Acclaimed New Orleans Non-Profit Proud to be Called STEM NOLA Powered by Entergy
NEW ORLEANS – Entergy Corporation enthusiastically supports STEM NOLA, a widely acclaimed non-profit providing STEM education to K-12 students in under-resourced communities. At a time when diverse and skilled workforces are essential to corporations, STEM NOLA contributes to the Fortune 500 company’s growth strategies.
Entergy focuses its philanthropic giving on education, poverty solutions and environmental initiatives, areas that link to their core business, as well as the needs of the communities they serve in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.
“These are some of the most challenged regions of the country in terms of poverty and almost every other quality of life indicator,” said Patricia Riddlebarger, Vice President for Corporate Responsibility for Entergy. “Thirty to forty percent of our customers live at or just above the poverty level. Education is key to providing individuals with the tools to help them help themselves get out of poverty. STEM NOLA excels in this area.”
Diversity, inclusion and belonging are the core values at Entergy. “We believe that diversity gives us a competitive edge,” said Riddlebarger. We want to tap into the intelligence and brain power of the broadest possible pool of potential employees. Communities of color have been historically underrepresented among our employee base, which is not acceptable. We want our workplace to represent the communities we serve. Diverse racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation perspectives enable us to bring the broadest and best thinking to our customers.”
Patricia Riddlebarger
“We see STEM NOLA from several perspectives,” adds Riddlebarger. “One is our own workforce needs. We have an aging demographic in our employee base with many people reaching retirement age. We don’t have the talent pipeline in place to address that reality. We need people ready to step into those roles.”
Riddlebarger also maintained that by helping build a skilled area workforce, STEM NOLA is playing a critical role by helping New Orleans compete with other cities.
“Large users of electricity are good business for Entergy,” she said. “These large industrial companies require a technically proficient workforce and STEM skills are critical for those customers. When companies are looking for opportunities to expand, relocate or to grow their operations, the primary consideration is a very skilled workforce. So, communities that don’t have that skilled workforce will miss out because companies are going to choose to move to those parts of the country that do have skilled laborers.”
Soon after Dr. Calvin Mackie launched STEM NOLA in 2013, Entergy began supporting their programs. Their first small grant supported a summer initiative and their contributions grew to total $500,000 in the ensuing seven years largely because Riddlebarger and her colleagues believe in STEM NOLA’s goals and objectives and have witnessed the success first hand.
Entergy volunteers help teach STEM
“Dr. Mackie reached out and explained his vision to us,” she said. “We were excited about it, but we started slow, a small grant and said it could grow if the initiative progressed as promised and delivered the results we expected. Dr. Mackie hit it out of the park. One of my colleagues has a son who participated in their summer program during the very first year. She experienced the program from the perspective of a parent and was really excited about it. And then I went to one of their STEM Saturday events and was just blown away by the entire experience.”
There were a broad range of students, she said, mostly from under-resourced communities, college students assisting the children and STEM professionals introducing themselves and being mentors, showing the children and teenagers what they can aspire to be. The STEM NOLA approach gives children a hands-on experience and brings this STEM learning into their neighborhood schools or community centers.
Entergy power plant in Montgomery County Texas
“Dr. Mackie is exposing children to STEM careers and giving STEM opportunities to students who might not otherwise have those opportunities,” said Riddlebarger.
In fact, she said the STEM NOLA program led Entergy to rethink their own approach to philanthropic giving. Previously Entergy sought partners that could guaranteed a specific result, such as number of people trained for jobs. “But we now know the importance of the early exposure that STEM NOLA provides,” said Riddlebarger. “The payoff is down the road when these students are inspired to study STEM and work in science, technology and engineering.”
Riddlebarger said that Entergy proudly promotes STEM NOLA on their company social media pages and other platforms. “We talk about the impact of this program,” she said. “It has gone from serving students from Gretna, Louisiana all the way to Ghana. It has been inspirational.”