Help IISME Develop a New Marketing Strategy
Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) is an industry-education partnership whose mission is to empower and equip California science, math and technology teachers with unique professional development so that they can inspire their students to stay in school and prepare for successful science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-based careers in the global economy
IISME was founded in 1985 by a consortium of San Francisco Bay Area companies in partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University at Berkeley. IISME seeks to transform teaching and learning through industry-education partnerships. We provide teachers with experiences and tools they need to adapt their practices and change their schools so that all students are prepared to be lifelong learners, responsible citizens, and productive employees.
IISME's founders chose to focus on teachers as the primary agents for, and most important resource in, effecting meaningful change in science and math education. IISME offers programs that leverage the vast resources of local corporations and university labs and galvanize their support to help teachers improve their teaching and motivate students to pursue STEM-based careers.
IISME's flagship program, the IISME Summer Fellowship Program, provides paid summer internships for teachers in high technology companies, and university and research laboratories. Teachers are paired with scientists, technologists, and engineers, are engaged in stimulating hands-on projects for eight weeks, and earn $8,200 for the summer. During the summer IISME’s education staff and Peer Coaches guide the teachers as they develop an Education Transfer Plan (ETP) that transfers their summer experiences into updated and enriched classroom instruction. These lessons are linked to the national science, technology and math teaching standards and are disseminated widely via IISME’s Community Website (http://community.iisme.org).
IISME has been partnering with the business and research communities to provide unique, high quality teacher professional development in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly three decades. In the first 28 years of the program:
• Over 370 companies, foundations, universities and nonprofit research laboratories have provided critical support to the IISME Summer Fellowship Program.
• IISME has provided 3,135 Summer Fellowships for California teachers from 672 schools and 123 districts.
• IISME Teacher Fellows have reached over 2 million students; approximately 35% of whom are educationally disadvantaged and traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering fields.
IISME exists to address the critical need for a strong, highly-skilled workforce in mathematics, science and technological fields. This industry-education partnership focuses on teachers as the primary agents for effecting meaningful change in education.
The IISME board and staff have asked a Community Partners team to assist with their marketing strategy and specifically to (1) look at the marketing strategies we currently use to recruit new sponsor companies, (2) interview current and past sponsor companies to ascertain what aspects of IISME’s mission and programs resonated with them, what didn't, etc., (3) reach out to some of the companies that have evaluated the opportunity but have not yet elected to participate, (4) help us to develop a new marketing plan that includes differentiated strategies and messaging for different target markets, and (5) help us better understand what we need to know and do to help us expand our program to have an even greater impact in our community.
