 Buenos dias, everyone, and good morning. Good morning. This is fabulous. What an amazing, amazing turnout. And so, speak so highly of our great city, San Antonio. My name is Dr. Woodward Urena, and we have a great agenda planned for you. And I think if you look at my name up there, I don't have a title next to it or a position. And that's primarily because I'm retired, even though I'm not doing a very good job at that, but I'm sure my wife, Esomalia, will tell you. We are very, very excited, though, to be here. And this is a great opportunity because we have so many, many good things going on in our city, especially with respect to education and so many other great initiatives that our mayor is basically leading on behalf. And many of you in all the different areas that you represent are bringing to our city a fabulous opportunity for us to continue to take our city to the next level. It's just a wonderful opportunity, and I'm glad to be here. And I still serve on a few boards. I know the Hispanic Chamber have the honor of being the chair of their education committee on the systemic board, as well as the San Antonio Stem Council and the American Stem Alliance. So I guess more than anything else, you see a trend there. It has stamina or steam as we're now moving forward. I'm going to definitely have some involvement to try to help our city because it's so important, but I'm very glad that I have the opportunity to do that in flexibility. So as I look across the room, I knew many, many of you and I think, basically, I've had a chance to work with many of you in our city for different reasons. And I can't think of folks that are more dedicated to our city, more committed to making our city the best that it can be, especially for our kids. Our kids are the most precious resource that we have and everything that I see going on, and I know many of you, like I said, personally, and the commitment that you all have is incredible. So everyone in this room, please give yourselves a round of applause as VIPs for our city. Also, there are some folks who do some great work as well that I'd like to introduce just very briefly. We'll have a chance to introduce them a little bit later, but I want to, of course, introduce them in a few minutes, but our mayor's here, Mayor Ron Nittenberg, Roberto Treviño, he's the mayor of the district. And I know there's a couple of your colleagues that are coming in, counseling in a few minutes as well. And then we have one of the CEO and president of the Hispanic Chamber, Bruno Ramiro Cavazos, I see him somewhere. We have, I know she'll be joining us in a few minutes, so I may hold until she gets here, but let me start moving down to Dr. Ryan Lugaldia, hello, and of course, we're trying to thank you with a P-64, a few minutes more formally, but we have someone here, I'll get to you because we'll learn all about it, from Mexico City with the founder and CEO of the Hentos-Span-Graciela Project and the National STEM Initiative. So the San Antonio can become a designated city community of practice for the STEM Learning Ecosystem Initiative and WITS this morning. We're so honored and happy to have WITS, Dr. Jan Morse. We have a many, many committees that we've put together to help us facilitate this whole process and representing our universities as well. We have Dr. Kira Evans here, Vice President. Dr. Mark Appelford is here with UTSA, representing UTSA in the region. I'm not sure if I have a chance to see her earlier, but Marty West, who's Superintendent of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. There she is, of course, there you are. Now, my name is President of the San Antonio Chamber, but this is a very big accident because we're not in this archivist business and I'm very busy to turn it up, but I think you're going to join us as well, George Ham, who's the CEO of the Workforce Solution Dialogues, the big department. And of course, everyone's familiar with SA Work, so let's welcome virtual Manita Balada. Let's say thank you. So, you know, I'm sure with all the planning, I'm going to miss somebody, so I apologize in advance and so forth, but thank you. And of course, I don't want to, he's going to be here in just a second of an introducing as well, but the person who's helped us and helped host us here for today, so I'm going to meet us on the door, the director of San Antonio Public Library System. We are asking, probably, and you're asking, you know, why a STEM learning ecosystem initiative and let me move forward just to identify just a couple of items before we have some of our speakers come up, so with that, you know, we're all doing some great work in really trying to engage our youth, particularly not only in education, but STEM education, because it's so, and STEAM as we're now going to see as we move forward, because it's so important for our kids to be able to solve problems, it's so important for our kids to be able to think critically, to be able to collaborate, to be able to have all the skills, the scoff skills that really finally follow in many ways under the STEAM umbrella that are critical to our children in terms of their success, that, you know, abilities to communicate, to present, to write, and so what they're so important, especially for their careers as they move on to employment, so those are the things that we're really looking to do with the STEM ecosystem is how can we take everything that we're doing from a STEM and STEAM perspective and take it to another level, because there's so many impressive, incredible initiatives that are already taking place in our city and a lot of you are working together, so how can we take that to another level? That's one thing. The other one is, if you look around the room again, there are many STEM and STEAM, in essence, organizations, agencies, institutions that are here today and they are part of our ecosystem, so I would encourage you and Rabay's gonna help us a little bit later to look around and if you see others who are not here today who should be at the table with us as we move forward to help us identify who they are so that we can continue to grow this initiative because it's not just about having been here today, it's about today's a starting point and a kickoff and then moving forward so that we can take what we're doing to another level by involving as much of our community as we can because that's where we get the strength, that's where we get the power as a community to really change and make a difference with everything that we're already doing so that's another key item, is to be able to bring all of our stakeholders in the STEM and STEAM areas together to really help make a difference to communicate at a different level. Those are very, very important points and then exactly what are we going to be doing and we'll talk more about that however, we really need community input, we need your input and we need that of others who are not with us here today. Obviously we have a space problem if we had everybody here, but as it is, this is wonderful. To help us work on our application, we will be submitting an application during the month of February, putting it together and then to help us cascade a vision, what do we want our STEM and STEAM learning ecosystem to be? That's so critical for us and then also to be able to develop the design principles for our ecosystem. Those are like guiding principles, right? What is it that we value in our city for this in our community, for this actual ecosystem to thrive and to move forward? So those are the reasons that we are going to be moving things forward in this whole area with the intent that we can develop the workforce, right? The workforce that we need to help our city continue to grow because of all the good things that you all are doing and taking them to another level so that we can take our great city to another level. I think that's something that's key to everything that we're doing so we're really excited about that. So I think that's the main thing I wanted to mention is to get us started and with that I'd like to first have a couple of people that I'd like to introduce that are going to take our moves forward this morning. First of all, I had an agenda up there, one should have an agenda at your table and that shows what we're gonna be covering today. So for that, one of the gentlemen that I had a chance to meet with this past fall and was very, very supportive from the point that we started talking about this and he immediately engaged his staff and I know that we have Jennifer Velazquez and Regina Yalovos who's been wonderful supporters. Give them a big round of applause for thanking for his leadership because he immediately embraced this and says we will, he said we will become a member and a part of this ecosystem initiative. Please welcome the director of the San Antonio Public Library, Ramiro Salazar. Thank you Dr. right now. It was not difficult to embrace your passion and your commitment when you approached me about support for making this initiative a possibility in every reality here in San Antonio. I want to again acknowledge and welcome Mayor Nuremberg and Councilman Treino. Thank you for being here, for supporting this initiative. I wanna thank all of you for your interest and continuing to work with us to make this initiative a reality. Dr. Reina identified our staff, Jennifer Velazquez who leads our effort in reaching out to our teams throughout the library system to engage the teams in activities and those resources that the library offers to allow them to make decisions for themselves that will benefit them not only in school and as they continue past school. Thank you Jennifer for your great work. On behalf of the staff, I wanted to extend to all of you a very warm welcome. I'm pleased to see such a large crowd again being interested in this wonderful initiative that you'll hear more about as the meeting continues. The library takes very seriously and understands the value and the power of partnerships and collaboration. So it was easy for us to partner with Dr. Reina for this initiative and we look forward to other partnerships as we identify other entities that can assist us in making this again this initiative a reality here in San Antonio. So I'm very proud of our staff. I'm very proud of the city of San Antonio for our collaborative efforts and thank you all for being here this morning because you demonstrate that collaborative spirit. Thank you. Thank you Romero for all your support that we had. Our next speaker, Mayor Narenberg, as you all know it was elected in June, specifically 10th, 2017. And he had been committed to public service most of his life, including serving as program director of the Annabert Public Policy Center. He was first elected San Antonio City Council in 2013 and I remember having worked with him all the way back to that point. And the former district gate council had made education a focal point of his public service and he continues to do that. As district gate councilman he started kids town hall meetings which gave youth an opportunity to learn about municipal government and advocate for solutions to challenges in their own community. This led students at Garcia Middle School to successfully advocate for a sidewalk which is so important in front of their school and gave other students a voice and a mechanism to interact with their elected officials. As mayor amongst many other initiatives he is working to meet with superintendents from all 16 Bear County school districts and is working with city staff to prioritize city services around our public schools. He and his office have been phenomenally supportive of this initiative and I can't tell you how much one of the staff members because all of them come Marisa Bono who's the chief policy person and of course we have Maria Luisa Cesar. Let's give her a big round of applause because she is very fantastic and thank you mayor for your leadership and that are to help have them join us and help us with what we're doing. And I know many of you have had that same personal experience of working with him directly and seeing the work that you all are doing be supported by our mayor. He'll have some news later about a smart city challenge where Dr. Zinkrat is. I know that we'll hear more about that over time that he's building out with several community partners and he would integrate the San Antonio tomorrow plan with this initiative as well. Personally I've had the opportunity to interact with our mayor like I said way back before he ran for city council and what I appreciate most about him is number one his willingness and ability to tackle tough issues, strategic issues for our community as well as to make the best informed decisions about what we're facing as a community and all the challenges that we have to deal with. It doesn't go unnoticed that I'm sure he has 10 other sessions today probably tonight and this weekend that he has to attend but that he made time to be here with us this morning as one another yet another opportunity to help take our city to another level. Let's welcome mayor, Rob Nairberg. I'm really excited to be here. And I wanna thank Maria SSR for my office for really being the eyes and ears of our STEM initiatives. It is true I was elected on June 10th, at least one person is counting the actual days. But all of those days in between then and now have been exciting because there's so many great things happening in our community. And I wanna thank my colleague Councilman Trevino here in district one for being a huge part of that. Here's a picture of our city, Jan. And I'm so glad that you're here. Jan is the executive director of this entire national program. Welcome to San Antonio. This is our city. In three years ago, three and a half years ago, we just opened one of now the premier performing arts theaters in the entire country, Tobin Performing Arts Center. If anyone's been there, you know, it's the incredible dynamic, acoustics, the quality performances in the history that's in that building. It was opened ceremonially with a performance by Paul McCartney that was fairly high dollar. But welcomed 1,754 music fans of all ages to enjoy music in the center of our city. As you may know, a couple of days ago, we had Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in the Performing Arts Center. He brought together people of all ages, people from all corners of our city, and there were 1,760 people in attendance. So that shows you the kind of city we are and the kind of STEM community that we're building. And so I wanna thank all of you for the work that you've done to bring us to this point. You may know that my job here and what I campaigned for was to bring all that work together to articulate a vision for our city that is better than what it is today and can advance us not just in our own local neighborhoods but across the world. And I'm excited because that's the commitment I made together with you and with people like Rudy and with Cliff and so many others that are in this room on particularly STEM initiatives. This is entirely true for STEM and STEAM initiatives at this point. We can no longer work in silos. And while the work of government and businesses and other sectors increasingly is isolated, the work in the STEM community in San Antonio has not been. We've seen incredibly strong partnerships already in collaboration in our school districts, working with businesses and universities to create STEM and STEAM programs tailored to jobs that we don't even know exist yet. We've seen museums like the Witte and the museum place a special emphasis on STEM learning. And we're seeing maker spaces pop up all around town giving residents of all ages a chance to code or to make things with their hands. This is all happening in our city organically. Now imagine when this room which is 100 strong becomes a convention center space that's 1,000 strong. That should be our goal. We know that systemic, function systemic here, raise your hands, rate program continues its work, connecting an elevated STEM and STEAM education. We know that Youth Code Jam, where's Debbie? Now has the single largest coding event in the state. And let us not forget that Debbie and Youth Code Jam and all those students that were involved in making really cool things in a matter of hours got a really good, great shout out from President Obama in 2016. A White House recognition for this little engine that could right here in San Antonio. And I just learned today that Austin is once again stealing one of our ideas. So Debbie will be hosting Youth Code Jam ATX with a San Antonio flair. And a little birdie told me that it might be moving farther south as well. So this is all happening right here in our community. So we know the work. And we know that sometimes it's happening collaboratively with great fanfare. But we also know that sometimes has to become always. Part of what we want to do today is create an ecosystem of interconnected steam and STEM partners who can best share best practices and amplify each of our work. And help us create the strongest possible application to become a new member of the International STEM Learning Ecosystem. We know also that the foundation is all about encouraging our students to use problem solving skills and critical thinking techniques. The path to opportunity for our students and for all of our neighbors lies in their ability to envision the jobs of tomorrow and not just in STEM or STEAM traditional careers. In fact, if you ask anybody who's hiring these days, every job is a STEM job. Every job is a STEAM job. It requires those skills. And we can't turn our backs on non-traditional education as well. And so as you look around the room today, I challenge you to consider exactly what Rudy said, which is that who's not here? Not everyone in this room, not everyone who needs to be in this room is here to help us recruit those that are missing so that they can help us with funding, members from our chambers of commerce. And I know Romeo is always on the front edge of that curve. So thank you, Romeo, for being a visionary in our chamber community. And other elected officials, councilman, always again, leading an innovation. In fact, we just together formed an innovation committee that he will be a strong part of. And also members within the business community who not only need to hire the students who are being trained and educated in our community, but also need to show the rest of the industry just what it takes to be a leader, but also why San Antonio is turning out the very best workforce that America's future has to offer. Today, we'll ensure that our amazing community partners will work together towards nurturing our next generation of leaders, building a pipeline for our future workforce, and reminding our students that they can truly be whatever they want to be. And so, Jan, we were talking a little bit earlier, and you were going about San Antonio I was appreciative of that because it feels like we're just getting started. But the truth of the matter is, San Antonio is the leading indicator of the leading indicator of the leading indicator. And if you need any further encouragement of the work that you're doing today, it's that if we solve these challenges here in San Antonio, the rest of our country is in really good shape. So congratulations and thank you so much for being here. First of all, for your leadership that you provide our city as well as for reminding us that STEM education is for all children, especially at the K-12 level, where we're really focusing on preparing them to be successful no matter what area and what career they decide to undertake, because if whether they decide to go to work right out of high school, or whether they decide to go ahead and pursue a higher education, they will have a really great opportunity if they are able to have a foundation that prepares them to be successful no matter what they undertake. So we really appreciate you. And we're gonna hold you to the fact that when we do have our future meeting at the Convention Center with 1,000 plus people, you will be there to help us kick it off. Let's thank them again, thank you. So I've been very blessed because last year, early in the year we started investigating this initiative that was taking place across the country and I had the opportunity to interact with folks at what I call the Backbone Organization that really helps support what takes place with the STEM Learning Ecosystem Initiative. And I was able to talk to Dr. Morrison-Jan and her staff and they were always so very inclusive, so very supportive, responsive, and I've always been very glad that we had a chance to meet at several conferences since then during 2017. And so today we're very, very fortunate to have the person who helps really lead this initiative at the national level. Someone who has an incredible vision for what we're trying to do, who works with the Grand Thunder's Network which I'm sure mentioned and who basically has been a teacher herself for 35 years in the STEM fields. 15 years ago she founded the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM, TIS, T-I-E-S, and then she's worked with philanthropy, corporations, community schools, and STEM-rich organizations to design for a world-class STEM education for all children, again for all children, and learners, and one of those is that basically mapped from workforce to economic development. She's a designer and supporter of STEM-Funders Network which she mentioned and the STEM Learning Ecosystem National Community of Practice. And I think we were just talking earlier, she's covered 20,000 miles in the last few weeks and which is incredible. So thank you, Jan, for being with us. Let's welcome Dr. Jan Morrison. It's always great to talk to you. Technology. There it is. Good morning. Good morning. So not everybody in my company fought to be here this morning, but I did. Why? Because for me, this is like coming home. 10 years ago I was here in San Antonio talking with many of you and others who have now actually been successful in retirement and about what it meant to bring STEM to San Antonio when the T-STEM initiative was being formed by the Communities Foundation of Texas and the Governor's Office and the Bill and the Linda Gates Foundation. So when I look around this room, I just have to smile. Mayor, that's why. Because there were three or four of us in this room at that time. And so what you've done in a decade has been remarkable. So thank you very much and it's a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to work with you and your folks and I know that this is just the beginning. Let me also be very clear about who I understand is in this room. Because who is in this room matters. It matters when you're talking about an ecosystem. So welcome to the universities, to schools, to STEM learners, STEM leaders, coordinators, business industry, employers, faith-based community, the Chamber, P-16, workforce folks, designers, artists, STEM-ists, and those who wish they were STEM-ists. Like the rest of us. Because it is the business to be in right now. When Amazon comes up with a STEM toy section, you know you've made it. So I do have a PowerPoint this morning and the reason to bring a PowerPoint is not that we're going to do STEM 101 or Ecosystems 101, but is to leave behind some record for you to use as you do the application for the national system. So I want to go over what the ecosystems are, what we're trying to accomplish, where they're located, how do we scale, and just the preliminary results. We've been in this for three years and I want to give you some guidelines on that and what it is. All right, STEM learning ecosystems. I come into the world in science. I taught science. I lived it. My father was Dougie Hauser. He was a physician by 18. My mother was on the Manhattan Project. So didn't I have any choice? Of course not. Of course not, the eldest in the family. But that was okay. At that time it was science, technology, engineering, and math with a period after each one. When a decade ago this country figured out that if we didn't help our children to understand how to solve the grandest of problems that we were facing and that these had nothing to do with the academic world that had to do with the way that nature presented it, the periods after each of those letters disappeared. That is not by mistake, that is by design. STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math. It is implied that and has always been that it is driven by design. The design thinking, the design process is the basis of all solving of all problems from Da Vinci, before Da Vinci, after Da Vinci, I used to have a pyramid up here. If we didn't think that that was design focused, then how did they get that, right? I know the aliens, but even the aliens had STEM, right? Even the aliens had STEM. The fact is whether you put the A there and you say the arts, you make it STEAM, it's always been there. So I would suggest to Santa Antonio is that you hold hands, take a deep breath, and agree that whether the A shows up or not, the A is there. Number one decision. The second thing is that, and this, it includes in and out of school, it doesn't matter if a student is found in the confines of a building we call school, or found in a museum, or found in a 4-H program, wherever a child or a person is found, they are learning STEM. And after a National Academy report called STEM Learning is Everywhere, we found that STEM learning is everywhere, 24-7. So we ought to be talking about a learning ecosystem, not just an ecosystem, but the emphasis on the fact that there is a driver in this. There is a result that's needed. And third, ecosystem. Man, we have gone through every kind of collaborative term possible in this country for STEM. When I first arrived here in Texas, we were talking about the statewide STEM networks. But a network lights up because of information that travels from one part to another. Doesn't imply that you make relationships. And collaboration for us as human beings is a tough go. Enlightened self-interest is what drives us. If we get something, we stay around. If we don't get something, we don't stay around. So it seemed to us that ecosystem was a better term. Why? Because if you go back to our roots of science and you look at Odom, who formed the work, an ecosystem is the travel of energy in the collaboration and formation of interdependence and relationships. And isn't that what this room is? Aren't, we couldn't even get you quiet this morning. The amount of energy, the amount of learning, the amount of relationships indicates the ecosystem and hence the launch of the STEM learning ecosystem. What are the key five features of a thriving STEM learning ecosystem? It's very interesting in doing the research about what worked in this country, across the country. We found that there were things that did work really well and that we could learn from. And what we found was first and foremost, you have to have cross-cutting sector partnerships. Everybody has to be in this room and that's the point that you made. Who's not here counts and they have to be invited. They have to find a seat and their voice and that hug, that ecosystem hug that they have to have. You establish an architectural and organizational features for sustainability. Very important. The STEM learning ecosystems is not a STEM program. It makes that which the work that goes on better because it is the opportunity to provide for connective tissue and for enabling your work to do its job to a better degree. In that, you're gonna find gaps. You're gonna find challenges and you'll plug them and you'll go ahead and you'll learn and you'll continue. But the ecosystem is not gonna provide programming. It is an alignment in and out of school to workforce, to workforce that is connected and extricably connected to economic development. So I'm gonna stop here for a moment. I cannot emphasize this enough. We're all here. We care about our kids. We don't wanna lose this generation that's in school and out of school that are here right now. We've got it, but we have to also plan for the future. So as you're thinking about ecosystems, you solve the immediate where your feet, where you want right now, what counts, those babies that are in front of you. But you also have got to consider what those who are coming. And so a future vision is absolutely critical in the formation of your ecosystem. And I think when I looked back, I think we need to push that to a greater degree here. You have an idea of what economic development is. You've got to push that. We don't know the jobs that are coming down that hike decades from now, but good, critical thinkers, smart designers, in your city, those youngsters and those future youngsters will be able to handle it. To ensure all educators are equipped and trained and benefit and have impact. Educators, that means it's at least teachers, but it is not only teachers. We have an entire after school environment of educators. We have educators who are family members. Every family member, every parent group and group in San Antonio are educators. Those are all folks who need to understand how best to do this. And finally to create articulated college and career readiness pathways. And the way we look at the pathway is it's not the yellow brick road to some 30 year profession. It is indeed going to be an interstate path, on paths, off paths, on stackable credentials, real labor market value. Big thing, they have to provide enough funds so a family, so your children can raise their families and so that they can take a vacation. So their life has quality. STEM, and we don't talk about this enough, but the ecosystem does. STEM has to be a quality of life issue so that it brings to your most impoverished hope and a real future for what they see is how they wanna live their lives. And I can't emphasize that enough. How do we hope to accomplish this? Conditions have to be achieved over a period of time focusing on access and opportunity. Diversity is not the issue, access is the issue. Equity, being equitable so that it's not separate, but that it's together. Participating STEM learning ecosystems, some of the demographic information, we have over 600,000 PK-12 teachers and informal educators right now in the community of practice. 1,300 school districts, 19 million students and counting. There are 14,000 school districts in our country and we aren't even close. And that's why when the mayor talked about San Antonio entering because you are a slice of life, it is critical that you not only get this right for yourselves and for your children, but that you get this right for the nation and the people who have, who the co-chairs and the funders of the national community of practice they get this and that's why I'm here because we believe this. We are talking about cultivation. Cultivation is different than squeezing, pressing, compelling and guilting. It means that everybody comes to the table because there is that enlightened self-interest that is going to feel helped to grow and develop and then scale it. So we know that there's skeptics and there are people outside the STEM community who are still not gonna get on board. Proof is in not the talk, it's in the work. And that's the important piece here. So deep technical assistance comes with the national community of practice, curated conversations, in-person convenings. Year one, there's, as you can see, there's a whole section of support systems in year two, year three, but I wanna focus on the word and beyond. There is never a time in the national, in the STEM Learning Ecosystem Project and the national community of practice that there isn't support. It dust isn't a drop off. Now, how do we do this? It isn't because there's a flow of money. It is because the theory of action is a flow of services. Technical assistance is a big deal. Actually designing that connective tissue here is gonna take work. We're all gonna have to roll up our sleeves. We're gonna send people to work with you on this. And those thousand people, if there are a thousand, then they need to be here because everybody needs to understand what the role of design is in creating what's gonna work for you all. Individually it's all going like guns. What works for the city itself is that you are together and that you do your work and you make decisions by doing it together. So this is a really important piece and this is not a three year commitment. It is a long term commitment. So here's the location map so you can take a look at the 56. We have three cohorts. Cohort four will open up in late winter, early spring and an invitation for you to apply and you have the formal invitation. So that is a given. So that is one of the reasons I'm here and an invitation for us to help you in order to make sure that is spot on. We scale the work and once you're in it, through these community of practice meetings in which your attendance will be paid for for now in the future and what you like, what's working, you will then do as presentations to other ecosystems. You'll join issued centered questions and practices because you have a problem that you wanna solve. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. Tulsa, Oklahoma decided as you did, they had lots of asset and about five years ago got their act together before the ecosystem project and pulled together all the design work and got and created their ecosystem, joined the ecosystem project and they have somebody who's head of it, Exan Black, engineer, stupendous. She is full time at this work for Tulsa but she's full time at it for the ecosystem. There isn't a day she doesn't talk to another ecosystem. Somebody calls her and says, Exan, I've been wrestling with this problem, what's Tulsa doing about this? Or can you come tomorrow, we'll pay your way, we need you to be here at this particular meeting with our legislators who are concerned with a decision. And she's all over the place and head of Orange County STEM in California all over the place. The head of Syracuse all over. What has started to happen is exactly what we said. The idea that everybody works together, they lean on each other and they create a real ecosystem. So let's see if I can get this. This is not hip to sound, is it? It is hip to sound? Okay, let's see if we can actually get this. I thought I'd show you what one of these things looks like. It's gonna go. So you scale the work because we eliminate the random acts of STEM and we create STEM learning ecosystems. That's really important, that comment. So the other thing that you're entitled to is that we found that leadership of an ecosystem isn't because you care enough or that you've been prepared in other ways. So the leaders of the ecosystems now have an opportunity to come together in a leadership institute called Leeds STEM. We have 22, it's the first year of it and after you're admitted to the national then your leadership will be able to apply for this and it's a year long, it's just how do you lead a STEM? STEM learning ecosystem and how does leadership in San Antonio differ from leadership elsewhere? So that's important. So let me give you some preliminary results after three years, so why do this? What's so important, what have we found? First of all, we have found that there's significantly, statistically significant improvement in cross sector collaborations. Not surprising, but that's really critical in terms of aligning in school and out of school and also with common learning outcomes in STEM so that the standards that are being held to the schools, the schools help, their feet to the fire on that are also being shared by the out of school areas. 29% of all the ecosystems show growth in at least one indicator category that they have picked. 89% of all them show in two categories. This is after three years and some of them it's only after one year because they're in cohort three. 60% have demonstrated growth in three of the indicators. So what does that mean? That means that the way that they have designed their ecosystems and the success, levels of success that they have determined for themselves, they are meeting and so in the design work to become an ecosystem, you will determine that and it's our expectation that is within three years you're gonna start to have indicators that actually indicate that you're moving ahead, you're advancing and it's very, very important for you to know that we understand that this is not a reclamation project. There are cities that are absolutely my own, my own voice and still is working on it. This is to advance what's already moving and shaking it and what we see is that that's not unexpected, that expectation is not unreasonable. So why? Because you're mature in so many ways because you have multiple STEM schools and academies, you have a thriving STEM economic development forecast, you have robust STEM out of school opportunities, unbelievable, you are driven by local government, you have gaps and challenges that are becoming clear and what's clear is I left a lot of room on the bottom to keep listening to that, right? So that we know why this and why now but it isn't for me to determine, that is for you to determine and that's important but I wanna also and I know my time is, I'm gonna pass a little bit of the time but I just wanna leave with a couple of important pieces. When STEM came into the world a decade ago, the name was as I said, when lost the periods after each one. It was also a very narrow banded understanding of what STEM was and it was highly academically prized by the National Science Foundation. It is now STEM is design thinking and design literacy. It's computational thinking, computational literacy. It is driven by the arts, it is driven by big data, by the internet of things, by economic development, connection to workforce and it is driven by the creation of stories. If you do not create stories, you are not doing STEM because it is those stories that we tell about our children, about the inventions, about innovation that are what make the actual fabric of the city and of what you can call success. Those, as I said before, have to be future-facing and it has to be clear because this is hard work and when you decide and it seems like you've decided, you're here on a very early morning at the end of a week and you've decided that you have to be relentless and sustaining. It takes commitment but it takes us creating the story. So my expectation is I'm leaving this behind, use it, call us, we're happy to help that this time next year, we're celebrating all the new successes. You are invited in the spring to US News and World Report to the Community of Practice meeting. Please come, please join us in California as a new STEM learning ecosystem next fall. We're gonna be in California. Please join us then and please invite us to help make this begin, this beginning and the fact that you're holding hands and walking over that line together to be robust, strong, and the best thing that ever happened to these kids in this town. Thank you, Jan, and especially for the great leadership that you and your organization are providing on behalf of this initiative, as well as we can see that our youth with initiatives like this are in good hands as we move forward and think of the future. One of the things I'd like to do is go back if we could go back to the previous. So when we started this initiative to start planning and thinking about it, not knowing what we were completely going to be getting involved with across the community, we put together a small committee to help us think through the process of what we were gonna be doing. And I'd like to ask those folks who were involved or steering committee, which included Dr. Cliff Zittgraf, Rebe Schaffer, David Monroe, founder of the New Science and Technology Museum here with us today, Damiro Cavasso, Sophie Torres, Bill Neely representing Code Jam, Chris Cook, Joe Sanchez, Adam Cavasso, and Patrick Felty. Could you all please stand and let's give them a big round of applause. Let's get the ball rolling and in their own stead our leaders in our community have done a wonderful job in those areas. Now, as we move forward, I'm gonna skip this slide and go because we started looking at also putting together committees that would allow us to really, in essence, provide input via committees to the initiative that we were gonna be involved with the application, the vision, the design principles that I mentioned before. And so there you see a lot of the usual suspects in terms of categorical areas and with students and even teachers could be in the middle, of course. And again, we're talking about P20, all the different groups that at this point in time we're looking to help us make this happen in terms of the application process and then moving forward after we get that designation as Jen mentioned. And so again, we need to understand that we have to apply as a city, we have to be accepted into this initiative as well. So this was a mechanism that will help us move in that direction. To that end, pardon the detail, but let me go through this real quickly. We've set up committees, as you saw in the previous one, and let me just tell you who the leaders are asking to, if they're not standing, please raise your hands and stand for the informal learning group that includes museums, that includes the libraries, I think the Inventures Group here in San Antonio, we have Jennifer Velasquez, where she's a fact who will be leading that group. So everyone at the end of the meeting, you'll know who's heading up that group. We know we will have a media group and has to be determined who's heading that up. I wanna thank the Executive Vice President of our Northside Chamber, who's gonna be in, can you stand please, Cristina Alvarete, who's gonna be handing out the, the minute we can all applaud for them, but the Chamber group, we have on the business side, been very fortunate, we have four folks who are helping us initially lead this, Monica Simpson, who is basically, you know, helping us with her company as well, Tyler Schraer, Ken Kingry, and Sybil Pennington, you'll all stand, and so forth, Booz Allen Hamilton, we have basically Bowen, and I don't think Ken was able to make it, I don't know if he was doing well, and Inkyu, and Sybil Pennington, so they'll be helping us address the corporate business side. We have Jake Lopez, who's helping us with, with the, I think, I don't know if he's still here. Jake, please stand, stay standing, he's helping us with the professional organizations, like, say, STEMIC, a lot of organizations that we have in our city who make this work, on the government side, of course, you know, Maria Visa, Cesar and Marisa Bono have been very helpful here, thank you for helping them, for helping us by making them available to us to help with this initiative. On the STEAM side, and second, you'll get to hear from Nadia, where's Nadia Boteo, she's here somewhere, I think they go, Nadia, you'll get to hear a little bit about STEAM, we're looking, still working with parents, on the college, out of the community college, Dr. Jody Duncan, Jody, could you please stand, so far, so everybody can see, and then at the university level, we have four universities, we'll tend to have all of them, but where's Dr. George Wemmings, could you please stand, he's gonna be heading us up, from Marlia to the lake, and we have, of course, K-12 is a huge, huge initiative for our city, like anywhere else, and for the teacher side, Rave Shaper's gonna be helping, because of the fact that she's, works with K-12 extensively, with our public school system, for region 20, Dr. Eddie Rodriguez, where's Dr. Rodriguez, who heads up, he's gonna help with our administrators, he heads up the STEM, already college high school, in Harlandale, Deborah Rice, bless her heart, wasn't able to be with us, because she was feeling ill today, but she's gonna be hitting up the STEAM coordinators, and then the out-of-school time group, which is now a part of P-16 Plus officially, as I heard, where's Lea Rosanaro, could you please thank her, she's gonna help us lead the out-of-school, and that's a critical, critical group for us, as we move forward, because we know how important that is for our city, and then we have a group right now, Workforce Solutions Alamo, the Economic Development Foundation, SA Works, and I know the CEO, I believe, of Workforce Management, George Hemp, let's welcome him as well, he's gonna be working with us on this, so this kinda gives you an idea I have met, we will have students represented, I've already met with the students we met with groups, thanks to Jennifer Velazquez and John Jay, who are basically the STEM school here at San Antonio, and so we'll be working with groups like that to help us bring together student representatives, so as someone said, you know, I said, herding cats, it's actually like herding bears and lions, but really, really a big initiative, but we're really looking forward to it, because I'm very proud of our community, very proud of San Antonio, when you look across the board here, just in our own city, you know, what we've been able to do just this morning with everyone that's here, and as we move forward, we have a very, very unique community, and I know where's Cliff, we've always talked about the uniqueness of San Antonio and what this means to us, and how that's gonna help us through what we're trying to get to, so this is kind of an overview of the entire, you know, this point kind of schematic of what we're looking to do, so as we move forward with our, this morning just real quickly, you know, I could talk about STEM and STEAM, but I know my limits, so I want to make sure that we have folks who really understand what we're dealing with, and because I know you are the choir, many of you in here are definitely the experts in dealing with our kids that's open, dealing with, you know, these issues that we have and these opportunities and challenges, and so I've asked one of the persons who I have the highest regard in terms of what she does for our community in STEM education, because I think K-12 is such an integral and important part of what we're doing is to prepare our kids, and so she's amazing, because Rave Shaper, who's a coordinator at Region 20 Education Service Center, if you are involved with STEM education, somehow you're going to see Rave somewhere involved with everything related to that, and most importantly, Lester Hart, you know, no matter when I call, I'm sure you see the same things, she always says, yes, Lester Hart, no matter what she has on her plate, and I know her plate had to be, you know, bigger than what this week, so let's welcome Rave Shaper, she's going to talk to us about STEM education. Sweet, real sweet introduction, so Gian really hit some of the key points that I want to share with you, and it makes me laugh thinking 10 years ago, when we were figuring out what STEM was in Texas, it began as T-STEM, Texas STEM, and that whole inception at the Communities Foundation of Texas was a design, how do you build STEM in a school? So knowing that in Texas we had traditional schools, how do you create STEM for real in a school? So a lot of the work that Gian did, so years and years ago, as they were designing the rubric that we now use statewide, we were figuring out as professional developers how you build the professional development to support that infrastructure. So the beauty of the last 10 years is that we now have in Texas a model for STEM, how you go about building a culture, an infrastructure, some things to think about, reflecting on your school and your system, to know where you are in your development, with the goal always of becoming a role model campus. And there are some of those campus representatives in this room today. So we have been learning together for the last 10 years. It's very exciting and really, really hard work. So over the last 10 years, some of the things that we've learned is that along the blueprint, a couple of the most difficult places to do the work is building a STEM culture that is strong, building strategic alliances that are strong, understanding what your mission should be on a campus and how you drive to that mission every single day. Those are some of the key parts of that T-STEM design blueprint that are difficult to do. So 10 years ago, we would never have been sitting in the room together in this way. Business, higher ed, K-12, all sitting together in this room. But today in San Antonio, the landscape looks much different. So 10 years ago, it was a very formal blueprint, figuring out what it means, what you do, how you do it on several key points. The other thing was that that was a really formal way of approaching STEM, a formal way of making STEM happen on a campus. And at the time, as Jen said, it was science period, technology period, engineering period, math period. What we know now, it's evolved tremendously. The real work of STEM now is real world problem solving. How do we bring the problems that are actually happening today in San Antonio to students so they can wrestle with it and find multiple solutions that are viable? They are the problem solvers of the future. So STEM today in San Antonio is a result of all of this collaboration. The fact that we can sit around a table together, move forward together, support kids together, that's the real goal. So 10 years ago when it was formal, we didn't know what we were doing. We know a little bit more about what we're doing. And as Jen said, there are really cool collaborative things happening in pockets all around the city. So imagine if the pockets came together, how we move forward together, what's new, what's innovative. So STEM today is a reflection of all of that investment from 10 years ago being built and evolving over time. It's a very exciting place to be. There you go, all right. So I know Nadi's gonna talk a little bit about STEM. One of the points I wanted to bring to this conversation is that when we talk about STEM 10 years ago, it was STEM because that's where the funding was. That's where the state of Texas built a rubric around. That's why it was called STEM at the time. It is still called STEM, but it has multiple iterations of STEM. There is stream, so for our archdiocese folks in the room, we've supported the conversation around religion and STEM. There are STEEN, there are lots of different iterations of STEM, but what we really wanna have happening are students communicating effectively, collaborating effectively, and problem solving effectively with real world viable solutions. So that is the goal of STEM every day in San Antonio. So I think Nadi's gonna talk to us a little bit more about her perspective on STEM from the arts vision. So, Dr. Anna? And before we go follow the agenda, we do have one thing, we're gonna have to switch a quick item just because of schedules and so forth, but let me mention that when I, we will have our STEEN in just a minute conversation. When I was looking at last year's cohort that became a part of this ecosystem initiative, notice that initiative became international when they added British Columbia last year. So congratulations, Jen, to your organization and to everything that's taking place for broadening, I think, because that's a wonderful, wonderful extension that was made. And so when we heard about that, we decided, well, you know, we have a neighbor that's right near us too, that it would be great if we could understand more about each other in these areas and work more collaboratively. So we had an opportunity to talk to the council general here in San Antonio, basically from Mexico to San Antonio, and Reina Torres-Mendavil, and she embraced this concept and was very, very supportive. So I'd like to just have her come up because she, our ambassador to San Antonio from Mexico basically comes to us with extensive experience with the Department of Mexican Foreign Relations. She is a former director of the General Protection of Mexican Citizens Outside of Mexico. She has helped posts in the Department of Foreign Relations to include a general coordinator of Department of State and Human Rights. And she graduated in International Relations from the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico, UNAM. She obtained a master's degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. And most importantly, she's been very supportive of seeing how we could connect what we were doing with our neighbor, Mexico. So let's please welcome our ambassador, Reina Torres-Mendavil, who's right in front of me. Thank you so much. I am delighted because this particular initiative is very close to my heart. We've been talking a lot about education, how education can change our future, but this is a whole different game and I'm going to give out my age, but this is something absolutely new to me. This is something that wasn't out there when I was studying. But the thing is that our future depends on this kind of initiatives and the way we will conduct our two countries. The way our two countries are going to solve our problems in the future has to do precisely with these kind of initiatives. So I'm very happy to be here. Thank you to our host, Mr. Sarasar, and the Council Member Treguinho, and the City of San Antonio have been amazing for taking the leadership in this issue. And of course, Mr. Reina, you are an incredible partner. And thank you so much for engaging the Consulate in this project. I'd like to say that the problems that will affect our countries in the future doesn't have a border. They don't have a border. That set of problems doesn't have a border. We can draw the line whatever you want, but at the end of the day, the issues that the kids that are now in the school system are going to be solving in the future are going to be common, are going to be shared. So the thing that we take the first step now and engage our communities to make possible a very competitive, eco-friendly, sustainable future for our two countries is the worst thing to do. So for us, it was very important to find a border in Mexico that we can bring to the table to be part of this application that San Antonio is kicking off today. And it wasn't very difficult for us to think how important would be not to go to the traditional institutions like an academic institution or governmental institutions, but to the civil society. I think that is very important because for our culture and our communities, this is something completely new. We were talking yesterday with Graciel about this precisely, how the moms that take the kids to school don't have any idea about this. They still think that they will be doing good for the kids to take them to karate or ballet after school. Well, they should be taking for summer classes on robotics, the kids. So it is important for us that this in Mexico has a tie and a route in civil society. So that's why I think it's very important that we have engaged this organization. Graciel is going to talk later on a little bit about this. And once again, this project is very important for Mexico. We are very happy to be part of this and we have to thank Mr. Reina for this. And we're partners, we're neighbors, and we will be solving these problems together. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Council General, especially for all of your leadership, because we wouldn't have been able to really get to the point that we are in terms of having Mexico consider applying as well as an international partner without the leadership, without the help of yourself. I know Efren, Diana, and of course, Yuvia, who's here with us, has done a tremendous job. And I want to thank you all and let's give them a round of applause for all the support that you all have given us to bring together the next opportunity for an international member. So we're going to go back to where we were in our agenda as well, because we want to make sure I know she had an appointment in a few minutes, so that we wanted to make sure that we had a chance to have you introduce the next person that we're going to speak to in a few minutes. So when we were looking at, and with our small committee, what to call ourselves in terms of STEM versus STEAM and so forth, it wasn't clear, especially to me, because I'm not very well versed in the field of STEAM. And so what that really entails, until one of our city folks introduced us to a person here in our city who is from San Antonio, someone who is a ninth generation Tecana. She's born and raised in San Antonio. And she's an artist, a composer, an engineer, an educator. She works and teaches at the intersection of art, music, science, and technology. And when I got to meet her, I was very, very taken by her background. Someone so young and yet so accomplished. You know, currently an artist in residence here in San Antonio and she's developing a new body of work based on the San Antonio River. And preparing to premiere, this is a world premiere, a sound installation commissioned and presented by music at the Anthology Matam, which is an organization that world's most sought after performance opportunity for young and emerging composers. And as well as the composer Philip Gates, listen to this. I'm trying to figure it out. A swimming pool engineered to develop the technology into a live organic instrument that's both experienced and performed by the audience as they move within the pool. Okay, now I have to read that several times. So, it tells you just how amazing and I've had a chance to look more into her area. Please welcome Nadia Roteo. Especially, I actually wrote the mayor's office about and asking if there were any STEAM initiatives in the city and she got back to me and connected me to Dr. Reina and thus the ecosystem. So that is sort of a really good example of how the ecosystem is already working. I'd like to make a few comments about STEAM as we begin this process. As a framework, STEAM helps promote a deeper understanding and transfer of knowledge across subjects. It seeks to create functionally literate people by increasing depth and broadness of proficiency. Shifting to a STEAM perspective means understanding learning contextually. The inclusion of the arts as an equitable partner and genders creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, flexibility and social and cross-cultural skills. These are all highly coveted qualities by most HR departments and some of these overlap with skills already fostered by a traditional STEM foundation. STEAM also helps prepare students to be lifelong learners in pursuit of higher education, skilled trade, innovative career paths and well-balanced lives. It is a career and life-reading as way of educating and learning that is adaptable to the rapidly changing world we live in. STEAM advocates for informed and involved citizens and preserves the human element. STEAM is also benchmarked, measurable, inclusive and easily adapts to and reinforces education standards in unique and engaging ways. It develops curricula that is representative of the surrounding culture and is aware and tolerant of diversity in different perspectives. Like STEM education, it is supported by constructivism, project-based learning and a variety of other learning theories and allows for self-directed process and inquiry-based learning. Decade-long research by early STEAM developer, Georgette Yakman shows significant improvements in student engagement and retention and stronger interest from families, communities and businesses when utilizing a STEAM-based approach. STEM organizes the materials, principles and processes of what and how things can be done. STEAM includes the why and by whom things are done. The veracity of STEAM can be witnessed in the excellent programming already happening here in San Antonio. I've had the incredible opportunity over the last month to engage and meet with our local STEAM arts-based educators. We have SMART SA, supporting multiple arts resources together in their I Love My Brain campaign. SMART, working in collaboration with the UT Health Science Center and PhD candidates in neuroscience, empowers students by teaching them about how their brains function and with emphasis on taking ownership of their brains. SMART connects the study of the five senses to neuroscience and develops art curriculum around the optical illusion art movement. Students create art pieces and conduct science experiments based on what the children have learned about their sensory abilities. They believe that art is neuroscience and that neuroscience is art. CACI and their Hive Studio, Home for Innovation and Video Ecology, students tell stories native to the digital realm and make things at the intersections of art and technology. The Hive challenges youth to think about interactivity, to analyze art and new media, and to understand how to assemble systems in order to say something with them. So we have spare parts in the mini art museum, intersecting science, art, and sustainability. They inspire us to change the way we interact with and consume the things around us. They believe that trash is the failure of the imagination. They have diverted tons from the landfill through their reuse programming and initiatives. They support cultural and environmental sustainability, provide affordability and accessibility to the arts, offer community education and foster creativity, green style. We have Urban 15, guided by their mantra of art through available technology, has over 40 years of programming. A brief sampling would be their work with children in Texas border migrant camps during the 70s where they introduced Apple IIs and early sound electronic devices with grants from the US Departments of Education and Labor. And since 1986 have been developing laser and video projection presentations for elementary students exposing over 65,000 children to technology through the arts along the way. We have the Southwest School of Arts. Their Kids Initiating Design Solutions program introduces elementary students to architecture, art and design in a curriculum of presentations, field trips and design projects at no cost to participating schools. A partnership with schools, design professionals, teaching artists and university students, they emphasize creative problem solving, learning about historical, social, cultural and environmental influences on the built environment and becoming aware of how art and design can change their communities. We have Dr. Colnick Craig, her math through mariachi program, a collaborative culturally responsive approach to teaching fractions in a bilingual mathematics classroom and her work teaching geometry through traditional Mexican tile work. These neuroscience and art, create creative coding, sustainability, available technology, architecture and design, the map of music. It's a very small representative of our original rigorous community developed steam programming already happening here. San Antonio's crown jewels are our arts and culture. It's a significant factor in why our people stay here, why people fall in love and visit time and again and some never leave. Together with the strength of our STEM community, we have the incredible opportunity to develop a truly innovative STEM steam ecosystem, one that's for San Antonio and by San Antonio. We can lead the nation in collaboratively spearheading, shaping and improving upon the STEM steam conversation for the betterment of our youth and our city's future. If we really wish to be a world class city, able to foster, retain and attract the best talent across industries, we need to embrace, include and concretely support both the arts-based and STEM education. If you have any doubts as to how steam might apply to you or your industry or how it might be of benefit to our community, I'd like to invite you to join us at the steam table so we can connect the ways that the arts are relevant and necessary. Please come speak with us, please collaborate with us. Whether it is steam or STEM, if San Antonio is to truly become an effective learning ecosystem, we need to embrace our similarities, understand and leverage our differences and do what truly makes our city unique by being the leading example of our nation and the best place to prepare our youth for their future and for the workforce of tomorrow. We hope this is the beginning of a much longer and larger conversation. Thank you. Isn't she great? This is wonderful. Thank you, Daniel, for leading and providing the leadership for our steam components and so forth, because they are very critical and while they do intersect with many of the things that we're doing in STEM education, they're also very, very important because we talk about the soft skills sometimes which are really the critical skills, right? Again, Cliff, the things that we talk about related to our employers and so forth which are very, very important. So we really, really are glad that we have a strong, strong steam component with our initiative that we're gonna move forward. So our ambassador mentioned earlier that they were helping us really see what we could do to find an organization in Mexico that might be interested in applying as well. It would be a separate application. They are in a separate category because they're international, but it would also be an opportunity to be a collaborative application with our application because we would be able to work together to learn more about each other and as I tell folks sometimes, I don't know how many of you in the room are aware, but Mexico produces more engineers than we do in this country and that's a fact, which is amazing and so forth. So there's always opportunities for us to learn, for them to learn, so we can all both grow together in what we're doing I think with all our initiative because there's a lot of great things going on. So because of our consulate's office, we were able to connect with someone in Mexico who is doing a wonderful job. It's an organization called the Movimiento Estem, which of course is pretty obvious translation and so forth, it's a national organization across the entire country and the person that helped found and the CEO of that organization, Graciela Rojas is with here today. With us today she made the trip from Mexico City to learn about what we were doing and we could learn about what they were doing and she's a funder and director and I had to really figure this out myself too of Professor Chiflado, which is not a, it's a concept, but none the less. So in Mexico that she has started and I know that they have over 3,000 events and she probably will talk about that in a year which is incredible how they do this, but in 2014 that concept was awarded the National Entrepreneur Award and in 2015 they received the National Quality Award and she has driven scientific thinking for more than 20 years as part of social welfare in San Antonio and in 2014 in New Mexico and in 2014 she was recognized as one of the most outstanding executives in the country by the executive world. In 2015 one of the top 10 entrepreneurs by the magazine Expansion and in 2017 one of the 100 most powerful women by Forbes. Please welcome Graciela Ronas. Awesome, finding us also the friend here and I am going to present what we are doing in Mexico in my meeting with them, I don't know if it's that. This is good. First of all, this is like a little introduction of some important data, no? Did you know that for example by 2050 they will be two additional billion people who suffer from hunger in the world, no? And at least one of four people will live in a country affected by chronic storage of fresh water and half of the world population lives barely with the equivalent of two dollars. These are the part of the data that comes of the Sustainable Development Goals and also in the world that we are that the children will, it will, sorry for my English, but it is affordable, the revolution, no? We are talking about Watson, all that thing of tales that Google in making cars, no? And also the 3D production of the world, it is the 10% of the production of the world will be printed in 3D, no? So this is the world that we are now having. The impact of this for revolution will be 5% of the full jobs of the world, 45 activities of the jobs and 65 of the jobs for the second generation do not exist. But we must, what we must understand is according to the Julian, this generation between nine and 19 years all is the first generation that can finish with extreme poverty in the world but more important is also the last one that can end with a climate change. In other words, this is the generation that really can change the world but what is very worrying in a lot of countries and in Mexico also is that a lot of the teachers that are responsible of this education do not even know the millennial goals. We need to act fast and to empower them to fulfill their mission or simply as a humanity we will not achieve these goals, no? So what we are doing in Mexico, we are trying to, well, this is the model that we are trying to improve in Mexico, no? We are asking that the teachers that they should work with this model that we're starting with a real problem, social problem in science and mathematics, working in an inclusive team, not girls versus boys, no, an inclusive team, using the technology and the arts to create the solution and using this design thinking and engineering process, to create the solutions. So with this, the students can present like an elevator pitch of the solutions, so a prototype to start making these dreams come true. With this, we are developing the STEM competencies that is critical thinking, problem solution, productivity, communication, collaboration, data literacy and computing and IT. And according to the World Economic Forum, these are the most relevant competence to the next century. What are we doing? We are like integrating the STEM ecosystem in Mexico, so that's why it is so good that we can be integrating to a global STEM initiative like STEM ecosystems. And also we are like making things, we are trying to get to to publicate a book that can show the state of art of the STEM ecosystem in Mexico. It is missing a lot of research, research, relevant research to understand the real state of this ecosystem in Mexico. So we are trying to join a lot of people that are in this ecosystem to know and to have a general relevant research and create these reports to have a publishing and this will be like a reference in Latin America. Also, we are like making a lot of efforts for dissemination and awareness of STEM. A lot of parents in Mexico do not know the relevance of this STEM, so we want to show that why it is important to their children to get a job in this new context of the world. And then we are also developing these competences because as I told you, this model, it is not known all across the country. So we are like certifying professors so they can notice these goals, this model, this kind of, this way of thinking so they can develop and teach in this way in the classes, no? And then what results we expect it is the last part, the competitive talent for that 21th century. In Mexico, we have a lot of people that don't know so this can affect to 11 students in all our country and we have teachers for a high school and junior high school and senior high school. There are almost one million teachers in this sector of the educational system. So it is very, very important for us, the teachers will be the STEM ambassadors that can convince this new generation to solve these world problems that all of us are so worried about. Our impact, we are trying in this year to impact 500 teachers, 5000 teachers that can impact in 250 teenagers and juniors. And we hope that in five years, we can go for one million, train new students because we have these teachers very less ambassadors. We are trying to say that these children to think big and not to start a new entrepreneur entrepreneurship that is very, very small. We want them to think bigger because a solution will transform the lives of a billion of people. That is the way that we want the young people in Mexico think and we need the teachers as ambassadors to convince them and to empower them to do this. So that is what we are doing in Mexico. Our mission is to inspire the online that will change the world. And I am the founder and we have a board very, very, very important because it is the director, for example, of Google in Mexico, the director of Van Power, Monica Flores in Latin America, also G.E., also the president of the All Day. This is our board and we are, we think that we can together push the system to be became and stem system in Mexico. Thank you very much. Gracias, gracias a lot. Thank you so much. So we're also the end folks and basically at this point I'd like to have Reve come back and kind of bring it all together for us as we look at our committees and moving forward, Reve. Sir, thank you. Okay, so what are we gonna do next? What do we need to do? So one of the things we wanna do next is to really get your voice, time, talent and treasure. You know, we have that at mass, at least once a year, time, talent, treasure. Any one of those that makes sense to you to commit to this movement here in San Antonio, we'd love to have you lend that to this group. So before I go a little bit further, I wanna just recognize the leadership team from Education Service Center, Region 20. So Dr. Caroline Garcia is our deputy at the Service Center and then Janet Poth is our component director and Rudy said earlier that they, that I don't ever say no to him, it's because they say yes to me and that I can say yes to him. So I appreciate your support every single day through champions of STEM for all kids. So last couple of things that we really love to honor your time. So we know if you have to run, take this page and act on what you see here. There are two pieces on the back of your agenda and one we're gonna do right now in the moment and the other you can do right now or in the future. So there are two things. As we develop our vision as an ecosystem, we're really figuring out what the landscape is now and what we want to do together as an ecosystem. And so back to that mission driven piece, how do we drive towards that vision together unless we develop it together? And so what we really would love to have is your input. So there are two ways to provide some immediate input right now. One is a poll everywhere. So if you will look at the instructions, you can do it by text. You can do it on your device, on your laptop if you like, but we really wanna know what kinds of words, ideas, concepts are important to you that we should think about are the mission of this ecosystem. What can drive us toward that mission? So if you will text that if you'd like to do it on your device, you also have instructions there as well. So as you're doing that, it's just gonna populate as we're talking and I'll keep refreshing so we can see it. What we really wanna see are what concepts rise to the top so that we can really clearly articulate that as an ecosystem. So that's one thing we really need. That's one of your calls to action today. The second call to action is a much longer and I say much so 30 seconds right now and poll everywhere or five minutes on a Google survey. Please commit both if you can. At the very bottom of this back page of your agenda, there is a link to a survey and we would love for you to commit your words there and really it's getting your input, your insight. If you're part of the STEM Council, you have already done this probably. If you're part of the Education Workforce Committee at the Hispanic Chamber, you probably got the survey but we'll take your voice again. So give us all the data that we can possibly gather to help us build a strong application on behalf of the ecosystem. So those are two calls to action right now and I'm just gonna go ahead and post this so that we can take a look at how it's going so far. See the results are capturing right there for you. It's awesome. Let me get back to it. The thing we wanna ask of you as another call to action is on the tables, Dr. Rayna introduced chairs from each of the different committees that have agreed to come together and convene. So on those tables, if you look at the yellow sheet, so any of the chair folks, if you'll hold that up so folks around the room can see where you are, in just a minute when we kind of dismiss what we'd love to ask you to do is to find the placard that best represents where you wanna contribute in this ecosystem and there are a lot of opportunities there. On the back of that placard is a place for you to give your contact information so the chairs can continue reaching out to you and convening you, bringing you together to think about what the ecosystem needs to know about that group. So those are two pieces, well three pieces really. So pull everywhere, the Google survey and then decide which table you would like to go to, offer your contact information and be a part of those convenings over time. More technologically savvy than me that I can't get this word up here, convening at the table. Dr. Rayna, did you wanna close? Yeah, go ahead and come. Well first of all, thank you everyone for being here this morning. I know everyone is busy. I know everyone has a lot on their plates and yet you took time to be with us this morning for something that's very, very important for our community as we continue to move forward to take all the good work that all of you are doing in your own areas to help make San Antonio the best that it can be because I love San Antonio. I grew up here and the South side, I just think the world of every one of you because I have an opportunity to interact with you and thank you for being here this morning and for being a part of this and I really look forward to as we bring our committees together as we move forward with the application to get into the community so that we're in a position to really have what we would call everyone's thinking about what this ecosystem should be about and also work with our partners in Mexico and so forth who are going to be going through the same process so that we can collaborate. So thank you all very much for being here and we really appreciate you and we'll look forward to continuing our work with you. Way to see us.