Irvine, Calif., Nov 28, 2017 Education advocate and Getting Smart CEO Tom Vander Ark showed his support for MIND Research Institute on Giving Tuesday by making a donation to MIND as part of a Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) social media campaign.
Giving Tuesday is an annual, global social media event centered around the encouragement and celebration of giving. It was founded in 2012 by New York’s 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. The hashtag #GivingTuesday is used on a variety of social media platforms to highlight stories of individuals, communities and organizations who are supporting nonprofits.
This year, Cisco CSR equipped three influencers to donate to nonprofit organizations that work in the three areas Cisco supports with strategic social investments: education, economic empowerment, and critical human needs. Vander Ark chose MIND Research Institute as one of the education organizations he was supporting on Giving Tuesday.
In a short video posted on Twitter, Vander Ark spoke about his focus with Getting Smart. “We’re working to expand access to powerful learning experiences for students worldwide,” he explained. In choosing MIND Research Institute as one of three educational nonprofits he was supporting, Vander Ark pointed to the impact the ST Math program is having across the country. “MIND has been engaging kids nationwide to improve their math and computational thinking skills.”
Brett Woudenberg, CEO of MIND Research Institute expressed his gratitude on behalf of the organization, the board and all of MIND’s staff. "For the past 20 years, MIND has been fortunate to count on incredible partners like Cisco and Tom Vander Ark," said Woudenberg. "Their support has been critical to our growth and to the impact that we have had in math education."
You can see Vander Ark’s and other giving stories on Cisco CSR’s social media channels:
https://www.facebook.com/CiscoCSR/
https://www.instagram.com/CiscoCSR/
To amplify Vander Ark’s work by donating to MIND Research Institute or other nonprofit organizations in Cisco’s Education Fund, visit brightfunds.org/funds/cisco-education-fund-fy18.
About Tom Vander Ark
Tom Vander Ark is author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World, Smart Cities That Work for Everyone: 7 Keys to Education & Employment and Smart Parents: Parenting for Powerful Learning. He is CEO of Getting Smart, a learning design firm and a partner in Learn Capital, an education venture capital firm. Previously he served as the first Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Tom served as a public school superintendent in Washington State and has extensive private sector experience including serving as a senior executive for a national public retail chain. Find Tom at twitter.com/tvanderark.
About MIND Research Institute
MIND Research Institute is a neuroscience and education social impact organization, dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math®, a visual instructional program that builds a deep conceptual understanding of math through rigorous learning and creative problem solving to deeply engage, motivate, and challenge Pre-K-8 students toward higher achievement. ST Math incorporates the latest research in learning and the brain, promoting mastery-based learning and mathematical understanding. Longitudinal and broad-based studies across diverse population groups continue to demonstrate ST Math’s efficacy in building life-long learners prepared for success in STEM fields. ST Math currently reaches more than 1.2 million students and 53,000 teachers at 3,900 schools in 47 states.
For more information, visit mindresearch.org, and interact with us on social media at @JiJiMath (Facebook) and @MIND_Research (Twitter).
For more information contact:
Karin Wu
MIND Research Institute
949-345-8713
kwu@mindresearch.org
