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.

Six winners will be selected – two from each grade range (K-5, 6-8, and 9-12) – in each of the two categories of math and science. Don’t miss this opportunity to have them apply – the application deadline is Feb. 23, 2012.

The Intel Foundation and sponsoring companies distribute a total of $1million in cash and awards to the winning schools. Last year’s winners each received an estimated $100,000 in a combination of cash grants from the Intel Foundation and an award package that includes curriculum materials, professional development resources, hardware and software from sponsors including BrainHoney, Brainware Safari, Dell, I-CAN, KDS, LanSchool, SAS, SMART and Pearson.

Valley Christian Junior High took home the Star Innovator Award, which brought an additional $15,000 from the Intel Foundation and other prizes for a total of $125,000 in cash and prizes.

According to Amanda Alonza, a Science Teacher from Lynbrook High School – winner of the High School Science category, “going through the application process allowed us to reflect on our best practices and see areas we want to improve.” And her thoughts on attending the festivities in Washington D.C., “There are so many creative and innovative approaches to teaching and learning that I have learned, which I will definitely bring back to implement in our schools.”

Mike Duffy, Principal of Byron High School – winner of the High School Math category expressed his thoughts, stating that “Intel’s commitment to highlight the best of education and bring together teacher-leaders from around the country validates the work we all do for our students. To be in the company of so many amazing, innovative educators focused on student learning and achievement speaks volumes to the strength and potential of our entire educational system.”

Get deserving recognition for your favorite School of Distinction. Have them apply by Feb. 23, 2012.  www.schoolsofdistinction.com

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!

This blog was posted on behalf of Laurie Buczek, Enterprise Marketing Manager in Intel’s Storage Division. Laurie’s social media journey began in 2007, while helping to launch and manage Intel’s first external social media community. Follow Laurie on Twitter @LauriegBuczek

The Arab Spring has set into motion an awakening….an opportunity that hasn’t been seen historically by women in North Africa and the Middle East. Women feel more empowered than ever to change their circumstances, change their status and change their communities. I personally witnessed the “stirrings” during a recent opportunity in Morocco to represent Intel as a Corporate Ambassador and speak to a conference of numerous business women about leveraging social media to grow their businesses.

Intel is actively involved in programs to empower girls and women. For over 40 years, Intel has been creating technologies that advance the way people live, work and learn. Intel believes that to foster innovation and drive economic growth, everyone, especially girls and women, need to be enabled with education, employment and entrepreneurial skills. It is evidence based that improving women’s economic status produces positive outcomes for society. Unfortunately, technology has been underused in unlocking women’s economic opportunities. My recent trip to Morocco was a chance to shrink that digital divide.

Morocco is an interesting blend of old and new. On the Atlantic Ocean, a brand new modern mall (The Moroccan Mall) recently opened with Jennifer Lopez headlining, while a short distance away shop keepers are selling clothing and produce at the local Souk. Over half of the population of 30 million people (the size of California or Canada), are Internet users, with women rising to 33.5% of all users. However, there are existing barriers with 61.7% women being illiterate and 15% of the population living below the poverty line. In recent years significant measures have been taken to improve the status of women in Morocco. Efforts to reduce gender inequality within the legal system and laws to improve a women’s personal status have provided new equality opportunities. In 1995 revisions to Morocco’s commercial code provided women with the right to start a business and enter into a contract of employment without a husband’s authorization. On top of the commercial code, recent legislation now allows for women to have control over their property and money, plus eliminated a wife’s obligation to obey her husband. Despite the legislation, women owned business represent only 0.8% of the total female workforce.

The seeds of change that the Arab Spring planted have ignited a renewed sense of “cautious” empowerment amongst women. They witnessed the power of the internet and social media in driving change within the region – which continues. They are now turning to those same powerful technologies to grow their businesses. Vital Voices, a non-governmental organization (NGO) working on women’s issues in the region, runs a Corporate Ambassador program that provides the unique opportunity to bring expertise from businesswomen in the U.S. and Europe to the businesswomen in North Africa and the Middle East. I had the pleasure of speaking as Intel’s Corporate Ambassador at the International Conference “Business Women & Social Media” and train women at a hands-on workshop. I shared Intel’s social media journey and offered tangible advice on how to leverage social communities like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs for their business.

I must make an important note based upon the misperception that the women’s businesses are along the genre of hand-made crafts – quite the contrary. The businesses included a bottled water company, a coffee shop, an advertising agency, and a coffee pod distributor. We even had a young woman entrepreneur, Karima El Aji, speak about her start-up Internet business – Cadolik. Most of the businesses have had success within Morocco and they now want to leverage social media to utilize e-commerce and expand their reach to an international audience. I realized that Morocco is at the beginning stages of not only social media, but the internet too, meaning that they have the challenge and benefit of starting a total digital experience all at once. It is an opportunity for them to create a truly integrated experience along with a strong device agnostic approach (mobile is BIG in the region). Unlike the U.S., much of the online presence will be promotional & informational vs. transactional. They need to devise plans to drive online traffic to brick & mortar locations – a vastly different model from what we have here in the U.S.

After 3 days, the women walked away excited to put their new knowledge to work and hungry to learn more. I realized there is a huge opportunity to help women in this region leverage online technologies effectively. While the opportunity is significant, I was reminded by the women that challenges still remain. Morocco is not a democracy, so freedom of speech is limited; social media dangles some potentially dangerous territory in front of them. In addition, women are concerned that more extreme Islamic rule across the region will increase its influence in Morocco and force women’s rights to regress. Time will tell. But the seeds of changes have been planted. My hope is that these seeds can be sown by the continued efforts of companies like Intel, NGOs such as Vital Voices, and initiatives of the U.S. State department. Thanks to social media, I plan to remain in contact with my new Morocco businesswomen colleagues and help them along the journey.

Systemic Education Transformation is not possible without innovative ways of assessing and teaching 21^st century skills in the classroom – perhaps one of the most challenging parts of the current reform on-going in Education.  The project Assessment and Teaching of 21st-Century Skills (ATC21S) [http://atc21s.org/] is exactly addressing this challenge. It is spearheading research, development and implementation of pilots and trials on 21^st Century skills assessment and teaching in primary and secondary school classrooms. A global partnership founded and funded by Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, headquartered at the University of Melbourne, with pilots and trials currently implemented by 6 governments, endorsed by OECD PISA and IEA. And ready for scale mid of this year.

Formed in 2008, the consortium aims to build in-class and system-wide teaching tools and assessment frameworks that will enable school systems to teach 21^st century skills, assess students’ developmental progress towards proficiency, track and report performance for every student, and provide guidance on teaching and policy regulations. The evolution of education to meet these new requirements is more critical now than at any other time in the last century. Our children’s futures depend on it. To this end, the ATC21S team is pledged to investigating and developing new approaches, methods and technologies to support the teaching and measuring of 21^st century learning in classrooms around the world. In doing this, we will help prepare our students for success in their future workplaces and in their lives.

This week the ATC21S consortium finds itself in London, where we are excited to show and share the results of the project at the 2012 Educational World Forum (EWF). [http://www.ewf2011.org/]  The EWF is a prestigious global summit for education ministers from around the globe.  It brings government representatives, industry leaders, and major organizations from more than 60 countries around the world together and provides a forum for rich discussion on current issues, cutting-edge advancements, and the most important needs in education at the local, national, international, and global scale.

The ATC21S consortium will host a Ministerial Break Out session on the project hosted by the Chair, Shelley Esque, Vice President of Corporate Affairs Intel and led by Patrick Griffin, the ATC21S Executive Director from the University of Melbourne. Beyond reflecting on the current status of the project pilots and trials, new assessment tools will be demoed, and videos of students and teachers during the assessment process will be shown. The major focus of the discussion with ministers will be the interdependency between assessment and teaching and learning, giving guidance, and sharing experiences. Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, will facilitate the discussion on policy frameworks and implications on systemic change. It’s going to be an interesting session.

2011 showed the world that social media sites no longer solely signify just sharing favorite YouTube videos or photos with your friends. As social media becomes more integral to the way we live, protest, gather, support, and view politics– it is actually changing relationships between citizens and governments. This has been most clear in the collection of uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring. Social media, websites and wikis, and interactive geo-mapping are playing a key role in increasing accountability, participation and transparency in public administration.

The World Bank approached Intel to collaborate in investigating this topic given our expertise in the technology field, e-governance, and digital inclusion. Together, we wrote a report examining how Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used to improve the accountability and transparency of governments in delivering services to the poor, women, and citizens more broadly.

If you want to better understand how social media and other ICT tools are truly going to revolutionize the relationship between citizens and governments and create new standards for transparency and accountability–this report attempts to start answering some of those difficult questions.

Download the report here.

The Intel Education Service Corps (IESC) is a short-term service and career development opportunity for a select group of Intel employees to support the deployment of Intel-powered classmate PCs in developing countries. In this blog, Heather Levin, an applications engineer at Intel, recaps her team’s second week of experiences in India working with CARE in Kushalda.

The last afternoon in Hardoi was full of tears as the teachers wrote long letters thanking us and the girls made us a card with a flame and told us that we were a light in darkness. We felt like movie stars as we said our goodbyes to little girls as they waved, and asked us to return soon.

Today we were introduced to the Udaan school in Kushalda (Orissa province). There were some noticeable differences with the Kushalda School. First, it was warmer in Orissa, and for the first time since arriving in India, the sky was blue, instead of the usual white. Unlike Hardoi, the girls appeared more shy, and they wore uniforms of pink, blue, and green dresses. The computer room was bare; the only objects within the confines of the cement walls were pigeons, tatami mats, and the classmate PCs. Where in Hardoi we relied heavily on Deepak’s Hindi, here we were relying on Deepak’s translation of our lesson plans into Hindi and the teachers’ translation of his Hindi into Oriya.

Though different, it did not take us long to warm up to Kushalda. Where in Hardoi we were regularly served warm chai, here we get fresh coconut water. Within an hour we were served tea in tiny little cups, biscuits, sev puri and a mixture of salty snacks. Spoiled and well fed, we got to work creating a single “golden image” of the classmate PC to clone the others, and then we connected them to a wireless network so that we could use Intel’s Classroom Management software to remotely control the student computers. We ended the evening with a meeting with the teachers and introduced ourselves to the entire school of wide eyed little girls.

We were greeted this morning with a class assembly of a 100 girls, singing and dancing in a circle around us. It is not clear to me whether it is a difference in local customs or whether these girls have seen more suffering but they do not smile as easily as the girls from Hardoi.

However, as we started our lessons the girls began to come out of their shells. They were surprisingly fast and maneuvered themselves around the computer and games with nimble skill. There is something very rewarding and comforting in the low hum of little voices, practicing their addition, subtraction, and multiplication in a way that had been foreign the day before. In the evening we listened to a few of the girls sing heart-wrenching melodies in their local tongue. Later we exchanged dance lessons as we taught them the Hokey Pokey and the girls taught us a local dance.

As we drove the one hour trip to and from the school each day, we observed children farming, fishing, working in construction, and walking through the streets. We realized that the girls in the Udaan school are here because of the hard work and vision of many people. It is hard to know where these girls will be in 10 years but it is clear that they at least have a chance, and their communities will prosper because of it.