The Boy Scouts of America Brings Hands-On Learning to New Audiences through Innovative Collaboration Pilot
Irving, Texas (Oct. 7, 2016) — The Boy Scouts of America’s Exploring program is teaming up with Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) and Maker Ed to bring the popular maker movement to more youth across the country by introducing Maker Exploring posts. The posts will be “maker hubs,” featuring hands-on, STEM-focused activities designed to foster creativity and problem-solving skills among youth. Initial launches in four pilot markets – Austin, Detroit, Chicago and San Diego – are planned for 2017.
Exploring is a career education program for young men and women that aims to shape the workforce of tomorrow by engaging and mentoring today’s youth in career and life-enhancing opportunities. The program comes to life through Exploring posts that businesses and community organizations initiate by matching their people and program resources to the interests of young people in the community. The result is a program of activities that helps youth pursue, grow and develop career opportunities, life skills, citizenship, character education, and leadership experience.
“Whether through real-life career experiences in Exploring, in the lab setting for STEM Scouts or in the great outdoors through traditional Scouting, we believe in the power of hands-on learning experiences,” said Michael Surbaugh, Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America. “Partnering with Cognizant and Maker Ed to encourage more youth participation in the maker movement is a natural fit for our organizations to inspire ingenuity in tomorrow’s leaders.”
The Maker Exploring posts will leverage the format and structure of Maker Ed’s Young Makers program. Cognizant, a leading global technology company will sponsor each of the posts and engage employee volunteers to act as youth mentors to provide real-world perspectives into technology careers. Youth who develop projects at Maker Exploring posts will have opportunities to showcase their work at Maker Faires throughout the United States.
“As a leader in global business and technology services, we are committed to fostering STEM skills among our nation’s youth, and supporting development of the talent base that will drive innovation in the new digital era,” said James Lennox, Chief People Officer of Cognizant. “We are proud to partner with Boy Scouts of America and Maker Ed to introduce making into Exploring posts. Making is a catalyst to drive interest and enthusiasm in STEM-oriented activities that encourage creativity, experimentation and collaboration. We believe stimulating intellectual curiosity in this way can be a lifelong motivator for continued learning, and a great way to prepare our youth for the future of work.”
“We’re thrilled to be working with the Boy Scouts’ Exploring program and Cognizant to bring hands-on making to youth across the nation,” said Trey Lathe, Executive Director of Maker Ed. “We’ve seen time and again the excitement and passion for learning that arises from youth’s involvement in making and we believe the Exploring program is an amazing partner for this work. We can’t wait to get started!”
About the Exploring Program
The Exploring program is available to youth through Learning for Life, an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that provides character and career education programs through sponsoring agencies or groups. The Exploring Program is currently offered in nearly 5,000 units nationwide, serving over 110,000 young men and women. To learn more about Exploring and experience all that this program has to offer youth, business leaders and the community, visit www.exploring.org.
About the Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®” The Scouting organization is composed of nearly 2.4 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 21 and approximately 960,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.scouting.org.
About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 100 development and delivery centers worldwide and approximately 244,300 employees as of June 30, 2016, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.
About Maker Ed
Maker Ed is a nonprofit organization that provides educators with the training, resources, and community of support they need to facilitate engaging learning experiences with youth through maker education — a hands-on, youth-driven, and open-ended learning approach. Through this work, Maker Ed plays a national leadership role in both broadening access to and deepening the impact of maker education for youth. Maker Education Initiative is a project of the Tides Center (Maker Ed), a registered 501(c)3 non-profit public charity. For more information, visit MakerEd.org and follow @MakerEdOrg for updates.
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