Orlando Watkins

1995

Orlando Watkins

Inspiring Careers in Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (ICEMS)

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

Credible research points to one panicking fact: minority students, both male and female, continue to lag behind in terms of math and science performance.

Just as important is the fact that failure to study math leads to loss of opportunity, most often for young women and minority students. It can close doors to vocational and technical schools, to colleges, to majors in rewarding careers.

ICEMS's mission is to foster excellence in mathematics and science, and to increase the number of minority students who pursue advanced degrees in these subjects. ICEMS currently targets 120 middle school students in three different public middle schools in the city of Atlanta.  It is a three-year program that targets 6th-graders, who are committed to remaining in the program through 8th grade.

Biography:

Mr. Orlando C. Watkins is Vice-President of Programs for the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and is a well-known leader in the areas of non-profit development and resource development. He has a well-documented history of leading large non-profits, expanding financial and programmatic bases of non-profits and implementing sophisticated strategies around the intersection of non-profit and for-profit interests.

 He currently serves on the Board of the Urban League of New Orleans.  In addition to starting ICEMS, he has worked on another Echoing Green-funded project, Jumpstart, as the Executive Director in the Southern Region.