The Rumphius Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening community, promoting education and protecting the environment, is proud to announce that it has awarded grants to STEMS on the VINES in Kansas City, Focus Learning Academy of Northern Columbus and Girl + Environment in Georgia. These three non-profits are dedicated to creative projects that invest in our next generation.
"Our 2022 grant recipients stand out for their efforts to provide developmental needs for a diverse group of students and young women," said Rumphius Foundation Director Candace Schuller. "From empowering students to become scientists, to enabling young women of color to uncover confidence and opportunity in nature, to creating a place for refugee children to play, all of their projects are providing our youth with tools and experiences to help them grow into successful humans."
STEMS on the VINES (SOTV) in Kansas City, Mo., prepares students to become citizen scientists to make a positive impact on the present environment. The non-profit works with Title I kids in grades 4-12 teaching them new skills with the goal of breaking the poverty cycle. Through their Mobile STEM Lab equipped with tech tools, SOTV focuses on teaching creative solutions to real world problems. They work with students to think like creators, innovators, scientists of sustainability, developers, engineers, green architects, entrepreneurs, strong leaders and ethical financiers. The Rumphius Foundation grant provided a scanner and 3D Printer, 10 laptops and mobile internet for their Mobile STEM Lab. With this equipment SOTV students will create viable inventions and develop marketable products to promote sustainability, including 3D printing functional and reusable casts for children and animals that can be removed, washed and sterilized.
To commemorate The Rumphius Foundation's 10th anniversary in 2023, the foundation will be revisiting grant recipients from the beginning of their journey as a non-profit. Instead of seeking new applicants, past grant recipients will be celebrated. Founder Mike Schuller gave "Kudos" granola bars to his team members that successfully completed projects. The foundation will carry on that legacy with "kudos grants" to deserving past Rumphius Foundation grant recipients in 2023 to further their impact.
Established in 2013 by the late Michael C. Schuller, The Rumphius Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing support to communities and educators to strengthen the future of our youth and the environment. Named after the children's book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, in which the central character seeks to make the world a little more beautiful, the women-led foundation provides grants to non-profit projects that promote community, education and sustainability. Through these projects, the foundation strives to remind the next generation to leave the world more beautiful than they found it.
Categories: Missouri, Education, General, Ohio, Education, General