The State wants to sign up 2,000 STEM mentors for women and girls by 2019

There continues to be a push for STEM education and careers in the First State for girls and women.
Now, Delaware state government is getting into the mix. The Delaware Health and Social Services Department has joined a national initiative called Million Women Mentors, which aims to sign up one million women to mentor girls and women in STEM fields, according to a release.
The Delaware State Team will be lead by Secretary of State Rita Landgraf as Honorary Chair and Inspiring Women in STEM founder Jennifer Kmiec as chair. It has set a goal of 2,000 mentors by 2019.
“Every day in the Department of Health and Social Services, I see the importance of STEM,” Landgraf said in a statement. “I see it in our Public Health lab workers and doctors and nurses across the agency, to our staff people who use technology to analyze data at all levels of our enterprise. In order for Delaware and the rest of the country to better embrace a diverse workforce for today and to grow an even more diverse workforce of the future, we need to give back by mentoring girls and women in the STEM fields.”
Mentors of all genders can sign up.
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According to Million Women Mentors, 74 percent of STEM workers are male, while only 26 percent are female and even though women create roughly half of the national workforce, only 25 percent of them hold STEM jobs.
The recruitment effort will officially launch with the Delaware STEM Council at the STEM Council’s Educator Awards event during Delaware Innovation Week 2016 on Nov. 15.