Making a difference for students Citizen Schools recognizes that young people need more than in-classroom learning to thrive in school and beyond—they need a community of caring adults who are invested in their success. For the past 25 years, the nonprofit has expanded learning opportunities for middle-school students in low-income communities, connecting students with career mentors from local governments, businesses, colleges, and universities. Hundreds of Cisco employees have volunteered through Citizen Schools’ Expanded Learning Time after-school program for the past 10 years, reaching over 2900 underserved students. In the past, Cisco Citizen Teachers would travel to local schools or arrange for students to visit Cisco’s campus. When the pandemic hit, Citizen Schools had to pivot quickly from an in-person, tactile instruction model to fully remote distance learning. Throughout the 2020–2021 school year, Cisco employees worked with Citizen Schools to change their curriculum to fit the remote model. We used online games like Jeopardy! and Bingo to keep students engaged and provided doodle boards that students could use to draw or write their answers. Instead of hosting their final projects in person, students presented what they learned virtually. Despite a challenging year, Cisco volunteers continued to show up for students, proving that in-person instruction isn’t the only thing that makes a difference to students—it’s also meaningful engagement with a mentor who cares. Alisha Ghosh, an Insights and Innovation Manager on Cisco’s Customer Experience team and a Citizen Schools volunteer, taught a course on environmental sustainability. “Over the course of a few months, in an entirely new virtual learning setting, I saw students who were normally shy or hands- off transform into effective problem solvers,” she says. “They recognized the immensity of the situation and vowed to take their own small steps to help protect the environment.” FUTURE INTRO POWER INCLUSIVE 2021 Cisco Purpose Report | csr.cisco.com | ESG Reporting Hub 58