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A new IBM program is harnessing the experience and brainpower of seasoned employees to advance the study of math and science among young people. Recognizing the national need for teachers, the company launched Transition to Teaching with two clear goals: to help veteran employees who possess math and science skills pursue second careers and to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists.
In the world of technology, the practical and the theoretical are inseparable. “Life is word problems,” says Terri Indyk, an IBM product engineer who has enrolled in Transition to Teaching. In the fall of 2008, she plans to take 25 years of experience in hardware development into the classroom. “When students ask me, ‘Where are we going to use this stuff?’” explains Indyk, “I can come up with real-life examples from work.”
The need for highly qualified teachers is real. After a decade in which jobs requiring technical, scientific and engineering training have increased by 51 percent, the burgeoning demand for high-quality teachers in math and science poses a large challenge. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, between 260,000 and 290,000 new high school math and science teachers will be needed for the academic year 2008–2009.
Acknowledging that a shift in vocation takes time and training, the Transition to Teaching initiative helps underwrite the costs associated with earning a teaching certificate. The program pays for course work in either traditional college settings or online and it offers mentoring during the transition from IBM employment to full-time teaching. IBM also provides up to four months leave of absence to facilitate student teaching. Employees are eligible for a total of $15,000 for tuition and leave-of-absence stipend.
Announced in the fall of 2005, the pilot program is rapidly approaching its goal of enrolling 100 IBM veterans in its first year. Among those who have joined its ranks are managers, software designers and hardware engineers from 20 states. Partnerships have been forged with a range of colleges and universities, among them the University at Albany, State University of New York and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Charlotte. The New York State Education Department and the North Carolina Public Schools, along with many individual school districts, have also joined with IBM in shaping the program.
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For some participants, Transition to Teaching has provided the needed impetus to pursue a relatively new passion. Tucson-based software engineer Bill Bennett recalls that, four years ago, he volunteered to mentor his son’s high school robotics team in a nationwide competition. He encountered youngsters with math and science phobia but, as they devised and fabricated their robot, the students suddenly saw beyond their fears. “There was an ‘Aha!’ reaction,” Bennett remembers, as the youngsters came to appreciate real applications for textbook physics. The experience helped inspire Bennett to join Transition to Teaching.
The mother of two teenaged daughters, Indyk’s desire to teach reaches further back. “I had actually explored the teaching option before I had children and even took some teaching classes. It’s always been in the back of my mind, so when IBM introduced the program, it was just the push I needed to pursue it.”
The program has several prerequisites. Each participating employee must have a bachelor’s degree in math or science or a higher degree in a related field; 10 years or more of service at IBM; and the approval of his or her manager. Some experience in teaching, tutoring or volunteering in an educational setting is also required.
The program specifies that teachers-to-be fulfill certification requirements within three years and then seek jobs within the following nine months. For some, however, the segue to teaching can happen more quickly, since some states offer intensive teaching skills development courses for potential teachers. Thirty-two-year IBM veteran Larry Leise calls the North Carolina crash course “boot camp.” He will be taking NC Teach in the summer of 2007, after completing courses in oceanography and earth science to round out his engineering and math training. He envisions teaching physics by the fall of 2007, perhaps in one of seven new schools soon to open in Wake County next year. “I’m looking forward to this,” Leise says. “All but one of the teachers I’ve talked to have said, ‘Great! Come help us.’”
Leise is not alone. His wife, Susan Luerich, who herself has spent 32 years at IBM, is also making the move into teaching. The couple recognize that they face a financial adjustment. The pay scale for teachers is typically lower than IBM’s, but pension income will help make up the difference, as will other less tangible compensations. “For me, teaching definitely is a way to give back because I don’t have children of my own,” says Luerich. “My objective is to be able to spark an interest in children who may not previously have been interested—too hard, too bored—and to try and get them as interested in science as I am. We all remember teachers who had wonderful impacts on us. It’s my aspiration to be one of them.”
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The scale of the program in its first year is modest compared to the enormous need for teachers, but the expectation is that Transition to Teaching will expand, welcoming more and more IBM participants and proving adaptable for other companies. The response to date has been strong. In a classic collaboration between corporation and community, excellent minds are making their way to the classroom, seeking to contribute to their communities by inspiring students to explore new territories.
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