MyEdu Names Margaret Spellings and Hilary Pennington to new Advisory Board

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MyEdu, the nation's leading online student platform for managing college and getting a job, today announced the formation of a new advisory board and the addition of Margaret Spellings and Hilary Pennington as the company's first advisors.  Spellings is the former U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush and Pennington is the former director of Education, Postsecondary Success, and Special Initiatives for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130122/DA45823LOGO)

"MyEdu is honored to have Margaret Spellings and Hilary Pennington on our advisory board.  Both women have done extraordinary work focused on student success in the education arena and transitioning into the workforce.  As we seek to support students in bridging the gap between education and career selection, we couldn't ask for better insight and experience," said Michael Crosno, CEO of MyEdu.

MyEdu's mission is to help students maximize their return on education (ROE) by offering data-rich applications that support students' academic and career decision-making process.  The company's goal is to eliminate the "if I knew then what I know now" realization that recent graduates often feel as they struggle to gain traction in their careers without the key skills employers value.  By bringing students and employers together early in the education and career-mapping process, MyEdu can help students understand the future impact of their education choices, and employers to signal the skills and talents that will make a student successful in his or her career.

"When you look at today's unemployment numbers, coupled with the fact that most employers report having difficulty hiring, it's clear that there is a major gap between students, education institutions and employers," said Margaret Spellings. "MyEdu is connecting employers with students early on to help them learn more about their career prospects and better plan their schooling." 

"With 1 million student members – and growing – MyEdu has a clear vision of who today's students are," said Hilary Pennington.  "The platform is built for traditional and non-traditional students to manage through those realities.  For example, the majority of today's students are non-traditional in some way: they work and go to school; they don't live on campus; they piece together classes and credits across campuses and often online; they take longer than expected to graduate.  Plus, the fastest growing populations are those most historically under-represented and underserved: first-generation students, low-income students and minority students.  Some of these students have guidance through this maze, but most do not. MyEdu empowers them to pull together one view of their own strategy and to plan wisely."

Millions of students use the FREE MyEdu platform to research courses across hundreds of schools, build a roadmap for their degree goals, plan their upcoming course schedules, display their credentials visually in a unique profile, and search and apply for jobs and internships.  MyEdu is the best option for today's students to collect and display the traditional and non-traditional credentials that tell the world what they are capable of accomplishing.

Background on Pennington and Spellings:  In addition to her role at the Gates Foundation, Pennington has served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and as vice-chair of Jobs for the Future (JFF), a research and policy development organization that she co-founded.  In her 22 years as president and CEO of JFF, Pennington helped the organization become one of the most influential in the country on issues of education, youth transitions, workforce development, and future work requirements.  Pennington also served on the Presidential Transition Team for the first Clinton administration, and as co-chair of a presidential advisory committee on using technology to expand training opportunities.

Pennington is a graduate of the Yale School of Management and Yale College.  She holds a graduate degree in social anthropology from Oxford University and was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2000.

Margaret Spellings is President and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company and a leading national expert on public policy. Spellings also serves as a strategic advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  She is well known for her work in guiding philanthropic and private sector organizations in meeting their strategic goals.

Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009. In higher education, Spellings is recognized for launching a national policy debate and action plan to improve accessibility, affordability, and accountability in our nation's colleges and universities.

About Return on Education:
  Today, only 56% of U.S. college students are graduating within six years, and one out of two recent graduates are unemployed or underemployed.  MyEdu's mission is to help all students achieve their goals and get the best civic, academic, and professional return on what they are investing in their education.  MyEdu calls this "return on education" or "ROE".  The company is bringing employers and students together to help students to understand the skills they need to get a job or college internship and help employers to find the right people for their business.

About MyEdu:
  MyEdu is the leading academic and careers platform helping students complete college and find internships and jobs.  MyEdu's free tools and rich academic data have been used by millions of students to graduate on time while reducing the cost of earning their degree.  The MyEdu Student Profile is a credentialing platform that allows students to visually showcase their coursework, skills, talents and experiences. MyEdu for Employers brings students and employers together on a common platform, extending MyEdu's mission to maximize each student's return on education by improving the job placement process. MyEdu is currently used by millions of students at over 800 campuses nationwide and has been endorsed by major higher education institutions.  The company's investors include Bain Capital Ventures and the University of Texas System.  Please visit www.myedu.com to learn more.

Media Contact:
Kathleen Lucente
Red Fan Communications
512 217-6352 (cell)
512 551-9253 (office)
[email protected]

SOURCE MyEdu