Did you know that the wealthiest students in the US receive 34% MORE non-federal financial aid than the poorest, and just 11% of students from the bottom income quartile earn a degree within 6 years of starting college? The Last Mile Education Fund aims to fix this disparity by closing financial gaps for striving low-income students pursuing high demand careers in tech and engineering. Traditional scholarship programs seek to identify ‘top’ talent and reward them with support—as long as they stay on top. The Last Mile Education Fund takes an investment approach, identifying young people already committed to technology and engineering fields, providing support for challenges they face beyond their control, and incubating them to be the next generation of innovators. Launched in 2020, Last Mile has already disbursed more than $1M in emergency and gap funding to nearly 1000 aspiring technologists across the US, and is poised for scale.  Founder Ruthe Farmer will speak about the genesis of this disruptive approach, the learning opportunity presented by the unique data set that Last Mile is building, and their plans for policy change to better resource low-income tech talent.

Bio:

Ruthe Farmer is a talent entrepreneur laser-focused on inclusion and leveraging existing infrastructure to scale change. She has focused her efforts on diversity and inclusion in tech and engineering since 2001 and is the founder and CEO of the Last Mile Education Fund. Farmer previously served as chief evangelist for CSforALL, helping launch and scale the organization. In 2016, she did a tour of duty in government as senior policy advisor for tech inclusion at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy working on President Obama’s call to action for Computer Science for All. Previously, Farmer was Chief Strategy & Growth Officer and K-12 Alliance Director at the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) for eight years. Farmer is a guest contributor for TechCrunch, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, the Shriver Report, and the Huffington Post, and has been featured in Forbes, The Elective and TechRepublic. She holds a BA from Lewis & Clark College and an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Oxford Said Business School. She is passionate about integrating innovative business strategies into social change efforts.