GLOBAL MARATHON: 24 HOURS OF ENGINEERING INSIGHTS FOR WOMEN

Lenovo and Verizon Business Kickoff Live Webcast Event with Former Astronaut Sally Ride

The third annual “Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering,” providing insights and information on engineering careers to high school and college students, their teachers, counselors and parents, and professional women engineers worldwide, is scheduled for Noon EDT Thursday, March 22nd to Noon EDT Friday, March 23rd.

The Global Marathon, which coincides with Women’s History Month, was created by the National Engineers Week Foundation and is supported in 2007 by Lenovo and Verizon Business. The Marathon kicks off on March 22 at Noon EDT with a live webcast from the executive headquarters of leading PC-maker Lenovo near Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring Fran O’Sullivan, senior vice president of the Product Group at Lenovo, and former astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, and now President and CEO of Sally Ride Science.

A lively discussion on how women can prepare for a future in engineering and technology will close out the Marathon at 11:00 AM EDT on March 23, with Judy Spitz, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Verizon Business and Fred Briggs, Executive Vice President of Network Operations & Technology for Verizon Business, as these executives chat with female high school and college students.

Verizon Business also is providing the underlying network-based technology for the Global Marathon, including voice conferencing, net conferencing and webcasts, all of which will be carried by the Verizon Business global IP network.

The 24-hour marathon of webcasts, Internet chats and teleconferences at the Engineers Week website – www.eweek.org – connects an international community of women engineers and other professions with expertise in a wide variety of disciplines. Each presenter will lead a 30- to 60-minute presentation with postings and questions from participants worldwide. All sessions and presentations will be archived for future access.

“For me, the fascination of engineering comes from the ability to physically see what I’ve created,” said Fran O’Sullivan, senior vice president of the Product Group at Lenovo. “I’ve had the amazing opportunity to witness two great events in technology history. At IBM, I worked with NASA to test satellite payloads for the first launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. I then moved to the team at IBM that introduced the first personal computer. It is important that we hold events like the Global Marathon to expose girls early to the wonders of engineering.”

The Global Marathon was created to:

• provide a forum to share information for, by and about women in engineering for a variety of groups engaged in related issues;
• highlight to employers that women are still underrepresented in engineering;
• make many publics aware of existing programs and opportunities for girls and women
• help dispel myths about women & girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM);
• provide a unifying event for groups working towards recognition, recruitment and retention of women in engineering,
• increase awareness of STEM issues among pre-college, college, and young career women, and help to address issues of concern such as retaining women in college engineering programs and the workplace; and,
• provide opportunities to host local, live outreach events and connect them globally.

Sessions will originate from various locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Hong Kong, and Japan, and will also target audiences in Africa and Latin America. Selected topics include:

• Report on findings from “The Super Girl Dilemma: Girls Grapple with the Mounting Pressure of Expectations,” with Heather Johnston Nicholson, Ph.D., Director of Research for Girls Incorporated;
• Starting a career in the U.S., targeted to Latin American students, with Tatiana Hernandez, P.E., water resources engineer for Tetra Tech;
• A discussion on “How You Can Change the World” through technology by Kishiko Itoh, who develops and manages the infrastructure network for Lenovo Japan.
• “Things I Learned (or Didn’t) in College: Common Misconceptions About Who Engineers Are and What They Do” with Gina Otts, senior engineer with Verizon Business.

“I’ve been in and around the profession of science and technology for 25 years and these careers can take a lot of shapes and forms – from university professor to corporate researcher to network engineer to IT professional,” said Judy Spitz, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Verizon Business. “The challenge we face now is how to celebrate the incredible women in these careers in a way that catches the attention and fascination of young girls. It’s my hope the Global Marathon helps meet that challenge.”

Engineers have long promoted diversity outreach, but the Global Marathon takes on added urgency on the heels of startling findings from a survey of attitudes among high school girls, teachers and counselors, engineering students, and engineers. According to the Extraordinary Women Engineers Project study, led by a coalition of engineering associations and the WGBH Educational Foundation and released in April 2005, a staggering number of high school girls – more than 90 percent – do not even consider engineering as a career option.

Further, jobs requiring engineering and scientific degrees continue to increase, but the number of students preparing for these careers remains static. Women and minorities are particularly underrepresented. Currently, only about ten percent of America’s engineers are women, despite the fact that women make up 46 percent of the nation’s workforce. Women comprise 55 percent of all college undergraduates, but only 20 percent in engineering.

Even more troubling is that, despite the fact that less than 15 percent of U.S. high school students have the prerequisites to even pursue scientific or technical degrees in college, there is no lack of ability or preparation on the part of girls and young women. Previous studies have found that girls, on average, are just as or more likely as boys to have taken the high school science and math courses (biology, chemistry, physics, and advanced algebra) necessary to enter engineering school.

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About National Engineers Week Foundation
Engineers Week, a formal coalition of more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies, was founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers. The program is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers' contributions to society. Co-chairs for Engineers Week 2007, February 18-24, were the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and Tyco Electronics. Visit www.eweek.org for information on all Engineers Week programs.

About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE:992) (ADR:LNVGY) is dedicated to building the world’s best engineered personal computers. Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction, as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information about Lenovo, see www.lenovo.com.

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced technology and professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com/.