VCU Rice Center receives $100,000 gift from Alcoa Foundation

By Joy Turner
University News Services

Virginia Commonwealth University has received a $100,000 gift from the Alcoa Foundation to enhance its summer education program for K-12 teachers at the VCU Rice Center.

The gift, which will be funded over two years, allows for the development of two new weeklong, summer residential teacher training workshops in 2007 and two more in 2008. The workshops will focus on wetlands restoration with an emphasis on sustainable waters.

“This generous gift will help the Rice Center in its continuing mission to provide science teachers the opportunity to take hands-on experience from the field back to the classroom for the benefit of the students they teach,” said Thomas F. Huff, vice provost for VCU Life Sciences.  

"The VCU Rice Center's wetlands restoration education program is one that we are supporting today to build a better environment tomorrow,” said Margaret Bowen, vice president, human resources, Alcoa Packaging & Consumer Group. “By enabling teachers within this program to instill their learning and concern for our nation's wetlands into the hearts and minds of today's school children, our communities will benefit via the environmentally improved waterways and tributaries that feed our bays and oceans.

“This educational program, in conjunction with the Rice Center research, has the potential for a significant impact on our environment, on both the national and global level," Bowen said.

The workshops provide professional development programs for many teachers that focus on water resource issues related to the James River and its surrounding wetlands. 

“We greatly appreciate the Alcoa Foundation’s support of our efforts to provide this very important training opportunity for school teachers,” said Leonard Smock, Ph.D., director of the VCU Rice Center. “A key element of the mission of the VCU Rice Center is to further knowledge of the importance of water resources to our society and environment.”

The Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Science is an ecologically rich, 343-acre parcel of land located on the north bank of the tidal James River, southeast of Richmond, that VCU Life Sciences uses for research, education and outreach activities.