CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LendingTree,
the nation's leading online loan marketplace, has named STEM Center
USA the winner of its inaugural small business contest with a grant
of $50,000.
"We are incredibly honored to receive LendingTree's small
business grant," said Lavanya
Jawaharlal, president and co-founder of STEM Center
USA and recent engineering
graduate of the University of California,
Berkeley. "With this money, we will be expanding our
operations to a second Robotics Creativity Center to excite more
students about STEM through hands-on learning."
STEM Center USA, one of over
1,100 businesses that applied for LendingTree's grant, is a
California-based robotics
education company that aims to inspire the next generation of STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) leaders through
hands-on activities. Melissa and Lavanya
Jawaharlal, the two sisters who founded STEM Center
USA in 2011, believe that true
learning takes place when a student is allowed to discover the
underlying principles through an experiential learning model. STEM
Center USA currently employs
roughly 15 full and part-time employees at their Claremont, CA location.
"These two young women are passionate entrepreneurs who
envisioned a way for more children to learn about STEM, hoping to
close the gender gap in the field and enrich the lives of children
through innovation," said Doug
Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree. "The LendingTree
family supports this mission and is proud to contribute to STEM
Center USA's growth."
Marc Prosser, the co-founder of
the small business information site, Fit Small Business, added,
"Early life educational companies have two clients, the parents and
the kids. STEM Center's courses on Robotics and 3D printing should
make both clients happy." Mr. Prosser served as an expert
contributor for LendingTree's small business grant contest.
LendingTree launched its small business loan marketplace in 2014
to simplify the loan process and help small businesses gain access
to credit and financing opportunities. To further its
commitment of helping American business owners achieve growth,
LendingTree launched the small business grant contest in
November 2016 with the goal of
awarding one deserving small business $50,000 to help fund future growth. After reading
through over 1,100 entries, and with input from Marc Prosser of Fit Small Businesses,
LendingTree employees voted on who they believed was most-deserving
of the $50,000 grant. Businesses were
judged on a variety of factors including historical performance,
future growth plans, distinctiveness, community impact and the
company's overall vision.
To read more about STEM Center USA, please visit
http://www.stemcenterusa.com/ or LendingTree's contest page, which
can be found here:
https://www.lendingtree.com/about/business-grant
About LendingTree
LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE) is the nation's leading online loan
marketplace, empowering consumers as they comparison-shop across a
full suite of loan and credit-based offerings. LendingTree
provides an online marketplace which connects consumers with
multiple lenders that compete for their business, as well as an
array of online tools and information to help consumers find the
best loan. Since inception, LendingTree has facilitated more than
65 million loan requests. LendingTree provides free monthly credit
scores through My LendingTree and access to its network of over 400
lenders offering home loans, personal loans, credit cards, student
loans, personal loans, business loans, home equity loans/lines of
credit, auto loans and more. LendingTree, LLC is a subsidiary of
LendingTree, Inc.
For more information go to www.lendingtree.com, dial
800-555-TREE, like our Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter
@LendingTree.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Megan Greuling
704-943-8208
Megan.Greuling@LendingTree.com
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SOURCE LendingTree