$1.159 Million Awarded to Adventist Schools

Story by Thomas Macomber

The Versacare Foundation recently 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).

The STEM grant program is open to every NAD 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.

For a complete list of the schools funded in 2019 and links to each school’s website, click here.

The following Columbia Union Conference schools received grants:

• Atholton Adventist Academy (Chesapeake Conference)
• Manassas Adventist Preparatory School (Potomac Conference)
• Mayfair Christian School (Ohio Conference)
• Rocky Knoll School (Chesapeake Conference)
• Takoma Academy (Potomac Conference)
• Tree of Life Preparatory School (Potomac Conference)
• York Adventist Christian School (Pennsylvania Conference)

About Versacare
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.

April, 2019 will see the release of the book Blessed Are They, a collection of 43 modern mission stories from 23 Versacare supported ministries, compiled and edited by Céleste Perrino-Walker. It is published in collaboration between Versacare and the Pacific Press Publishing Association.