The Square One Education Network, an educational nonprofit specializing in integrated STEM programming based in Waterford, announced DeAnte Thompkins and Michael Bell have been elected to the board of directors.
Thompkins is a senior market director at Thrivent, a financial investment firm based in Minneapolis, and has a background in workforce and business development, community outreach, and financial services.
“DeAnte has an impressive list of accomplishments that our Board is interested in tapping into. He is people centric, has a broad financial, marketing, and transportation industry background,” says Dan DuBois, senior director for Michigan International Speedway.
Bell is a distribution engineer with Leidos — a defense, aviation, information technology, and biomedical company — with a focus on the energy sector. An alumnus of Oak Park High School, he was a member of both the Square One Underwater and Mini Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) teams.
“Our board has been wanting to add a past Square One participant for a long time,” says DuBois. “Michael’s talent and willingness to be a leader and role model for Square One students will make a solid impact on the future of our young people. I am so pleased to have two such dynamic leaders join Square One.”
Square One programs help youths develop skills that are directly applicable to the workplace. With a blend of teacher training, student programming, and industry access to future talent that is affordable, high impact, scalable, replicable, and valued, Square One annually reaches nearly 10,000 K-12 students and 500 K-12 teachers through these programs.
