More than 70 local business, community and educational leaders participated in a forum on October 21, 2009 for the advancement of PK-20 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education on Long Island and across the state. Conducted by the Empire State STEM Education Initiative, the event was the 
first in a series of statewide conversations and was hosted by the Long Island Works Coalition (LI Works) and the Long Island Association (LIA) at LIA headquarters in Melville. 
“New York State is addressing the critical need for all students to have STEM skills in order to be competitive nationally and globally, said LI Works Executive Director Cheryl Davidson.  Key speakers included New York State Regent Roger Tilles and Richard Rosen, vice president and executive director, Education and Philanthropy Partnerships, Batelle Memorial Institute. Batelle is a leading R&D corporation and a principal steward of the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN). “STEM is a language – a problem-solving technique,” said Rosen, and the objective is: “small school – big imprint,” he continued. “Could a school matter to everybody else? Could it have impact on something different than itself?” Rosen noted the innovation is not in a particular school or design, but the creation of a footprint that could exist in Ohio and in other states by following overlapping design principles.    

By leveraging the best of private-public partnerships to look at “what’s missing – not what’s broken” in the roadmap to participating in a global economy, Battelle was able to apply system and design engineering techniques to scale innovation in STEM education. 

Rosen explained the primary objectives to the process: 1) Respect the individuality of local regions; 2) Integrate policy expertise with project managers and regional participants; and 3) Keep the participants in contact over a longer period of time; what an individual or company can contribute may not necessarily be relevant at fi rst, but their process will become relevant in the future.  “The most important contribution from a company is not their money, but its people and environment,” said Rosen.  

Following Rosen’s address, guests participated in roundtable discussions led by Margaret Ashida, Project Director, Empire State STEM Education Initiative, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. Groups addressed “collaborations and innovations through inclusiveness” and collectively provided key concepts that were electronically tabulated and scaled. “Suburban, urban, rural, - it’s everybody’s challenge,” said Jan Morrison, Consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The message is clear - tap the potential of your community and figure out who else needs to be at the table to continue the dialog and impact the region.