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Georgia Schools Receives More Than $400,000 in STEM Funding

The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming math and science education, presented a check for $455,217 to the schools of Richmond County, Georgia, during the AFCEA TechNet Augusta 2018 conference in Augusta, Georgia. 

The funding will support the NMSI College Readiness Program, a three-year initiative that helps both teachers and students. The program is designed to ensure more students have access to the challenging classes as well as increase the number of students taking and earning qualifying scores on Advanced Placement math, science and English exams.

The award ceremony was officiated by Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., CEO of the NMSI and a former astronaut. “Fort Gordon and the Augusta community stands out as a model for the rest of the nation in terms of meaningful education programs. I passed today the Georgia Cyber Innovation Training Center. Augusta is the center of the universe for combatting cyber terrorists,” Harris said. “This is why what we’re doing in math and science and education is so important.”   

The College Readiness Program has reached more than 1,000 public high schools across 34 states and produced unparalleled positive student outcomes across a variety of settings—urban and rural, disadvantaged and affluent, traditional and charter.

Through the Military Families Mission, NMSI also is ensuring students of service members have access to consistent, high-quality educational opportunities whenever or wherever their families may be transferred. Funding for this program is provided under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Defense Department; the director of Department of Defense Laboratories, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, is the agent for the program.

“They have been instrumental in helping us spread our programs all across the nation in communities where there are military installations. They do this because our organization has measurable results,” Harris said.

NMSI, launched in 2007, offers programs that provide a continuum of support for students and teachers from elementary school through college. Its programs have boosted Advanced Placement exam performance in partner schools by 10 times the national average. To date, the initiative has affected 2 million students, more than 50,000 teachers, over 1,000 high schools and 44 universities.