Since we received the award, the Intel Teach program, which we highlighted in our application, has continued to grow and thrive.   Globally, the program has now reached more than 8 million teachers in over 60 countries – up from 7 million just a year ago when we submitted our application.  Here in the US it has been adopted by a number of states as part of broader public-private partnerships, including some involving the federal grants programs such as i3 (Investing in Innovation).

I certainly encourage any of you who are considering doing so to apply for the 2011 awards.  We found the process of writing the application to be very useful in helping us to continue to develop our programs and measure their  impact.  This has made us more articulate about the overall value of our philanthropic efforts when we talk to our internal stakeholders, as well as in our external presentations and discussions with potential collaborators - whether governments, NGO’s, corporations and foundations, or multi-laterals such as the World Bank and UNESCO.

Paul Otellini, Intel’s CEO, was warmly welcomed by the CECP Board, and by the participants at the conference. Perhaps even more important to him and to us was the great pride our employees took in learning of the award and seeing the wonderful video that CECP prepared.

Along with reviewing the application of past winners, we also looked at the panel of judges who would be considering our work. CECP does a great job of involving judges from a range of backgrounds. This helped us to write our application in language that would be meaningful to all of the judges – not just those who are steeped in the same jargon we live and breathe each day.

We are grateful to our colleagues at Western Union (2009 Chairman’s Award winners) who were able to offer us encouragement, as well as sharing the ways in which they were able to build on their award to continue to extend the reach and impact of their work.

Let me take this opportunity to thank all of our friends and colleagues at CECP for their generous support and recognition. We are tremendously proud of all that we are able to do in support of education and communities around the world, and the Chairman’s Award was definitely the cherry on top of that sundae! Good luck to all of you who apply for the 2011 awards – I know you will get great value out of the process and by thinking deeply about the work you do.