When I was growing up in St. Louis, I just knew one day I would play Major League Baseball. Unfortunately, a career in the pros wasn’t in the cards. But I had mentors and role models who pushed me to see past the baseball diamond to what more I could do, who else I could be.
Today, in my role as President and CEO of Exelon, the nation’s largest utility, I’m helping lead 10.5 million customers through the energy transition, battling the effects of climate change and working to harden our nation’s electric grid in the face of cyber threats and stronger and more frequent storms. (Exelon is the parent company of PECO, which has supported The Citizen.)
But I never did get baseball out of my system. So, when my friend Cal Ripken, Jr. — the legendary baseball Hall-of-Famer — asked me to join him in his work at the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, I didn’t hesitate.
A few years ago, the Foundation grew its mission from primarily using baseball as a tool to reach young people who needed mentors and life skills, to include STEM awareness and education. Cal and his team are building STEM Centers — with Chromebooks and circuit boards, drones and robot balls — in schools and youth organizations across the country.
This year, the Exelon Foundation, the philanthropic organization that works in tandem with Exelon, donated $3 million to bring 81 STEM Centers to elementary and middle schools in our service areas over the next three years. This week, we opened our 27th Center — the Ripken Foundation’s 625th — at Tinicum School in Essington.
Together, the Ripken Foundation and Exelon are introducing kids to STEM and STEM careers, something that’s sorely needed if we’re going to develop the talent we need to carry us through the ever-changing energy transformation.
But, as important as that is, this work is about more than that.
As one of only a handful of African American CEOs in the Fortune 500, I believe this is one of my most important roles.
According to the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, in 2020, Philadelphia’s median household income was $49,127. But in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods that are predominately Black and Latinx, those households reported median incomes that were $12,215 and $13,270 less than the city median, respectively.
Those households and neighborhoods where the Ripken Foundation is intentionally building youth development parks and STEM Centers remind me of many of the communities Exelon serves — rich with diverse, hard-working people, but burdened by long standing disparities.
So, when I come to visit the schools where we’re opening STEM Centers, I’m not just coming to tout the long-term, family-sustaining benefits of a career in STEM at Exelon. I’m coming to give young people inspiration.
When we show up at Tinicum School or Lansdowne Elementary in Baltimore or Tayak Elementary outside of Washington, D.C., we’re showing these young people that we believe in them, we’re investing in them. We’re showing them that they have options other than what they can see in their neighborhoods. And we’re not doing it for any other reason than we care about them.
As one of only a handful of African American CEOs in the Fortune 500, I believe this is one of my most important roles. Just as I had mentors and role models who pushed me to dream bigger than what little I knew and could see, I know it is my responsibility — and a great honor — to show up for these brilliant, promise-filled children.
In fact, I would say, it is not just my responsibility. It is yours, too.
How will you go to bat for a young person today? How will you show that you care, that you believe in them, and that they can be and do things beyond what they’ve seen?
I’m throwing this pitch to all of you. Find a way to invest in youth and do all you can to see that effort succeed. Together, let’s help our young people win.
Calvin Butler is President and CEO of Exelon, the nation’s largest utility by customer count, and the parent company of PECO. He is Chairman of the Board of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, co-founded by Cal Ripken, Jr. and his siblings.
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