National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: High Tech and Sciences

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): Entry Point!

The Challenge:

To attract and retain people with disabilities into science and technology jobs.

The Solution:

Establish internships in the science and technology industries for college students with disabilities, leading to permanent post-college employment.

The Partners:

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a nonprofit professional society dedicated to advancing scientific and technological excellence across all disciplines. It manages Entry Point!, a summer internship program for students with disabilities.

IBM, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation, Proctor and Gamble, and Lucent Technologies are public and private sector leaders in high-technology fields. They have joined with the AAAS to employ and mentor students with disabilities through the Entry Point! program.

The Story:

Entry Point!, an internship program for students with disabilities, is a collaboration begun five years ago with the idea of meeting both short- and long-term human resource needs of the private and public sectors. By providing summer research opportunities for college students with disabilities who are pursuing degrees in science, engineering, mathematics, and computer science, Entry Point! feeds highly motivated students into high-tech jobs. These placements allow students the opportunity to gain serious experience, from analyzing solar wind data from NASA satellites to developing computer software.

If the first internship is mutually successful and the business environment permits, the student may be invited back for successive summers with the potential to convert to regular, full-time employment after graduation. One student from California, who is a wheelchair user, tested software for IBM one summer and within six weeks was offered a permanent job. He began working for IBM full-time after he graduated and within a few months was promoted to a managerial position.

AAAS administers the program, recruiting internship candidates from colleges and universities across the country. Students send their applications to AAAS, which then forwards the appropriate candidates to the partnership organizations for final selection. Salaries vary according to each organization, but students may earn as much as $400-500 per week. Some organizations have set salary levels according to class credit hours completed. Travel funds and housing assistance may be provided to students who are relocating for the summer.

Mentors advise the students on future undergraduate coursework or plans for graduate study. Companies and agencies provide the technology and other reasonable accommodations needed by the student to be a fully productive member of the technology team.

A Model of Innovation:

Entry Point! brings together qualified workers with disabilities and the science and technology industries in a perfect match that might not otherwise occur. AAAS's involvement ensures industry wide communication about the program. It is an efficient way to find very talented employees for multiple companies at once, and saves each organization the hours of outreach that would be necessary to obtain the same results.

Contacts:

Laureen Summers
Program Associate
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-326-6649 (p)
202-371-9849 (f)
summers@aaas.org

Virginia Stern
Project Director
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-326-6672 (p)
202-371-9849 (f)
vstern@aaas.org

Frank Krar
Project Coordinator
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-326-6630 (p)
202-371-9849 (f)
fkrar@aaas.org