2021 GlobalMindED
The Future of Work is Diverse, Inclusive, Just and Equitable
GlobalMindED closes the equity gap by creating a capable, diverse talent pipeline through connections to role models, mentors, internships for low-income students, returning adults, First Gen to college and inclusive leaders who teach them, work with them and hire them.
|
|
As we celebrate International Women this month, we feature outstanding women every day. Today, we introduce Shy Averett, Community Program and Events Manager at Microsoft. Shy is passionate about breaking down barriers for students and creating more opportunities that will lead to success. As her mother told her, "It’s all about how you treat people." Start your day with her story and prepare to be inspired!
|
|
Upcoming March Equity Events Celebrating Inclusive Women- 2:00 MST/4:00 EST click link to register, details below:
|
|
Shy, you are a global technology leader who has worked in the UK, Canada and Australia as well as major divisions in the United States for Microsoft. What is your personal story and what has led you to this success?
My success has always been centered around one thing.......It’s always been about truly helping people.
When I was a child growing up in Detroit with my mother, Jackie (the real MVP), she would always tell me ‘It’s not about money. It’s not about fame. It’s not about recognition. It’s all about how you treat people.’ So I always had my eye out for what people in my community needed. And I discovered early-on that there were a lot of needs that weren’t being filled.
I remember one Thanksgiving my mom drove me through Cass Corridor in Midtown Detroit, and I couldn’t stop looking at all the people living outside in tents in the cold. I told my mom that I wanted to cook for them, and she supported me – my friends and I ended up cooking hundreds of meals and driving back out to hand-deliver them to the people who needed them. And we’ve kept that tradition up through the years.
My career with Microsoft has gone about the same way. I see what needs to be done and I do it, whether it’s in my job description or not. Because I was unwavering in my pursuit to help people, everything that I did was always an answer to a greater need. I started out over Community and Educational Program for Detroit and Over time people noticed the genuine effort and impact and I was able to transition to doing educational and outreach for not just Detroit by the entire US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
|
|
Tell us about your mission at Microsoft, serving some 500,000 students. What is your highest hope for the work that you do and how can partners like GlobalMindED help you to achieve your goals?
Right now, I work with a small team at Microsoft producing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Educational events, everything from translating workshops into Spanish for Hispanic Heritage Month to creating MANCODE, a program that teaches young black and brown boys how to code and build their technology skills so they can seek careers in STEM.
The most important thing we do is listen to the community and meet their needs where they’re at, instead of offering programming and events they may not have a use for. As you can imagine, this means our work has changed a lot since the pandemic began. We’ve focused on creating virtual graduations and digitizing museums so that students won’t miss out on these formative experiences just because they’re having to stay isolated at home.
And that’s really the heart of our mission - to break down the barriers that are keeping students and young people from opportunities, whether that’s access to education or technology or mentorships. We show up and do whatever we can to help them to celebrate their identities and histories and to achieve their individual dreams.
|
|
You work across many Employee Resource Groups and Microsoft. How do the events you plan support and buttress the work of your in-house diverse leaders?
The ERGs at Microsoft are a really great opportunity to have focused conversations and workshops around what different types of employees and people need – whether that’s about their gender, race, disability, or anything else. This fits very well with the work that I’m doing and provides a great opportunity for Microsoft employees to engage with our community events.
When we planned our Black History Month experiences, which included digital tours of 11 museums and recorded book readings for students in younger grades, we reached out to Blacks and Africans at Microsoft (BAM) to help us host those events. We did the same with connecting Women at Microsoft to our Women’s History Month programming. Anything we can do to create a connection between our employees and our students, to show those students that they can strive to do things like work at Microsoft or be any kind of professional whatever their identity is.
|
|
What is your highest hope for women and young women this month as we celebrate International Month of Women?
I would say my biggest hope is for young girls everywhere to be empowered to know that they can achieve anything, be anything, do anything that they set their minds to, and that the world is theirs. I mean there are no limits to what they can do, there are no boundaries that they can’t push past, there are no barriers they can’t break down. They can achieve the impossible because women before them did it. And not only that, they can be the next ground-breaker so someone who comes behind them can know that they can do the impossible.
|
|
Click below to watch the Inclusive Leader Award Ceremony featuring inspirational messages from the diverse Award Winners
|
|
GlobalMindED and the SDG Impact Fund are delighted to announce GlobalMindED's Donor Advised Fund. 2020 is the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations and the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Women's Declaration and Action Platform. Many from around the world are thinking of 2020 as the gateway to our most vital decade for delivering equity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and a world where all can thrive. Our key time for these outcomes is 2020-2030.
GlobalMindED DAF and the SDG Impact Fund are a powerful combined force for good as the 2019 year comes to a close and we reflect on the gratitude and the commitments we make to the causes we care most about. The DAF offers immense power and flexibility for giving prior to the year's end as you plant seeds of generous intention for 2020 and the decade ahead.
When you contribute to GlobalMindED, you support First Gen students. We have served more than 400 students by connecting them to role models, mentors, internships and jobs. Your generous support will allow us to take our work 10x and reach these talented students at scale who lack the resources and support we provide. Your support also helps teachers who can't afford the conference fees, faculty at colleges which are under resourced and students who persist at those universities despite food insecurity and/or housing insecurity.
|
|
Links to read about Inclusive Leaders, many of whom are African American and people of color:
Curated sessions from GlobalMindED 2020 YouTube channel:
|
|
From the Center for Positive Organizations:
From the Economist:
From Forbes:
From Harvard Business Review:
From the World Academy of Art & Science and UN; Geneva Global Leadership in the 21st Century econference:
|
|
Listen here for an interview with Pam Newkirk, GlobalMindED speaker and author of Diversity Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion- Dollar Business.
|
|
Meet GlobalMindED Founder, Carol Carter as interviewed by Tim Moore on his podcast Success Made to Last: From Success to Significance
Listen to Part 1 of Carol's interview
Listen to Part 2 of Carol's interview
|
|
Recent GlobalMindED Newsletter Profiles:
|
|
Since 2006 when the flagship TGR Learning Lab opened its doors in Anaheim, CA, TGR Foundation has had a lot to celebrate, including its most recent milestone of one million students impacted by TGR EDU: Explore, alone.
Developed in partnership with Discovery Education, TGR EDU: Explore is a free digital resource library that offers interactive web experiences, lesson plans, training videos and tools for educators, students and families to explore new disciplines and gain skills for a modern and expanding workforce.
|
|
As you start the New Year, are you looking for ways to re-engineer your classroom culture? Check out Designing the Future: How Engineering Builds Creative Critical Thinking in the Classroom. The associated website has lots of activities, projects, and resources you can implement immediately. Our fall workshops using the book as a roadmap for change have been highly successful. Start designing the future today - try using the customized Study Guide for a book study in your PLC. Or contact ProjectEngin or Solution Tree to learn how you can bring professional development based on Ann's book to your school, district, or conference.
|
|
|
|
THE FLYOVER NATION
Energy's Role in a Troubled Heartland
By J.C. Whorton
A unique and timely discussion of the challenging issues facing the country’s troubled Heartland.
Since the beginning of westward expansion into the Heartland’s vast regions, natural resource development has played a historic role in shaping its communities. Today, domestic oil and gas development offers one of the strongest prospects for the Heartland’s present and future prosperity as well as the nation’s re-emergence as a dominant player in the global energy economy.
The U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas, two circumstances that are universally disrupting international geopolitical order. The earth has a finite supply of natural resources and a rapidly growing and over consuming population.
As America positions itself for a very uncertain and constantly evolving global marketplace, will the Heartland become America’s “great connector” or “great divide”?
|
|
J.C. Whorton is a senior level energy and financial professional with over forty years of essential experience. Having a ranching and Native American heritage, Mr. Whorton is a strong advocate for rural education and economic development initiatives.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
