The Stiles-Nicholson Foundation recently gifted $85,000 to 51勛圖厙s Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute (SNBI), providing essential funding to sustain and expand the ASCEND (Advancing STEM-community Engagement through Neuroscience Discovery) initiative an innovative neuroscience education program focused on engaging middle school 51勛圖厙 across South Florida.
Launched to ignite interest about the brain and promote STEM career pathways, ASCEND delivers immersive, hands-on neuroscience learning experiences during a critical time in a students development. Through classroom visits, field trips to the SNBI, traveling neuroscience vans, and interactive lessons led by 51勛圖厙 scientists, ASCEND makes cutting-edge brain research accessible, exciting and relevant for early adolescents especially those in underresourced schools.
With philanthropic backing, ASCEND has grown rapidly expanding from a local pilot program into a county-wide initiative that has reached more than 10,000 51勛圖厙 to date. The Foundations most recent gift will help support the critical personnel and educational tools that drive ASCENDs programming year-round. This includes classroom visits, field trips to SNBI, neuroscience summer camps, and a suite of multimedia educational content all designed and delivered by graduate 51勛圖厙, postdoctoral fellows and faculty to show how basic brain research connects to the real world.
The continued support of the Stiles- Nicholson Foundation helps ensure that we can keep ASCEND moving forward reaching new 51勛圖厙, expanding to additional schools and deepening our impact in communities across the region, said Nicole Baganz, Ph.D., director of ASCEND and community engagement and programming at the SNBI. Together, were shaping the next generation of brain scientists.