Gee lunches with STEM students

Springfield’s Global Impact school seeking donations for renovations.

Credit: Bill Lackey

Credit: Bill Lackey

Key state-level proponents of the new Global Impact STEM Academy were in town Wednesday to thank current financial backers and lunch with the inaugural class of about 50 ninth-graders during a donation presentation.

E. Gordon Gee, former president of Ohio State University, and Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, along with Global Impact administrators and others, accepted a check of $5,000 from DuPont Pioneer that will be applied to out-of-classroom experiences.

The donation will be used to help pay for transportation for field trips during the 2013-14 school year.

Gee and Widener are part of a group currently working to obtain $3.5 million for the renovation of the former South High School, where the academy will eventually move from a temporary location at Clark State, Widener said.

And they have numerous leads state and nationwide that they believe might be willing to fund the project, he said.

They met Wednesday with those people that have already committed funding.

Gee became involved in the project when OSU signed on to lend guidance and support in opening the school.

“This project was really nothing more than a few PowerPoint slides in a meeting in Dr. Gee’s office when he was president of Ohio State, and in a matter of a few minutes, light bulbs went off and his enthusiasm really began to flower for this particular project,” Widener told the students and community leaders.

Gee told attendees it’s one of the “really important programs in the state” and thanked students for making the choice.

The school focuses on problem-based learning to prepare students for internships and jobs in agricultural and bioscience fields.

The DuPont Pioneer funding was contributed through the company’s Giving Program. The program supports organizations where its representatives, employees and customers live and work, according to Global Impact’s public relations firm Wilt PR.

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