VCU Rice Center Receives $25,000 Gift From Dominion Foundation

By Anne Buckley

Virginia Commonwealth University will soon have a new outdoor classroom for middle and high school students to learn about air, water and insects. The new learning area will be built with a grant from the Dominion Foundation.

VCU's Rice Center has received a $25,000 gift from the Dominion Foundation for its educational outreach program. The Dominion Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Richmond-based Dominion, one of the nation's largest energy companies.

The donation will help fund an approximately 600-square-foot education pavilion at the Rice Center that will be able to accommodate an outdoor classroom of about 30 students.

"This generous gift will help the Rice Center in its continuing mission to provide students of all ages the opportunity to learn from our great natural resources," said Len Smock, Ph.D., director of the Rice Center. "Through this gift, students will have a facility set within the diverse environment for a variety of learning experiences about the natural world around them."

The structure will provide shelter to middle and high school environmental classes from Richmond, Prince George, Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield, Amelia, Powhatan and Varina who come to the Rice Center for outdoor experiences. Students will engage in water sampling, air sampling and studies involving fish, birds, insects, dragonflies, salamander and box turtles.

The shelter also will be used by Summer Discovery classes, summer teacher training classes and VCU graduate and undergraduate students conducting field work at the Rice Center.

"As the major supplier of energy in uniquely beautiful and natural regions, Dominion works to protect and enhance the environmental quality of life for our customers, employees and neighbors," said William C. Hall, Jr., vice president-Corporate Communications & Community Affairs and president-The Dominion Foundation. "Through its work at the Rice Center, VCU is opening these opportunities to future college students."

VCU recently announced it also plans to construct an education outreach building at the site. The new building, approximately 6,000-square-feet, will be used for hands-on environmental sciences education. Students from surrounding school districts as well as VCU students will be able to study and collect biological samples on site and then immediately study them in classrooms and laboratories in the new facility.

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.