On March 8, 2019, 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 education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).
“We had an all-time high number of schools apply for 2019, and by the grace of God we were able to fund every one of them, including six schools across three conferences for the Mid-America Union Conference,” said Versacare Foundation president Thomas K. Macomber.
The following schools in Mid-America each received a portion of the $35,000 total for our union:
Central States Conference— St. Louis Unified SDA School in Missouri; and V. Lindsay SDA School in Kansas
Dakota Conference—Dakota Adventist Academy in North Dakota
Iowa-Missouri Conference:—Andrews Christian Academy in Iowa; Hillcrest Seventh Day Adventist School in Missouri; and Springfield SDA Junior Academy in Missouri
The STEM grant program is open to every North American Division conference or church sponsored primary or secondary school and provides funding in three categories:
• $5,000 for smaller schools of 3 classrooms or less;
• $10,000 for larger schools of 4 or more classrooms and 12-year schools;
• $10,000 for senior academies.
Among the many uses of STEM funds are the purchase of classroom smart boards, providing 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.
This is Versacare’s fourth successive year funding STEM grants. To date, Versacare has provided 228 schools with a total of $1,825,000.
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 1200 grants totaling over $26,000,000.
For more information about Versacare’s STEM grant program, please visit www.versacare.org.
