$500,000 of a $2,350,000 grant to be paid over a four year period ($835,000 in 2012, $500,000 due on June 1st of 2013, 2014 and 2015)
This Dunham Fund grant will help to build a $12 million dollar STEM Partnership School on the Aurora University campus to implement an innovative and collaborative mathematics and science educational program for 3rd through 8th grade students from Aurora West 129, Aurora East 131 and Indian Prairie 204 School Districts.
By naming the school in John Dunham’s memory, the institution will celebrate the role of the Dunham Fund in prompting development of the STEM proposal and serving as the project’s inaugural donor. The partnership school will be the culmination of a three-year planning process spearheaded and coordinated by the Institute for Collaboration that also includes an Aurora Mathematics and Science Education Center Committee made up of additional Aurora and Chicago-area collaborative government, business, school district, educational, and social service organizations and funders.
The STEM Partnership School concept was authorized by the Illinois legislature with the passage of special legislation that had bipartisan support. The STEM program addresses the documented need to promote math and science education to middle school age students with the hope of increasing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education interest at the local high schools. The program also provides for teacher development opportunities in STEM through the graduate program at Aurora University and the opportunity for the university’s undergraduates majoring in education to receive enhanced classroom experiences at the partnership school.