Exelon Foundation's new Boys to STEM Academy program connects teen boys to career resources in the clean energy economy.
When some leaders talk about efforts to diversify their workforce, they cite a "pipeline problem," which is the idea that there isn't enough diversity or proper representation between an organization's workforce and the communities they serve with the required background and training to fill their jobs.
At Exelon, we're tackling this head-on. We know there are many talented people within our communities who are unfortunately unaware of the career opportunities at our company or in the energy industry. Through Exelon's six local energy companies, spanning throughout some of the most diverse markets in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic (Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.), we're proud of the 90 different workforce development programs we execute annually, designed to prepare adults and young people for careers that can support their families and their futures. In 2023 alone, we invested $18 million in these projects because we know they can make a real difference in Americans' lives. They also set our company up for success, ensuring we have the talent needed to usher in the new era of clean energy.
We're now focused on reaching one of the earliest parts of the pipeline: high school students. Expanding on our successful STEM Academy program for teen girls that has connected young people from across our jurisdictions, in order to offer new opportunities and help them envision a future career in STEM, we recently hosted 60 teen boys from across Exelon's service territory -- Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, my home state of Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. -- for a free, week-long STEM program, better known as the Boys to STEM Academy.
Thinking back through the trajectory of my career, it's simple for me to see where it all began. It started with an internship at a young age at what is now Exelon's Philadelphia electric and gas utility, PECO. It was this opportunity that allowed me to put everything into perspective -- from what I was learning in school to how it worked in practice in an actual career. It was that one opportunity that reminds me constantly of the importance of access to STEM education for all at a young age, in order to attract our future workforce.
"The Boys to STEM Academy has changed the way I view the world around me. The experience of acting as a project designer for Exelon made my team feel like we were truly contributing to something bigger than ourselves", said Tyler Washington, 2024 Boys to STEM Academy participant. "That sense of connection to the community and the impact of our work made everything we learned feel relevant and powerful. It gave me a deeper understanding of how engineers can drive positive change in our society."