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.