New Mini‐Doc Inspires with Stories of California Teachers Changing Lives through STEM Education

Los Angeles, Calif. (May 8, 2018) — WorkingNation, a national nonprofit campaign working to expose hard truths about a looming unemployment crisis in the United States and bring the country together to create and amplify solutions, today debuted the latest mini‐documentary in its acclaimed “Do Something Awesome” series.

“Educating from Experience” is a new mini‐documentary from WorkingNation that follows California mom Erica Parker as she transitions from her successful career in engineering to become a STEM teacher at a local high school ‐‐ a pathway made possible by EnCorps STEM Teachers Program, which helps solve California’s critical shortage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) teachers by recruiting and training qualified STEM professionals and industry retirees and placing them in public school classrooms.

The mini‐doc is available to view here.

“EnCorps wants to provide a good math and science teacher for every single student in America,” says EnCorps STEM Teachers Program Founder Sherry Lansing. “No matter where you live, no matter whether you’re born into poverty or you’re born into wealth ‐‐ you get that opportunity.”

In the 4‐minute documentary, we learn how EnCorps empowers STEM professionals like Erica to give back through teaching.

In 2017, in California alone, there was a projected need of 33,000 qualified math and science teachers over the next decade. EnCorps recruits and prepares experienced engineers and technology professionals, among others, to teach in science, math, and related fields in underserved schools across California. After 11 years, EnCorps has recruited nearly 1,000 tutors, guest teachers, and full‐time credentialed instructors.

“In the United States, we have been able to identify that we are going to be short 3.3 million employees in STEM‐related fields,” says STEM teacher Eric Lee in the video. “We are trying to address this issue so that we can start hiring employees within the United States instead of having to farm out to other countries.”

WorkingNation’s filmmaking crew documented Erica’s journey with EnCorps to become a teacher at Corona High School, where she now makes a lasting impact in the lives of countless young people who learn the critical skills necessary to succeeding in STEM fields.

“It’s very difficult to find teachers that are properly qualified to teach STEM because a lot of them don’t have the industry experience,” says California’s Corona High School Assistant Principal Deena Rodriguez. “The EnCorps program bridges that gap between the industry sector and education.”

The 4‐minute video is part of WorkingNation’s “Do Something Awesome” series, consisting of heartfelt, human mini‐docs that shine a light on programs across the country working to prepare Americans for jobs of the future.

Each episode in the “Do Something Awesome” series highlights a different scalable program that is working to create a more sustainable workforce in a rapidly changing U.S. economy.

Collectively, the episodes illuminate a broader and often difficult to understand narrative facing the United States – that the world of work is changing faster than we ever could have predicted, and we are not ready.

By highlighting these corporations, nonprofits and individuals, WorkingNation is providing a wide audience with information on emerging careers, pathways to steady jobs, and successful programs that other organizations can adapt for their respective communities, across multiple industries.

Watch every episode of the “Do Something Awesome” series at WorkingNation.com. ###

ABOUT WORKINGNATION
Founded by philanthropist and venture capitalist Art Bilger, WorkingNation exists to expose

hard truths about the looming unemployment crisis and bring the country together to create new jobs for a changing economy. Bilger serves as CEO of WorkingNation and has assembled a team of talented journalists and media and non‐profit executives to carry out the mission. WorkingNation’s efforts include a series of original programming from award winning directors and producers as well as other forms of interactive multimedia outreach to everyday Americans.

For more information, visit WorkingNation.com. ABOUT EnCorps STEM Teachers Program

EnCorps helps solve California’s critical shortage of STEM teachers by recruiting and training qualified STEM professionals and industry retirees and placing them in public school classrooms. EnCorps serves middle and high school students in Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area, with demand to scale nationally. To learn more about EnCorps and how you can support the program, visit encorps.org.