Bosch’s Kathleen Bushnell Owsley: “Here Are Three Things We Can Do To Improve the US Education System”

An Interview With Penny Bauder

I think we have come a very long way! We are raising awareness with parents and students every day. I’d say that anyone can get engaged. As parents, we can keep an eye out for programs at schools, public libraries and nonprofit organizations that offer STEM plus environmental education and programming, we call this eco+STEM at Bosch. For instance, Friends of the Rouge, a Michigan based organization offers many family friendly programs focused on hands-on STEM education and nature-based activities.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kathleen “Kat” Owsley, President of Bosch Community Fund. Kat joined Bosch in 2012 as the first executive of the corporate foundation for Bosch in North America. Previously, she was Program Officer, Detroit/National Community Development at The Kresge Foundation. Prior to Kresge, Kat served as Executive Director of the Detroit regional initiative, One D, under Edsel B. Ford II and the CEO’s of seven civic organizations in Detroit. Kat served as Vice President, Market Development at the Detroit Regional Chamber where she worked from 1999–2007 overseeing their non-dues revenue portfolio and community engagement initiatives with chambers of commerce in the US.

Thank you so much for joining us, Kat! Can you share the “backstory” behind what brought you to this particular career path?

I have spent my career in nonprofit and community engagement. When I took the job managing the Bosch Community Fund in 2012, it was my first exposure to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education, and it was a steep learning curve. I gained much knowledge from meeting with teachers, administrators and students, who have shared their perspectives with me. I had the honor of co-chairing Michigan Governor Snyder’s STEM Advisory Council for three and a half years as well as participating as a Michigan delegate on the Federal Five Year STEM Education Plan with Jeff Weld, Senior Policy Advisor and Assistant Director for STEM Education at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, whom I greatly admire. Every day I meet someone that shares new insight into my job as a grant maker in the areas of STEM education and the environment.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

When I met a sophomore student at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan about eight years ago, he was in a Project Lead the Way pre-engineering, project-based learning course with an amazing teacher, Tom Pachera. He was showing me his product that he had turned into a business. When I asked him where he wanted to go to college, he said “Mrs. Owsley, I don’t have time for a four-year college. I need to run my business so I will take classes when it works for me at the community college.” I thought, this is a kid who takes the long-view approach and has the confidence not to follow the mainstream path. He didn’t feel pressured to go along with his peers to a four-year institution right after high school but saw the greater opportunity was something I really admired.

Can you share a story about the funniest or most interesting mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Probably the most interesting mistake I made more than once, frankly. I convey this example as a cautionary tale for others who might not think to advocate for themselves. I was an intern at the French Government Tourist Office in New York City my senior year of college. Throughout the semester I worked hard to plan a trip between three breathtaking, iconic ski resorts for a group of tour operators. When the time came for the trip, I told my boss I could not go because we had comprehensive college exams during the same timeframe. It never occurred to me to ask if I could reschedule so I could go on this once in a lifetime trip. Upon arriving back at my college, I realized other people had rescheduled their exams for reasons similar to mine. I had made the mistake of not even asking if it was possible to change my exam date. I still regret it to this day, partially because I missed the trip, but mostly because I never thought to speak up and ask for something I wanted outside of the norm.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are! We are working with the University of Michigan-School of Education to take our teacher grant program to scale across our Bosch site communities in North America. The Bosch Community Fund board believes in doing what we can to support our teachers. We offer teachers up to $1,000 for project or place-based learn programs in their classroom in the areas of STEM or environmental education. Teachers are always telling us they are doing so much to provide quality experiences for the students including spending their own money out of pocket, that we wanted to support their desire to provide innovation and resources in the classroom.

How is the US doing with regard to engaging young people in STEM? Can you suggest three ways we can increase this engagement?

I think we have come a very long way! We are raising awareness with parents and students every day. I’d say that anyone can get engaged. As parents, we can keep an eye out for programs at schools, public libraries and nonprofit organizations that offer STEM plus environmental education and programming, we call this eco+STEM at Bosch. For instance, Friends of the Rouge, a Michigan based organization offers many family friendly programs focused on hands-on STEM education and nature-based activities.

Programs like STEMersion, located in North Carolina, offer teachers the opportunity to experience a two week rotation with local industry partners. The objective is to help teachers connect their STEM subjects and pedagogy to real world jobs and examples.

States like Michigan and Iowa are doing great work in connecting STEM grant opportunities throughout their local regions through community-based collaborations that has increased access for students that wouldn’t otherwise have that option. At the federal level, there is a second STEM education plan in place that is represented by a delegation from every state.

Finally, there are so many strong programs that connect underrepresented students to quality STEM-based and hands-on initiatives such as Girls at Work in New Hampshire.

Whether you are a parent, student, teacher or nonprofit organization there are many opportunities to explore. Identifying or replicating a STEM-related program that is a good fit for your community is a great way to unlock the possibilities and benefits of hands-on learning in your area.

Can you articulate to our readers why it’s so important to engage girls and women in STEM subjects?

Absolutely! We want to see more young women and girls to connect and feel they belong in STEM and eco+STEM activities and career paths. It’s important that we have a diversity of people and approaches in this area like any other industry. So many women, myself included, have had that seminal moment during that key period, often 4th through 8th grade, where they think “I’m not supposed to be here”. If we only had the greater ability to retain them. Can you imagine the depth and diversity of talent we would have if we could really focus on issues and problems that touch STEM topics? Personally, I may have been more apt to explore aeronautical engineering or microbiology, but I was too afraid to ask for help in my advanced math class and dropped it. No one in my family was in science so I followed my Dad and went into business. I encourage young women to speak up, ask questions and reassure them that they do belong.

As an education professional, where do you stand in the debate whether there should be a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) or on STEAM (STEM plus the arts like humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media)? Can you explain why you feel the way you do?

I would qualify my answer by saying that I am a funder rather than an educational professional, per se, but my perspective is that we want to embrace all the individual components of S, T, E, M and A and to encourage as much cross-collaboration across these disciplines as possible. How products function can be just as equally important as it aesthetically looks to be commercially successful.

Can you please give us your favorite “life lesson quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

At the Bosch Community Fund, we all embrace the idea of “do nothing about me without me” which I learned from the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations many years ago. The idea really stuck with our team at Bosch in that we engage earnestly with our communities to understand how we can best support and partner without prescribing what we think is best for an organization or person.

We are grateful that some of the biggest names in business, VC funding, sports, and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

I have always been an admirer of Oprah Winfrey. She shines a light on so many positive and powerful examples of extraordinary work and strong citizenry. Furthermore, Oprah inspires me with her grace and intelligence.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me on LinkedIn here.

Thank you for all of these great insights!