St. Joe Community Foundation makes major investments in FSU Panama City

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – The St. Joe Community Foundation made a big local investment in higher education on Thursday.

Foundation members presented two checks, totaling more than $197,000 to the Florida State University Panama City campus. The money will go to the campus’ science and engineering initiatives as well as autistic children’s services.

The St. Joe Foundation is known for funding education, healthcare, environmental stewardship, and cultural arts grants.

“Well, one of our biggest pillars is education. And having FSU Panama City right here in our backyard is just an easy collaboration for us to have. And we truly appreciate everything they do for the community and the education they offer as the students and the in the community,” Executive Director of St. Joe Foundation April Wilkes said.

FSU’s Advancing Science and Career Education in New Technologies program, or ASCENT, will receive nearly $123,000.

This isn’t the first time the St. Joe Foundation has donated to the ASCENT program. In 2022 they awarded $135,000 to provide educational funds.

“We have integrated technology clubs, which are clubs within the schools, as well as community groups at home schools. And we help fund those with hardware and software so that they can work towards getting technical industry certifications for these young people,” ASCENT Program Liaison Brianne Biddle said.

Biddle said this donation is necessary to continue providing students with training for industry certifications.

“Because if we don’t have funding, then we can’t continue with our programs. So we’ve really had a lot of success. We’ve gotten over 700 industry certifications, and many of those are in the k-12 with our students specifically six through 12. But we’re just now going into the younger grades,” Biddle said.

Teachers said they also see benefits.

“They offer teachers to come in and learn different technology skills. I came in, and I got certified, in Google Docs, slides and Sheets, and WordPress. So it’s really exciting that those teachers get to go back into their classrooms and take that knowledge and the certifications to be a success with their students,” Teacher Rebecca Stewart said.

The early childhood autism program will receive $75,000. $25,000 of that will go to renovating the program’s clinics. The FSU Foundation will spend most of the ASCENT funds on Bay County schools.

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