Intel STS and Intel ISEF have played in my development over the last eight years. The STS is an opportunity to strengthen communication skills, challenge your mind, and network with students, world renowned scientists, and professionals that share an enthusiasm for scientific endeavors. This networking opportunity had a profound impact my life, unbeknownst to me at the time, when I met Lewis Scarpace, then Intel Director of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). As a freshman at the University of Iowa in Chemical Engineering, I contacted Lewis Scarpace about career opportunities at Intel and found myself moving to Santa Clara, California in the summer of 2005 for an internship at Intel in EHS. This internship would not have been possible without the networking opportunities at Intel STS. After this amazing experience, it came as no surprise that I returned to Intel in 2008 as a full time Process Engineer at the manufacturing facilities in Phoenix, Arizona.

Rachael at Intel STS 2004

As an employee at Intel, I have only begun to learn how much Intel is dedicated to supporting math and science education at all ages. Intel offers endless volunteer opportunities to employees to mentor K-12 students in the scientific methodology, as well as sponsorship of events such as Intel STS and Intel ISEF. Today, the impact that these competitions have had on me is even more apparent: increased confidence, problem solving skills to be applied in research and industry, strong communication skills, and an appreciation for the necessity in offering students these opportunities. No matter what the outcome of Intel STS 2012, each of these students is a winner – they will walk away with new lifelong friends, strengthened interview and presentation skills, a larger scholastic network, and, hopefully, the desire to help younger students have these same opportunities.

We define a “conflict-free” microprocessor as a microprocessor that is made with metals (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) only from smelters that are validated to be conflict-free.  In reality, our products may already be free of conflict minerals,  but that’s the issue – you don’t really know unless you have a system to validate – which is what Intel and other industry members have been working towards.  This is still very much a stretch goal for us, as all of the pieces to achieve this goal have not yet come together.  We have mapped out most of the supply chain (over 90%) and have identified most of the smelters, but there are still some roadblocks and obstacles we need to overcome to achieve this very challenging goal.

In support of transparency, we decided to share the video externally and publish the goal in our latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission annual 10-K report. Intel has disclosed and integrated corporate responsibility information into our 10-K for a number of years, so it made sense to disclose the goal there.  I hope our goal will inspire other companies to set their own goals (either internal or external) around conflict minerals, and that collectively our efforts in the long-term will improve the situation in the DRC and surrounding region.

Read the new conflict-free microprocessor goal in our latest 10-K report.

I am thrilled to announce that on February 29, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented Intel with a Climate Leadership Award for excellence in greenhouse gas management. I had the honor of accepting this award on behalf of Intel, which recognizes the company as an industry leader in driving innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Leadership Awards are being given for the first time this year, through a partnership between the EPA and three non-profit organizations that are widely recognized for their leadership on this issue.  We are very pleased to have our actions recognized by this diverse group and are proud to be one of the inaugural winners.

So what actions have we taken to reduce greenhouse gases and why exactly did we win this prestigious award?

Intel has long taken environmental responsibility seriously and as far back as the 1990s was instrumental in driving the semiconductor industry to the world’s first voluntary agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. Under that agreement, semiconductor companies pledged to reduce their emissions of certain fluorinated gases below their 1995 levels by 2010, despite the fact that the industry grew several fold over that time. These fluorinated gases, which are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing, have been demonstrated to effectively trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere, therefore contributing to global warming. This early leadership is a prime example of the proactive approach Intel takes to environmental issues, and a significant reason that we are routinely recognized as leaders by the EPA and other prominent government and non-government environmental organizations. 

After helping lead the industry to this groundbreaking agreement, Intel and the other participating organizations put considerable effort into developing new manufacturing processes that dramatically reduced emissions of the aforementioned fluorinated gases. Process steps were redesigned to reduce chemical use, new chemistries were introduced, and new tools were developed for destroying pollutants exiting the process. As a result, Intel significantly exceeded the industry goal by reducing its emissions by more than 40% from 1995 – 2010, a time when the company’s manufacturing grew by roughly 4X.

Energy conservation is another action that has enabled Intel to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas impact.  Most energy, of course, comes from the burning of fossil fuels which generates carbon dioxide (CO2), a known greenhouse gas. Since 2001, we have spent several million dollars per year implementing energy conservation projects across the company, which we estimate have saved 790 million kwhrs of energy over that time.

More recently, we have been very active in helping to spur the adoption of renewable energy sources.  Since 2008, Intel has been the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the U.S. Through these renewable energy purchases, Intel is helping to create demand for wind, solar and other renewable technologies that can help make the overall U.S. electricity supply cleaner. In addition, over the last few years, we’ve installed solar panels at many Intel facilities, which are now generating approximately 4 million kwhrs/yr of clean, renewable energy. 

While this award is recognizing our significant accomplishments to date, we realize that ongoing efforts will still be needed. As our operations continue to grow, we remain committed to reducing our overall environmental impact. And as new manufacturing processes are introduced, we will continue to implement our principle of designing with the environment in mind to help reduce the impact of those processes.

What my brother shared provided me with a deeper understanding of signs and adhesives. It opened up a room in my mind that would have been otherwise untapped.  This is the essence of how diversity thrives inside of Intel. The diverse individual experiences enrich what we see, innovate what we design, and challenge us to look at things from unique perspectives. We walk away collectively having learned more and with stronger outcomes than we each individually bring to the discussion.  Diversity is the one thing we all have in common and at Intel, it is much of the magic behind our successes. 

Annually,  the Arizona site formally celebrates our diversity efforts with an award event.  This month, we honored 16 leaders, 13 employee groups and Veena Mahesh was the recipient of our prized AZ Lifetime Achievement Award.   Congratulations to all of the diversity leaders.  Malcolm Forbes once said, “diversity is the art of thinking independently together.”  It is indeed and is also the glue that weaves innovation together at Intel.

So, when a last minute opportunity to visit an ATC21S pilot session in Arizona arose, I jumped at the chance. It was great – and fortunately, you don’t have to read about my experience – because ATC21S recently put out a video explaining what the program does. Enjoy!

As I supported the core planning team for the President’s visit, I have first-hand knowledge of all the early mornings and late evenings that this event required. If you’re wondering how we were able to pull this together in such a short time, look no further than our very own employees.  Intel volunteers stepped up to make this event happen, pitching in just as they do with their service in our communities and schools. Last year, Intel employees logged more than 1 million hours of volunteer service in their schools and communities through our Intel Involved volunteer program – more information is available in our 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report.

Renee Levin, our local Community Engagement Manager, writes:

“We had over 240 volunteers that supported President Obama’s visit. They were enthusiastic, resourceful, and organized and did it all with a smile on their face. It took all of them to pull off this amazing event in just three days!  Teams supported getting people to/from the parking lots, getting through security, making sure people had water, helping the visitors get back to their cars via a bus or a scenic walk next to the big crane.  As always, Intel volunteers came through! Intel volunteers ROCK!”

A group of Intel employee volunteers in their blue “Intel Involved” shirts. Over 240 employees volunteered their time to help make this event successful

Some of the volunteers who donated their time yesterday shared their opinions as well.

Deron Simmons noted, “It was an honor to volunteer for such a legendary invite here at Intel and it was amazing to see the President grace our stage.”

Kat Djordjevic added, “When Obama came on stage, it was nice to see that he really does exist! Sometimes you feel so disconnected from what is shown on TV but it was unreal to me that he came to Intel to let us know that the speech he gave the night before was a call to Intel.”

As a recent college graduate, and a relative newbie here at Intel (8.5 months), it was awesome to see so many of my colleagues step up and contribute their time to this amazing event. Intel employee and volunteer Jason Solomon and his son were both able to shake the President’s hand. Jason rightly exclaimed, “What an experience!”

Intel employees gave more than 1 million volunteer hours last year to over 4900 schools and nonprofit organizations in 38 countries

Check out the @Intelinvolved Twitter handle to see live tweets from the event, and visit the Intel Google+ picture album for some great event shots.

But when I started my first “real” job, I quickly realized that the learning was hardly over; in fact, it was really just beginning: homework was also replaced with plain old work. It seemed like somewhere in between calculating the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and writing reports on deforestation in Southeast Asia, my professors had conveniently neglected to school me on the skills I use every day, on the job. The more I look into it though, the more I realize that this is a widespread phenomenon (check out this fifty-something page report from the Harvard School of Education on the “skills gap”).

This is one of the reasons why organizations send their employees to be trained, or establish their own internal training programs. With close to 100,000 employees worldwide, it’s no surprise that Intel has its own internal employee development organization, dubbed “Intel University” (duh). In 2010, we invested about $250 million into the program, with employees logging over 2.6 million learning hours – an average of almost 35 hours per employee. Additional information about the program is available in our 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report.

In addition to technical and subject matter courses (software programming, anyone?), the online and classroom-based university offers behavioral courses, some of which I’ve had the pleasure of attending – like “Out of the Box Thinking”, “Influencing through Business Partnerships” and “Microinequities”, which draws on the writings and teachings of Stephen Young.

This last example class, “Microinequities”, illustrates how non-verbal cues can subconsciously impact performance, both negatively and positively. It also provides tips and tools on identifying microinequities, and for modifying your own behavior – more information on the course is available on Stephen’s website.

Personally, this class and others mentioned have been instrumental in bridging the gap between the skills I learned in school and the skills I need here in the real world. At least there’s no homework…

Share your first job experiences and favorite courses or trainings in the comments!

Recently, we changed the name of our @Intel_Education handle to @Intelinvolved to better reflect our passion and active involvement towards creating a better future. The increased scope of topics we’ll be tweeting on – topics like corporate social responsibility, environment, community engagement, social innovation, and of course, education. Intel does a lot in these spaces, and we want to share these stories with you more frequently.

Eventually, our plan is to merge the @Intel_CSR handle and tweet exclusively from @Intelinvolved (less work for me!). In the meantime, please continue to follow us for the latest news.

If you haven’t already, please take a second and follow @Intelinvolved.

As always, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions, leave a comment below – or send me a tweet!