On March 6, 2020, Versacare Foundation awarded $1,420,000 in grant funding to 189
Adventist primary and secondary schools across the United States and Canada in
support of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, math).
This was
Versacare Foundation’s fifth successive year funding STEM grants and marked the
third consecutive year it funded every school that applied for a STEM
grant. The STEM grant program has provided funding in three categories:
- $5,000 for smaller schools of three classrooms
or less - $10,000 for larger schools of four or more
classrooms and 12-year schools - $10,000 for senior academies
The many
uses of STEM funds include the purchase of interactive classroom whiteboards,
tablets, or Chromebooks for student use, equipping or updating student computer
labs, installation of 3D printers and related software, initiating or funding
robotics programs, instruction in software coding, and the equipping of
chemistry, physics, and biology labs, and more.
Versacare
Foundation 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 composed of both lay Adventists and present
and former Adventist Church employees. It awarded its first grants in 1990,
totalling $26,000, to five different Adventist ministries. Since then, it has
awarded more than 1,430 grants
totalling over $28,250,000.
This year
13 Adventist schools in four conferences in Canada received Versacare funding,
totalling $105,000:
Alberta Conference
Mamawi Atosketan Native
School
$10,000
Parkview Adventist Academy
$10,000
Sylvan Meadows Adventist School
$5,000
Woodlands Adventist School
$5,000
British Columbia Conference
Deer Lake
Seventh-day Adventist School
$10,000
Fraser Valley Adventist Academy
$10,000
Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference
Riverside Christian School
$10,000
Ontario Conference
Adventist
Christian Elementary School
$5,000
College Park Elementary
School
$10,000
Crawford
Adventist Academy
$10,000
Crawford
Adventist Academy East Campus
$5,000
Grandview
Adventist Academy
$10,000
Windsor
Adventist Elementary School
$5,000
The SDACC Office of Education is deeply appreciative of what
Versacare has done and continues to do in support of Adventist education across
the North American Division (NAD).
After funding nearly half of
all Adventist primary and secondary schools across the NAD with STEM grants,
Versacare Foundation has ended its STEM school grant program and, for 2021,
will focus on funding STEM training for teachers.
For more information about Versacare
Foundation’s grant program, please visit www.versacare.org.
Source: https://adventistmessenger.ca/news/church-social-closeness
