Dow and WE call upon youth to innovate and solve community challenges

Dow and WE launch 2019/2020 school year WE Are Innovators Campaign

MIDLAND, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dow (NYSE: DOW) and WE are proud to team up and take the third annual WE Are Innovators Campaign across the U.S. and expand across the globe.

Whether it is helping people gain access to healthy fresh food, learning how to include different perspectives for more innovative ideas, or driving efforts to protect the environment from plastic waste, WE Are Innovators inspires elementary through secondary school age students to use their STEM skills, paired with an inclusive and sustainable mindset, to develop innovative ideas addressing challenges in their local and global communities.

“To tackle our planet’s most pressing challenges, we’re dedicated to developing future leaders who demonstrate innovative thinking, creativity, diverse perspectives and a solutions-oriented mindset,” said Dow CEO Jim Fitterling. “Through this partnership with WE – and the power of STEM, a spirit of inclusion and a commitment to sustainability – we want to empower youth to know that they can create real and impactful change in our world.”

“Thanks to Dow and WE Are Innovators, schools across the United States and beyond will have the opportunity to put forward their ideas to help solve some of today’s most pressing challenges,” said Craig Kielburger, co-founder, WE. “Empowering these bright young leaders will create a ripple effect of good and help inspire more socially conscious local and global communities.”

WE Are Innovators Campaign materials are delivered through WE Schools, WE’s free year-long service learning program designed to enhance a school or community’s existing social initiatives or spark new ones. WE Are Innovators provides teachers with free access to curriculum modules focused on relevant themes including Sustainable Innovation, Inclusive Leadership, Circular Economy and Nature, Food Waste, Energy and Housing, and Transportation Solutions. Following these modules, students have an opportunity to connect with a specific theme, identify an aligned issue in their community and work with their teachers to innovate a solution through the WE Are Innovators Challenge. Challenge participants will have an opportunity to submit their solutions for a chance to win a financial grant awarded to their school to help implement their project.

Dow’s STEM Ambassadors will be deployed to act as sponsors of the program in Dow communities – offering hands on training and mentorship throughout the Campaign.

WE Are Innovators is open to all youth globally from grades 4 through 12.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines one of the broadest technology sets in the industry with asset integration, focused innovation and global scale to achieve profitable growth and become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company. Dow’s portfolio of performance materials, industrial intermediates and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for our customers in high-growth segments, such as packaging, infrastructure and consumer care. Dow operates 113 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 37,000 people. Dow delivered pro forma sales of approximately $50 billion in 2018. References to Dow or the Company mean Dow Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.dow.com or follow @DowNewsroom on Twitter.

About WE

WE Day is part of WE—a family of organizations that makes doing good, doable. WE is made up of WE Charity, empowering domestic and international change, ME to WE, a social enterprise that creates socially conscious products and experiences to help support the charity, and WE Day, an unparalleled event, and the greatest celebration of social good

WE Charity was founded by New York Times Bestselling authors Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger, in 1995, with a mission to fight child labor. WE has since grown and evolved to address the root cause of child labor - extreme poverty. In the past 24 years, WE’s programs have empowered over 1 million people with clean water, built 1,500 schools and schoolrooms overseas, and empowered more than 200,000 children with access to education.

WE enables youth and families to better the world—supporting 7,200+ local and global causes by volunteering millions of hours of service, shopping daily with an impact, and raising millions of dollars that directly benefit their local communities and the world.

WE’s headquarters is based in Toronto, Canada at the WE Global Learning Centre, a service and social innovation accelerator for young people, leading them to become the next generation of leaders and towards a brighter future.

Join the movement today at WE.org.

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