Mission Statement
Your Mission Statement spells out your organization's purpose. It describes the goal, the primary stakeholders, and core values or principles. You should be able to read your mission statement in 90 seconds or less. A mission statement consists of three parts:
- Who is your organization for? (Who is your target audience?)
- What contribution do you make to your audience? (Do you increase retention of Hispanic students in chemical engineering? Do you develop curriculum for high school physics teachers?)
- What makes your contribution unique? (What makes your project stand out from other projects working towards similar goals? What are your strengths and values?)
A good statement aligns both internal and external perception of your project or center. It is clear, well-written, and understandable to a layperson. It inspires other people to get excited about your project or center.
Here are some sample mission statements from other ATE Projects and Centers:
From ATEEC Tribal College Programs:
The mission of this project is to strengthen environmental science and technology programs at Tribal Colleges consistent with the unique needs and traditions of these communities. More specifically, this project will strengthen STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education at Tribal Colleges while acknowledging that there is a critical cultural component to the study of environmental science by Native Americans.
From The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University:
The guiding conceptual goals of CNS-ASU are two-fold: to increase reflexivity within the nanotechnology enterprise and to increase society's capacity to engage in anticipatory governance of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies. "Reflexivity" refers to the capacity for social learning that informs about the available choices in decision making about nanotechnology. This reflexiveness can signal emerging problems, enabling what we call anticipatory governance — the ability of society and institutions to seek and understand a variety of inputs to manage emerging technologies while such management is still possible. Through this improved contextual awareness, we can help guide the path of nanotechnology knowledge and innovation toward more socially desirable outcomes and away from undesirable ones.
From the CalWomen Tech Project:
The intent of this NSF initiative is to broaden the participation of girls and women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. In particular, the extension services are to "provide consulting services to educators and institutions, to enable them to adopt and embed proven gender-inclusive policies and practices in pedagogy, the design of curriculum materials, student support programs, educator, and faculty development (NSF 2004).
The CalWomenTech Project has three goals:
- Increase the number of women enrolled and retained in STEM education in the eight selected CalWomenTech community colleges.
- Institutionalize gender equity strategies in each participating college to make sure that the successful recruitment and retention strategies are used beyond the life of the project.
- Illustrate to the California and national community college system that STEM gender equity strategies increase recruitment and retention of women in STEM courses through both state and national dissemination of the project.