This Holiday Season, Inspur Gives Back for STEM
As another year in the pandemic comes to an end, Inspur recognizes that much of the company’s recent growth is thanks to the world’s increasing reliance on technology to stay connected. As a leader in server manufacturing, Inspur takes its responsibility as a global corporate citizen seriously and strives to be a positive point of influence for its customers, employees, and communities.
Not only does Inspur’s operations heavily rely on technology and technological advancement, but the Inspur family also consists of many individuals who received advanced education and experience in the technical field. That’s why Inspur strongly believes in the promotion of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, especially empowering those who are part of under-resourced populations.
This holiday season, Inspur chose to partner with Together We Rise, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of children in foster care, to assemble and distribute STEM boxes to local foster children in the Bay Area. Children in foster care often have to move from home to home, which can affect their academic readiness and success. It’s a heartbreaking statistic that less than 50% of youth who’ve experienced foster care graduate from high school, and only 3% of those will graduate from college.
Research shows that when children engage with STEM concepts, it increases science literacy while promoting critical thinking. Designed for the youngest contingent of foster kids, these STEM Boxes are filled with STEM-related paraphernalia and fun projects based around simple scientific principles. Through this initiative, Inspur hopes to introduce the wonders of STEM to young learners and encourage their interests in this broad and exciting field.
Change Starts from Within
The Inspur team responded to the volunteer event with great enthusiasm and turned out in strength to assemble these gift kits in time for the holidays. In addition to promoting STEM education in the surrounding communities, this was a great way to bring the organization together to advocate for and stay connected with local social issues. This STEM Box volunteer activity is just one of many employee-driven social responsibility projects in Inspur’s plan of diverse initiatives to affect positive change, addressing areas including environment, hunger, and homelessness.
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Other Ways Tech Can Help
In an industry where new technology innovations are emerging constantly to solve all kinds of problems, Big Tech is in a position to lead the charge in addressing major social issues, such as equitable access to education. Many tech leaders are creating pathways to a future in STEM by sponsoring educational programs, technical training and learning resources in various communities. Intel for instance is trying to close the gender gap in STEM through mentorships and afterschool programs for girls. Microsoft is making computer science more accessible to underserved students by providing CS programs in high schools. When it comes to helping foster youth, AI is being used to optimize matching algorithms to better connect families with foster children and improve adoption outcomes. And in the recent year, online learning with technology tools and platforms has enabled students to continue their education remotely during the pandemic. There are also many reputable NGOs that support STEM education and hands-on experiences for children, including:
While of course there are limitations to how deeply the issues can really be resolved and the solutions are often imperfect, technology is a powerful tool that, when applied well and driven by the right values, can do a tremendous amount of social good.