Media Contacts: Holly Trippett, Citizen Schools, (617) 695-2300 x1161 or (301) 452-3904, hollytrippett@citizenschools.org

Wendy Sept Vlieks, SanDisk Corporation (408) 801-2903, wendy.vlieks@sandisk.com

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

CITIZEN SCHOOLS AND SANDISK PARTNER TO HELP STUDENTS PREPARE FOR SUCCESS IN SCHOOL AND BEYOND 

Partnership Will Bring SanDisk Employees into Bay Area Middle Schools to Further STEM Education

REDWOOD CITY and MILPITAS, Calif., June 11, 2013 – Citizen Schools, a leading education organization that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day, and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced a new collaborative partnership to help set San Francisco Bay Area, California middle school students on a path to success by providing unique learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Citizen Schools partners with middle schools nationally to expand the school day for children in low-income communities through academic mentoring and skill-building apprenticeships. The enrichment projects foster authentic learning experiences taught by volunteer professionals, or Citizen Teachers, who share their expertise in exciting and engaging ways. In Northern California, the organization currently partners with seven schools in East Palo Alto, Oakland, and Redwood City.

As a regional leadership partner, SanDisk’s investment will include employee volunteers and monetary support for Citizen Schools’ programs in Northern California. SanDisk has committed to invest $1 million over the next five years, in cash and volunteer hours, to Citizen Schools California to support education for middle school students and to support the growth of the US2020 initiative. US2020 is a new organization formed through the partnership of leading education non-profits and corporate leaders in STEM fields. The initiative calls on CEOs of

American companies to commit, by the year 2020, 20 percent of their workforce to volunteer at least 20 hours per year as an educational mentor in a STEM-related discipline. The initiative will be incubated within Citizen Schools until July of 2014 and will then become its own 501(c)(3) non-profit. SanDisk is a Founding Leadership Partner of US2020 and as part of its commitment, the company’s U.S. employees will participate in Citizen Schools’ various programs.

“SanDisk is proud to support Citizen Schools as a Bay Area regional leadership partner and as part of the US2020 initiative to improve STEM education for youth,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief executive officer of SanDisk. “Taking an active role in our community is core to SanDisk’s culture. Our employees are eager to work with Citizen Schools to serve as mentors and inspire students to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math and become our next generation of innovators.”

In celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, SanDisk is encouraging 100 percent of the company’s global professional workforce to volunteer a portion of their time to charity, which will be matched by a cash grant of $45 for every hour donated, up to $2,000 per employee. The partnership with Citizen Schools supports the company’s volunteerism goal. Over one hundred SanDisk employees have already expressed interest in volunteering to teach a range of topics, focusing on the STEM subjects. A goal of the program is to provide a ratio between students and volunteers of 2:1, which will allow for engaging mentoring and learning opportunities.

“We are excited to partner with SanDisk through Citizen Schools and US2020 to embed the expertise and passion of the company’s employees into the classroom to engage students in new ways,” said Eric Schwarz, Co-Founder and CEO of Citizen Schools and Executive Chairman of US2020. “SanDisk and their employees are playing a significant role in setting students across the Bay Area on a path toward educational success.”

About Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a national nonprofit organization that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for low-income children across the country. Citizen Schools uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships. The organization’s programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing students in the middle grades for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

Founded in Boston in 1995, Citizen Schools has grown into a national network of thirty-one partner schools serving over 5,300 students in low-income communities across eight states. The organization partners with seven schools in the Bay Area, serving over 1,110 students and engaging approximately 300 volunteers in the academic year. For more information, visit www.citizenschools.org/california.

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, from research and development, product design and manufacturing to branding and distribution for OEM and retail channels. Since 1988, SanDisk's innovations in flash memory and storage system technologies have provided customers with new and transformational digital experiences. SanDisk's diverse product portfolio includes flash memory cards and embedded solutions used in smart phones, tablets, digital cameras, camcorders, digital media players and other consumer electronic devices, as well as USB flash drives and solid-state drives (SSD) for the computing market. SanDisk's products are used by consumers and enterprise customers around the world.

SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

© 2013 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).

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