PAST Receives Grant from Battelle to Accelerate STEM Education Impact

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Feb. 12, 2020)—The PAST Foundation and Battelle announced today that a $400,000 grant from Battelle will expand the “Innovation in Teaching” Fellowship program. This program will provide free professional development to 200 select teachers in Ohio who collectively will impact 15,000 Ohio students during the 2020-2021 school year.

In addition, the grant will support scholarships to enroll 400 at-risk, high-needs students in Central Ohio Summer STEM camps.

“This funding enables PAST to support the scale of two of our primary PAST mission pillars—expanding STEM literacy and competency of teachers, and creating more opportunities for students to engage in STEM career exploration and exposure,” said Dr. Annalies Corbin, President & CEO of the PAST Foundation. “Educational partnerships like the one we enjoy with Battelle allows both organizations to expand our collective reach which benefits students of Central Ohio.”

“At Battelle, we believe every student deserves access to quality STEM learning opportunities, regardless of their socio-economic status or ZIP code,” said Wes Hall, Interim Senior Vice President of Education and Philanthropy. “We are excited to partner with PAST to bring engaging summer STEM camps to students and new resources to support teaching strategies in classrooms across Central Ohio.”

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries. For more information, visit www.battelle.org. 

About PAST Foundation

For 20 years, PAST, a non-profit organization, has been a leader in designing STEM education across the nation, bringing problem-based learning to educators and experiential programs to students. Recently, PAST's Innovation Lab was named as a promising example to Re-imagine High School as featured in Forbes. PAST has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for its Excellence in Innovation in the STEM 2026 vision report. PAST was the only educational entity in Ohio to be included in this publication.

PAST was also recognized in 2014, by CGI America and former President Bill Clinton for their outstanding work, and again in 2015 for their achievements in improving STEM education in rural America. In 2015, the PAST Innovation Lab was recognized by the White House Summit on High School Design.

For more information on PAST Foundation and how you can link learning to life, visit https://pastfoundation.org/ or contact Lori Trent at [email protected].