SEAS Shares $5 Million GE Grant
Evelyn Roman-Lazan, left, director for K-12 programs at SEAS, shakes hands with New York City Congressman Charles Rangel as Jack McGourty, SEAS associate dean, and Ted Gershon, assistant vice president for Columbia's Government and Community Affairs, look on.
Columbia SEAS and Teachers College will benefit from a $5 million grant from the General Electric Foundation to support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in 10 public schools in Harlem. This is part of the GE Foundation's $29 million grant to benefit New York City public schools, the largest single corporate contribution to the school system.
"We are proud that our School continues to be a leader in ways to encourage youngsters to consider engineering, technology, and applied science, as well as mathematics and the sciences, as a career path," said Gerald A. Navratil, Interim Dean of SEAS. "This grant from the GE Foundation will add significantly to the work our School is doing, in programs such as the Hayden Engineering and Applied Science Program and the Harlem Robotics League, to provide students in grades K-12 with an interest in engineering, science and technology."
"We're delighted with our new partnership with Teachers College," says Jack McGourty, associate dean of The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and executive director of SEAS's Center for Technology, Innovation, and Community Engagement (CTICE). "The GE Foundation grant will allow the Engineering School to utilize its expertise and resources to improve science, technology, engineering and math education in New York's public schools."
The grant was announced by the GE Foundation at a press conference that included New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, GE President Jeffrey Immelt, New York City Congressman Charles Rangel, and New York City Public School Chancellor Joel Klein.
