Verizon is now taking a stab at improving the US education system by starting up the Verizon Innovate Learning Grants program. The corporation is giving $20,000 to 80 different underserved public schools across the nation, with the combined $1.6 million potentially stimulating STEM education in the US.
Due to the demand for STEM jobs and what Verizon believes to be the educational system’s failure to prepare students to fulfill those jobs, the company is doling out its Verizon Innovate Learning grants to initiate teacher professional development and programs that teach emerging technologies, such as 3D printing, robotics, and coding.
Rose Stuckey Kirk, Verizon’s vice president of global corporate citizenship and president of the Verizon Foundation, said of the new initiative, “We created this program to boost innovative STEM initiatives in underserved schools nationwide, and we salute the 80 schools chosen to receive these grants. These schools’ programs will expose more students in underserved schools to STEM fields, offering them hands-on, project-based learning opportunities to help increase their interest and achievement in STEM.”
The grants complement Verizon’s other STEM endeavors: the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) program, the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy and the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. These programs are a nice gesture by the telecom giant, but you have to wonder exactly what a telecom giant is doing in the education racket. Is the company merely a good Samaritan or does it benefit them to tilt future students in the direction of developing mobile devices that may run on Verizon’s network?
