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A $5,000 grant to the Challenger Learning Center (CLC)
from Blue Origin will launch local classrooms on simulated space
missions.
The funding come from a portion of a grant to the national
Challenger Learning Center organization from Blue Origin’s Club for
the Future foundation. The grant is targeted to fund simulated space
missions for students from Title I and/or rural schools across the
country.
The grant funding covers nine in-person missions for classes and the
CLC general scholarship fund will round out the effort by funding an
additional class.
“It’s fortunate to have a local CLC with a great reputation that
benefits all in our community,” remarked Julia Ossler, Senior Flight
Director at Heartland’s CLC. “Because we have some other great
support for rural schools, in total we will be providing for 60
students from each junior high in Unit 5 and District 87 to share
the availability of this targeted funding for unique hands-on STEM
education to local schools this spring and summer.”
With programs designed for students of all
backgrounds, Challenger Learning Center has a concentrated effort to
meet the needs of underserved students and learners who are
underrepresented in STEM.
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Working with area schools and the Heartland Community College
Foundation, the CLC has provided secondary school classrooms throughout Central
Illinois in-person and virtual learning experiences.
The effort extends beyond McLean County. In 2020, Caterpillar Pontiac made a
five-year commitment to send over 2,500 Livingston County students on fully
funded CLC field trip experiences.
The human spaceflight startup Blue Origin was established by founder and
executive chairman of Amazon Jeff Bezos. Initiated by Blue Origin in 2019, Club
for the Future is a foundation whose mission is to inspire upcoming generations
to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.
[Steve Fast
Assistant to the President, Public Information and Communication
Heartland Community College]
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