By Than Astin
We are Thrilled to announce Than as our newest board member. Than worked as an art teacher after college, then went on to work with Apple for 18 years, before retiring in 2019.
At the end of a year like 2020 there are people looking to give something back in ways that have lasting impact. There are many choices when it comes time to give. This post shares a few insights to help you consider a gift to Maydm this holiday season.
1. A gift to Maydm is an investment in the essential skills of today and tomorrow’s job market.
University of Wisconsin economic research recommends Mentorship, Networking and Educational Programming as areas of investment for job and business creation. Sounds like Maydm! Here’s a real world example. Today, a Wisconsin resident proficient in a modern coding language has access to 13x more job opportunities* than someone that does not. Not only are there more opportunities, but the jobs are higher paying. Even better, these jobs are considered “remote-friendly” so we can keep this talent in state.
2. The potential return on a donation to Maydm is extremely high for our community and Wisconsin.
Let’s assume a conservative estimate of 500 students a year attend a Maydm program and that 10% of those participants pursue secondary STEM education. Now imagine 50% land software development jobs and half of those people stay in state. These reasonable assumptions would lead to $13.25M in salaries annually for the state of Wisconsin.
3. A contribution to Maydm contributes to equality and equity.
Women and minority racial groups are vastly underrepresented in STEM careers (source). Winnie and team are actively working to change this through inclusion and representation. Their core program participants are girls and youth of color. Upon completion of a Maydm program the percentage of students who indicated they want to work in STEM doubled (2018 Maydm Annual Report). Wow. Simply put, Maydm inspires it’s participants by showing them what is possible and they do it incredibly well.
For all these reasons and more our family will be giving to Maydm this holiday season. There is simply no limit to what they can achieve if given adequate resources to continue growing and inspiring in our community. Happy Holidays.
