Versacare Foundation Awards $1.15 Million to Adventist Schools to Support STEM Education

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On March 8, the Versacare Foundation awarded $1,159,000 in grant funding to Adventist Education, including $920,000 to 118 primary and secondary schools across the United States and Canada in support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education.

The STEM grant program is open to every conference or church sponsored primary or secondary school in the North American Division and provides funding in three categories: $5,000 for smaller schools of three or fewer classrooms; $10,000 for larger schools of four or more classrooms and 12-year schools; and $10,000 for senior academies.

In the United States, a total of $835,000 was given to schools within eight Unions, 38 Conferences, and 108 schools. In Canada, the foundation awarded a total of $85,000 to four Conferences and 10 schools.

STEM grant funds can be used to purchase classroom smart boards, provide tablets or Chromebooks for students, equip or update student computer labs, install 3-D printers and related software, initiate or fund robotics programs, teach software coding, and equip chemistry, physics, and biology labs.

This is Versacare’s fourth successive year funding STEM grants. To date, Versacare has provided 228 schools with a total of $1,825,000.

See a complete list of the schools funded in 2019 on the Versacare website.

For more information about Versacare’s STEM grant program, visit versacare.org.

Versacare, Inc. is the largest independent private foundation supporting the varied ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with grant funding. A self-funded lay organization, it is comprised of both lay Adventists and present and former Adventist Church employees. It awarded its first grants in 1990, totaling $26,000, to five different Adventist ministries. Since then, it has awarded nearly 1,200 grants totaling over $26,000,000.

This article originally appeared on the NAD website.

Image courtesy of Versacare Foundation, Inc.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/9519

[sam (Sam Geli)]

This was inspirational. Thank you for highlighting such a bold and positive initiative. Even with the billions of dollars gushing out of federal education /science funders, philanthropy remains crucial to scientific progress. The sheer volume of private dollars is consequential. What’s even more important about science and educational philanthropy, though, is the way it is structured: adaptable, tolerant of risk, patient, willing to fund the infrastructure that scientific/educational discoveries require, open to unproven innovators. What I’ve always loved about this type of philanthropy is it’s money that has a potential to be flexible. It’s money that can catalyze new ideas. It’s money that lets you push the frontiers, follow the leading edge, BRAVO!

[RvanPutten]

So good to see wonderful news for our schools! I am overjoyed. I pray that the funds are put to the intended use and that our students will benefit to the fullest. This is fantastic!