WASHINGTON — A breath of fresh air blew through our nation’s capital late Monday afternoon, when a group of professors gathered in the White House to be honored for their accomplishments as recruiters and mentors of students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
During the ceremony, these men and women were presented with the 2010 and 2011 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. This award, presented by the White House every two years, recognizes individuals and organizations for their outstanding accomplishments in mentoring and acknowledges “the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering — particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields,” President Obama said in a statement.
“Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude for helping ensure that America remains the global leader in science and engineering for years to come,” the president added.
Recipients of the Presidential Mentoring award also receive grants of $25,000 from the National Science Foundation to advance their mentoring efforts.
The Ceremony and the Honorees
As the guests waited under the cold white lights of the auditorium, the mother of a Tufts University professor of electrical and computer engineering who would be honored that evening, leaned over toward this reporter and said how proud she, her husband and her son-in-law were of their daughter and wife, Dr. Karen Panetta. She related how her daughter had always been driven to excel in school while growing up in a hardscrabble neighborhood outside of Boston.
2010 Presidential Mentor Panetta was about to be cited for being dedicated to “overcoming negative stereotypes about women engineers,” for having “personally mentored 18 classes of … groups underrepresented in engineering” and for reaching out to more than 30,000 youth and educators through her Tufts University “Nerd Girls” program.
