Employees from Monsanto’s Research Triangle Park location recently selected the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics to receive a $13,500 grant from the Monsanto Fund’s 2015 site grant initiative. Representatives from the organization and the fund celebrated the grant with a check presentation on September 24.

“NCSSM was the first school of its kind to offer public residential education focused solely on STEM training for students,” says Dale Karlson, an assay technology lead at Monsanto. “The quality of educational environment the school provides for residential students is impressive.”

Funds from the grant will help support the Mentorship program at NCSSM. Mentorship, one of NCSSM’s most sought-after academic programs, is an application-based academic program for students who want to develop research skills while working with research professionals off-campus. Specifically, the Monsanto grant will help defray costs associated with transporting students to their assignments at area universities and corporate sites during the 2015-2016 academic year. Students spend two afternoons each week working on an independent project or as part of an ongoing project at locations throughout the area under the guidance of one or more mentors. Students are currently working with mentors at Duke University, Duke University Medical Center, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, Meredith College, Lenovo, and Engineering World Health.

For many students, their Mentorship experience will be a defining moment, informing their decisions on academic and career paths.

“The Monsanto Fund has become a consistent funder of NCSSM programming, having provided grants to the school in four out of the last five years. For that, NCSSM and the NCSSM Foundation are very grateful,” says Katie Wagstaff, president of the NCSSM Foundation. “With Montsanto’s help, we are preparing students for college and the workforce beyond. Having a highly qualified workforce in the future will in turn lead to more successful companies and discoveries and innovations that make the world a better place for all.”