A New Exciting Beginning for SEM Link

In January 2010, SEM Link began its journey to become a national nonprofit organization by expanding our programs to the San Francisco Bay Area. Since it has been March since we last posted on our blog, you can see that it has been a busy but exciting time of transition for us to lay the foundation for becoming a national nonprofit. With today being the final day of the 2009-10 fiscal year, we thought it would be appropriate to give a summary of how we spend the final months of the 2009-10 fiscal year that we are about to close and what is to come in the new 2010-11 fiscal year.

The main reason, San Francisco Bay Area was chosen as the city that we would provide programs and services in addition to Metropolitan Atlanta, because establishing a presence in the West Coast would truly establish us as a national organization by offering programs on both coasts. Over the past few months, we have experienced the successes and challenges of this transition. Some of our challenges have been the same ones that other nonprofits are facing with decreasing financial support from individuals, corporations and grantors. The other challenge was while our Executive Director and Founder was in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was hard to determine who in the organization (staff, board of director, volunteer) in Atlanta would step up and do some of the things that she did when while she was living in Atlanta. It was also a challenge to determine what programs and services would be offered in each city and how our program structure would be affected as we transition beyond just serving Metropolitan Atlanta K-12 students, parents and educators.

However, we have had several successes with the transition. We were able to secure new corporate sponsors for our 3rd Annual Science, Engineering and Career Fair and Exhibition in Atlanta. We were able to establish a Bay Area community partnership with the ASA Community Science Center in Oakland. We have increased our presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Group as well as discussing a partnership with an online community for high school students www.TrackAhead.Com. In this past few months more people all over the country and the world have learned about who we are and what we do as an organization and that is exciting.

So what should you expect in the 2010-11 fiscal year, that will start on August 1st? The first major project before all of our programs start in September is to update our website to reflect the national nonprofit organization that we are now. We will offer programs in Metropolitan Atlanta, San Francisco Bay Area and possibly the DC Metropolitan Area as well as offer more activities on our website and through social media for K-12 students. You will see our web presence increase with articles about current trends in STEM research, policy and education as well as more articles for our Executive Director. We will establish partnerships with other nonprofits, corporations including small and medium sized businesses, college and universities, government agencies, and media outlets to either collaborate on programs or obtain resources to help us achieve our mission. Focus on getting individuals that support our organization and believe in our mission to show their support with financial contributions. As a nonprofit organization, we can't achieve our vision of "unveiling potential through exposure" if we don't have resources and the relationships to do so. In order to do our part in contributing to the creation of the pipeline of the future STEM workforce, we must build a community that supports our organization with their time, professional expertise and finances.