2008 Woodie Awards
State Farm Foundation endows Business, Education
Whitney Grunder, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/8/06 Section: News
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The School of Business and Economics and the School of Education will use $46,000 of the grant.
"We feel that we have an entree now that we didn't have before," James Robertson, dean of the School of Business said. "The second major issue is that two schools on campus cooperated together in getting a grant."
Robertson personally wrote a part of the grant that came to the business department. With this grant, the School of Business funded three PC stations for part-time faculty members along with six laptops to be used when the primary computers aren't functioning.
The School of Education also received a share of the grant to address needs within the department.
"It opened up another door to State Farm. They have been very helpful," said Robertson.
He explained that the State Farm Foundation funds all kinds of things across the nation. The foundation is separate in entity from the insurance company.
The School of Education also used the grant to provide the department with new laptop computers and software with assistive capabilities to benefit students and faculty members.
"It's a fabulous opportunity for us to expand on an area that we are very interested in and concerned about," Dean of Education, Mary Gendernalik-Cooper said. "It really focuses on providing equipment that's needed to help university students who have various disabilities or learning related conditions that the equipment can help them overcome."
Not only will the new laptops and software programs be readily available to students, but they will also prepare them for working with students of their own in the future.
"The equipment that the State Farm grant is supplying to the School of Education will be used by our students in assisting them in maximizing their learning opportunities here at SSU. It will also be used by our students and our faculty to demonstrate how equipment can help individuals with disabilities maximize their learning and since we are preparing teachers and people who work in the schools with K-12 students, many whom also have disabilities, this is a way to help our candidates understand that their our technologies that exist that can be utilized when they have a student who needs supportive assistance," Cooper said.