Indianapolis Art Center Receives Grant for STEAM Education.

Jeff Rasley, President of the Scientech Foundation, presented a grant check for $10,000 to Alli Badgero, Vice President of Development, Indianapolis Arts Center for the purchase of a Glowforge laser engraver, a Shark CNC router, and Sony digital cameras for the IAC's STEAM education programs.

Doug Gettelfinger, Treasurer of the Scientech Foundation, is presenting the grant check of $3,000 to Richard Gunderman for support of the IU Mini Med School.

This is a program that gives high school students in both urban and rural areas the chance to see possible medical careers.

Presenters were architects from Butler, Fairman & Seufert. They represented the American Council of Engineering Companies.

The Cold Spring School is a K-8, STEM certified school and ran a Summer STEM Camp enrichment program. It was a two-week camp that concentrates on STEM principles as it pertains to a myriad of activities. The camp runs from 8:30-4:30 daily.  It provides two meals and snacks for students. The grant is used to supplement the loss of revenue from discounted and free registration/tuition fees. The McKinney Vento students and other homeless students in situation of transient living situations attend for free. The grant allows students to attend the camp who otherwise could not have attended. It also allowed the caliber of the activities that were offered to be greatly elevated.

Some examples of the curriculum include building rockets, using leaves to make windchimes as they learn about Indiana trees and a lesson on weight distribution and buoyancy. Students discussed how boats stayed afloat and how water flow affected that. Surface areas and weight were discussed. Ultimately the students made rafts that had to hold their own body weight as it floated down a creek.

Jeff Rasley, President of the Foundation, introduced well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist Mickey Maurer and Julia Whitehead, founder and CEO of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, to speak to the Scientech Club on October 23, 2023. Rasley described Mr. Maurer's wide ranging business interests and philanthropic endeavors. Maurer was a co-owner of The Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ), Court and Commercial Record, and The Indiana Lawyer. Maurer also is the founder of The National Bank of Indianapolis, the largest locally owned financial institution in central Indiana. In 2005 and 2006 Maurer was named Indiana Secretary of Commerce by Governor Mitch Daniels, while working for an agreed upon salary of $1 per year. In 2008, in recognition of Maurer’s longtime service and generosity to his alma mater, Indiana University School of Law — Bloomington was renamed Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Maurer created the philanthropic adult “summer camp” experience called Mickey’s Camp, which is held in Indiana each August at Bradford Woods, uniting business and civic leaders for a networking and educational setting outside of the workplace that also features a charitable component. Since its creation in 2001, Mickey’s Camp has raised more than $2 million for local charities.   

Rasley then turned the program over to Julia Whitehead, who interviewed Mr. Maurer about his recent literary efforts, which range from writing books about history, sports, and science fiction. A major theme which emerged from the talk was Maurer's conviction that to live a good and long life, one must engage in charitable activities. And that can be financial contributions to nonprofits doing good work like the Scientech Foundation. Or, it can be through volunteerism.  

President Jeff Rasley and Chair Vic Wenning opened the meeting at the Broadmoor Country Club on October 11, 2023. All members of the Board of Directors were present, including Vice President Benny Ko, Treasurer Doug Gettelfinger, Secretary Bob Yee, Joe Abella, Teresa Trieweiler, Douglas Sherow, Rick Whitener, Nancy Halsema, and Bill Halsema.

Treasurer Doug Gettelfinger provided a financial report and statement of activities, assisted by Chris Rohn, representing the Planned Investment Company, the Board’s financial advisor. Hearing recommendations from Chris and Doug, the Board voted to approve several investment changes to better align the Foundation’s investments with its five-year goal of final approval by the IRS of its public charity status.

Members who were the overseers of 2023 grants provided reports on the success of each of the grants. All 2023 grantees reported positive results, and will be considered for 2024 grants, except the Indiana Audubon Society, because its grant was for the one-time project of constructing a motis tower for tracking bird migrations.

Vice President Benny Ko reported on the status of the Foundation’s website and plans for increasing donations in 2023-24.

The next quarterly meeting will be held on January 24, 2024 at Broadmoor Country Club.

The Scientech Club held its annual festive dinner Saturday, October 14, 2023 at the Woodland Country Club in Carmel, Indiana. After an hour of socializing with a cash bar, dinner, with choice of fillet or chicken, was served to over 100 attendees. Tables were decorated with faux roses and diamonds.

Club President Rick Whitener opened the evening program by introducing Jeff Rasley, President of the Scientech Foundation. Jeff gave a brief description of the Foundation’s 17 grants for STEM education programs in Indiana and 9 “most improved student” scholarships at Indiana colleges. To humanize what the Foundation supports, Jeff read an excerpt from the report of one grantee, the Marian University Summer Engineering Camp for high school students. It described the sophisticated level of engineering projects the campers worked on and how it prepared them to study engineering at the college level.

The main event was a program about diamonds by Club members Hank Wolfla and Dr. Glen Bingle. They gave a power point presentation about how diamonds are formed, cut, marketed and sold, and the histories of the most expensive and rare diamonds. Dr. Bingle concluded the program with an admonition to members that, “You can’t take diamonds or your wealth with you, so you ought to give some of it away to charitable organizations benefiting the next generation, like the Scientech Foundation.”

Starbase Indiana Inc.'s mission is to give STEM education to any and all public grade school students. The government (DOD) pays for the classrooms and teachers' salaries, not special projects or equipment. Scientech member John Rathmann, a retired Rolls Royce engineer, has given presentations on aviation to hundreds of interested students. The Scientech Foundation has given $8,000 to $9,000 a year to Starbase for projects like a weather balloon launch, following the balloon and analyzing the data.

There also are summer camps. As Starbase's Sara Farkas writes "This year our traditional camps built catapults thanks to Scientech funding to cover the cost of Deeply Ingrained Workshop on Wheels. We also added a DNA lesson and the campers worked with microscopes. They learned about light energy and of course Newton's Laws-not only with the catapults but also with the water rockets"

(Safety note catapulted marshmallows, not rocks!)

Grantee: Jordan YMCA

Amount of the Grant: $10,000

How The Grant Was Used: During the 2022-2023 Preschool year, the Jordan YMCA provided 67 students (41 half-day and 26 full-day) the skills to prepare for kindergarten; 31% of those children received financial assistance to attend. Over $25,000 was awarded in preschool financial assistance.

The Jordan Y utilizes the rigorously researched Creative Curriculum, which balances teacher planned and child-initiated learning for ages 2-5 years. Research has shown that children reap long-term educational and social benefits from quality preschool. While the comprehensive curriculum focuses on many important areas of education such as literacy, social studies, and the arts, it has an equal focus on STEM learning and activities.

The Mini-Medical School project, a recipient of the Scientech Foundation grant, was designed originally to enable Indianapolis Public Schools high school students to spend a day at the IU School of Medicine, learning what it would be like to pursue a career in medicine, nursing, or emergency medical technology.   It was so successful that a second day was soon added for students from rural school districts around the state, which face significant shortages of health professionals.  The program has received such positive feedback that it will be staged three times a year in the near future instead of two.  Funding from Scientech plays a large role in keeping this great program going.  All labor by faculty and health professions students is voluntary, and we use the money strictly to feed the students breakfast and lunch and provide them with medical instruments such as disposable stethoscopes, reflex hammers, and t-shirts that bear the Scientech logo.

Scientech Foundation member Dr. Teresa Trierweiler is the sponsor of this project. The Indiana University Medical School liaison person is our Scientech member Dr. Richard Gunderman.