The Stemie Coalition

The STEMIE Coalition (STEMIE) is a new initiative run by the principles of the highly successful 33-year old Connecticut Invention Convention, founded to elevate K-12 invention and entrepreneurship education to higher levels in schools across the United States. The STEMIE Coalition will be able to make an extensive, immediate, and measurable impact on youth invention and entrepreneurship by being an umbrella organization that “rolls up” and celebrates the winners from hundreds of youth invention and entrepreneurship programs across the U.S., focusing national attention on these achievements and empowering the local organizations for further growth. This, combined with an ongoing campaign to empower, support, and unite over 600 concurrently operating K-12 invention and entrepreneurship programs nationwide, will mark the first truly directed effort to bring the enriching concepts of STEM, Invention, and Entrepreneurship, all as one, to the millions of K-12 students in the U.S. The most public and unique facet of the STEMIE Coalition is the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo (NICEE) – a national annual celebration of K-12 inventors from across the U.S. The first national “finals” event is planned for May 20-21, 2016, at the USPTO headquarters in Washington, D.C. This first-of-its-kind national forum will provide a live, in-person opportunity for youth inventors in grades 4-12 to display their critical thinking skills through inventing, innovating, and entrepreneurial activations (an online virtual competition for grades K-3 will complement this). A K-12 entrepreneurship competition will be added to NIC after Year 1 to create NICEE – the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo. In addition, the STEMIE Coalition will convene invention and entrepreneurship program leaders from across the U.S. and worldwide to share best practices, combine efforts where it makes sense, and launch new initiatives to advance our mutual goals.