An Amazing Chance To Fund STEM Education

Sunrise from Bear Rocks, Dolly Sods Preserve, WV

I don't usually flog other products or organizations on my website/blog, but today I'm going to make an exception.

In the summer after graduating high school, I had the opportunity to attend a program that changed my life forever. I was chosen as one of two delegates from Massachusetts to the National Youth Science Camp (NYSC) in Bartow, WV. I credit this program completely with my passion for science education and also for inspiring me to get my PhD. It also has had less scientific (but no less important) impacts on my life in small and large ways.

The NYSC is a stellar program which inspires and educates students from all around the US (and often from other countries as well). The National Youth Science Foundation (NYSF), also runs other programs based off the NYSC model and has plans for many other student programs and teacher training institutes in the works. The NYSF has been working on long-term plans to find a permanent home for the NYSC and to build the National Center for Youth Science Education (NCYSE) to host a myriad of other year-round programming.

An amazing opportunity has arisen for the NYSF to take over ownership of the Canaan Valley Institute in Davis, WV. This is a multimillion dollar, NOAA funded, LEED-certified, facility that happens to be adjacent to the plot of land that the foundation has already acquired for the future home of the NCYSE. In order for NOAA to grant this facility to the foundation, it has to raise pledges totaling $150,000/yr for the next five years within the next seven days. This facility would form the bulk of the NCYSE's STEM Center (and its already built) and allow the Foundation to accelerate its plan for both local and national programming.

As part of this effort, the NYSF is running a crowd-sourced funding campaign for its alumni and others interested in supporting STEM education.

If you (or even better your company) are interested in supporting STEM education, you will probably never again have the opportunity for your money to have such a huge impact. Every little bit helps so much, and for those major donors out there, there are plenty of opportunities for naming rights.

Please consider visiting http://empower.nysc.org/projects/stem-education-center/ for more information and to donate what you can. Thanks for supporting youth science education, something I feel is critical to our future.

Looking west at sunset, Bear Rocks Preserve, Dolly Sods, WV