Since our founding in 1991, Deva has enjoyed many wonderful years of success. Through Deva For Good we now wish to apply what we have learned to help others, by creating innovative ways to connect those who have needs with those who can help. The areas on which we are focused are outlined below. If you have interest in helping others through collaboration, please let us know!

We believe that when students can relate classroom concepts to the real world in interesting ways, they become more engaged; especially when it comes to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Therefore, we are focused on developing projects for student/business collaborations that provide practical applications to enhance classroom work. Not only does this help to inspire students' interest, but it also provides real-world experience that can help in their future search for employment. Below are some examples of how we are enhancing education and the workforce of the future through student/business collaborations today:

Good character is not something that just happens; it is developed through experience consistently molded by good teaching over time.  To assist in the teaching process, the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp (JROTC), I Will Mentorship Foundation (IWMF), Uncommon Friends Foundation (UCFF), and Deva for Good are collaborating on a Peer-to-Peer student mentoring program with a goal to build character in youth while encouraging Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) education. The program is being implemented as a JROTC Service Learning project in which cadets mentor younger students in good character traits using UCFF instructional content as a guide supported by IWMF STEAM projects.  This collaboration is primed to build good character and 21st Century skills of youth, which makes them more responsible citizens and advances them in their careers and their lives.  And by training cadets to mentor younger students, it not only reinforces the cadet leadership skills through practical application, but also provides a literal army that can support other teachers.  And because the program ties into history and STEM, it can be embedded in other curricula, to reinforce character concepts while teaching other topics as well.

An Electrathon is a program in which students design and build life sized electric powered cars that they race in state and national competitions, with the goal of inspiring STEM education in our youth. Students not only learn STEM, but also teamwork, logistics, project planning and management, good communication, and more as they work together to build and race the cars. The I Will Mentorship Foundation is collaborating with a local high-school, law enforcement, and other organizations and business entities to bring an Electrathon to Lee County under the SkillsUSA umbrella.

Under the direction of Dr. Julie Yazici, students at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) collaborated with Continuum HR on a statistical analysis project. As a strong advocate of small businesses, Continuum recognizes the need to provide opportunity for our future workforce. By working together on this project, all parties benefited by creating additional value from existing data, and providing a real world experience that broadened students' understanding and skills.

The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), KlaasKids Foundation, Fort Myers Institute of Technology (FMIT), and Deva For Good collaborated on a Service Learning Project focused on promoting child safety throughout the community while building leadership skills of young cadets. This "Quo Duce" project trained cadets how to create bio-docs and teach children and their parents about child safety at local schools and community events. Students at FMIT also worked on a fingerprint App to facilitate the endeavor.

Non-profits often have needs that students can address for low or no cost, such as graphic design, PSAs and other. In one project involving the use of technology in a collaboration across multiple states, the students at Cypress Lake High School created this PSA for a child safety day event.

Working together with others, we provide a public speaking program tailored to needs of youth served by various local non-profits.

William Schurz summed it up nicely when he said "Borders frequented by trade seldom need soldiers." We support this philosophy and wish to carry it a step further to encompass not just trade, but other forms of collaboration as well.

Project Artemis is a business education program that aims to build the entrepreneurial skills of promising Afghan businesswomen. Mentors are assigned to each participant for an initial two week educational program in Glendale, Arizona, and then continue to provide mentoring support for at least two years after the women return to Afghanistan. Deva's mentee is a doctor of veterinary medicine who lives on the outskirts of Kabul. She has developed a unique approach to reaching isolated, impoverished women, and teaching them how to support their families by raising and bartering poultry, bees and their by-products.

Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Youth School develops community based solutions to help young people develop their talents and realize their potential. They do this through personal development and training programs that help young people access meaningful employment and make positive contributions to their communities. We assisted Youth School in developing a process framework, measures and critical success factors for project implementations in the international realm.

Supporting Entrepreneurs and Enterprise Development Seminar (SEEDS) was a USAID sponsored program that provided Jordanian women with intensive entrepreneurial education, coaching, mentoring and access to resources to help them start or grow their small businesses in their homeland. We served as mentor to a young business woman in Amman.

In the Women's Empowerment Initiative (WEI), we developed a model for connecting disadvantaged women and children in developing countries with much needed resources scattered across the globe. Although we were unable to obtain funding for implementation, we were able to assemble a cross-cultural team for the collaboration as discussed in this project video.

We assist non-profits with organizational development. Current focus is on the I Will Mentorship Foundation (IWMF) and its exceptional program providing opportunity for at-risk youth through after school STEM programs. Please visit www.iwmf2.org for more information.

Through Deva Publishing, we aid in the development and distribution of the Olet^tm children's stories and cards, created by an unusual artist who views ordinary things from a fresh, new perspective. We also provide a sales outlet as she continues to develop additional books in the Olet^tm series.