Great Minds in STEM
Providing STEM programs that create awareness, advocate readiness & celebrate success!
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
America needs more engineers and scientists. Now. From ingrastructure to the Internet, computer chips to chemistry, energy to the environment, national defense to international finance, our economy is fueled by the great minds who power these industries. The United States has a home grown supply of future engineers and scientists right in our back yards. We also have an infrastructure of motivated teachers and parents who are hungry for programs that can help prepare their kids for a STEM future. We have universities teaming with students who are just an inch of support and guidance away from earning their STEM degrees. We have corporations, government agencies, research institutions and military commands ready and willing to hire them. And we have generations of successful STEM professionals from underserved communities who support GMiS as role models and mentors.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Viva Technology & STEM Showdown
Viva Technology is a hands-on national STEM awareness and activity based K-12 education program designed to engage students, teachers and parents with STEM challenges that stimulate interest in the application of technology and showcase STEM-focused career pathways. Viva Technology also provides STEM resources and brings STEM role models to the community.
Scholarships & Student Outreach
The HENAAC Scholars Program addresses the critical need that the U.S. has to produce more domestic engineers and scientists. The goal of the program is to ensure college retention with a 3.0 grade point average or higher; to guarantee college graduation with an undergraduate technical degree in four to five years; to increase Hispanic students and other underserved students leadership in STEM by producing viable role models to inspire future generations in these fields; and to secure our country's place as the finest technological leader in the world.
HENAAC College Bowl
The HENAAC College Bowl is hosted during HENAAC's national conference and is a 3 day, high-energy competition in which teams of hundreds of STEM college students from around the country, coached and judged by industry and government representatives, showcase their talents, initative, teamwork and leadership skills. Each round of competition addresses carefully selected topics relevant to career success and expands teh effectiveness of the traditional career fair model. Winning teams are awarded scholarships.
HENAAC Conference, Professional Awards & Role Models
HENAAC's national conference and awards show features STEM professionals and college students from across the nation. Hundreds of professionals are nominated each year to be selected for a HENAAC Professional Award, which are then presented at the annual Awards Show during the conference. These important role models are key for college, high school and middle school students to envision themselves as future engineers and scientists. From the professional nominations also come the Role The Annual Conference is a 3 day event that also includes professional development & leadership seminars, networking receptions, student competitions, Department of Defense Luncheon, Luminary Luncheon and a career & graduate fair
MentorNet
MentorNet's innovative mentoring service combines the technology of social networks with the social science of mentoring to connect STEM mentors and mentees across generational, gender, racial, cultural, and socio-economic boundries to support collegiate and graduate school success.
NSF ASSIST & LEVERAGE Early Career Faculty Programs
These faculty development program opportunities and workshops provide access to Hispanic faculty from 2-year and 4-year colleges/universities across the U.S. Topics focus on the tenure process, effective pedagogies, proposal writing, corporate engagement, and entreprenurialism.
K-12 Educator Institutes & Workshops
The K-12 Educator Institutes and workshops provide an itinerary where new curriculum and updtes on national math and science standards are shared with educators from across the country. Educators gain access to active-learning activities and culturally-relevant materials that can be implemented in their classrooms.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Great Minds in STEM has key goals to accomplish our Vision:
1. To inspire and motivate underserved students to pursue careers in Scinece, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
2. To enlighten and engage families, educators, communities and employers to assist underserved students pursuing STEM Careers
3. To inspire our nation through recognition of the achievements of Hispanics and other role models in STEM
4. To enable and leverage Hispanic STEM talent to paly a leadership role
5. To collaborate and cooperate nationally within the numerous STEM communities
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
For 31 years, Great Minds in STEM has been creating and delivering an ever expanding suite of innovative programs designed to Create Awareness, Advocate Readiness, and Celebrate Success in STEM - especially in our underserved communities that need them most.
Great Minds in STEM is at the forefront of implementing creative and engaging programs and partnerships forcused on the continuous expansion of STEM education opportunities for our nation's underserved communities.
Great Minds in STEM collaborates with the Board of Directors, Team, Supporters, STakeholders and the public we serve to determine the changing needs of the underserved community to be successful in the pusuit, retention and graduation of STEM degrees. In addition, GMiS invites universities from around the country to serve as Academic Hosts and Partners for the annual Conference to make sure the organization's annual strategies are in alignment with the institutions that confer STEM degrees.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Great Minds in STEM (GMiS) provides numerous programs across the United States to meet our goals each year. In the K-12 arena we have our Viva Technology program that was created to engage underserved and underrrepresented youth, teachers and parents with STEM opportunities that provide exposure, appreciation, motivation and access to STEM-related education and career fields. Viva Technology has been implements in 18 states and the Distric of Columbia & Puerto Rico, reching over 145,000 students, teachers and parents! The organiation also launched the STEM-Up Initiative, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive community based program in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles. The initiative implemtns a value chain of opportunities to create Awareness, Inspiration, Motivation and Skills for students from 20 public schools, their parents and teachers from 2009 - 2016.
At the university level GMiS has conducted an annual College Bowl Competition since 1999. This very popoular competition provides an experience unlike any other for entities to interact with STEM Students over two-and-a-half days during the national Conference. GMiS provides merit based scholarships and as of 2018 has given over $4.2 million dollars to over 1,500 STEM students.
Mentoring is very important as well and MentorNet became a division of GMiS in 2014. Through MentorNet, GMiS offers structured virtual mentoring year-round, leveraging technology to match STEM students with professional mentors. Any STEM student in an accredited institution of higher education in the U.S. an dprofessionals with a STEM degree may join.
In 2018 GMiS aws awrded the inaugural U.S. Army CCDC HBCU/MI Design Competition which provides undergraduate cross disciplinary teams with the opportunity to research and compete in a topic area important to the Army. The April 2019 Competition had 11 national university finalists competing at the UTEP Sunbowl Stadium.
GMiS has conducted an annual naitonal conference for over 30 years. This conference brings together over 3,500 participants including STEM students, STEM professionals and members of the STEM community. The Conference is a means to support students in the hiring process for internships and full time positions as well as way to identify, honor an document the contributions of outstanding Hispanic STEM professionals. Students receive over $150,000 a year in registration and travel grants to participate in the numerous Conference engagment and networking events.
In 2016 GMiS received a grant from the NAtional Science Foundation to increase the representation of unerserved, early-career, engineering faculty. The success of this project led to an additional NSF grant under the NSF INCLUDES program.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Great Minds in STEM (GMiS) has awarded over $4.2 million in merit based STEM Scholarships to over 1,500 students.
Great Minds in STEM has served over 135,000 K-12 students, teachers and parents through our Viva Technology Program and STEM-Up Program
In 2018 GMiS received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for our work with STEM-Up and the Viva Technology Program
GMiS has awarded over 1,100 Professional STEM awards, through our peer review process, to talented Hispanic engineers and scientists from corporations, government agencies, the military, academia and the non-profit sector
GMiS has granted over $1 million dollars in registration and travel grants to students, educators and faculty to attend the annual GMiS conference
GMiS has conducted over 30 national conferences where over 100,000 STEM students, professionals and educators convene each year to motivate and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders and support students being hired for internships and full time employment
GMiS continues to build our MentorNet platform to provide mentoring opportunities for STEM students to support persistence, retention and graduation in STEM fields
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Great Minds in STEM
Board of directorsas of 03/26/2023
Dr. Juan Rivera
Great Minds in STEM
Term: 2019 - 2022
Mr. Rudolf Montiel
Capital Partners, LLC
Term: 2018 - 2022
Ray Mellado
Great Minds in STEM
Juan Rivera
Great Minds in STEM
Rudy Montiel
Metropolitan Capital Partners, LLC
Robin Evitts
Alvarez & Marsal
Alex Lopez
The Boeing Company (Ret.)
H. Keith Moo-Young
Washington State University-Tri Cities
Tony Ortega
El Monte Union H.S. District (Ret.)
Anna M Park
Great Minds in STEM
Maria E Ruess
LSCW, LLC
Ivan Diaz
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
Anthony Padilla
The Boeing Company
Cedric Wins
U.S. Army (Retired)
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data