Silicon Valley Education Foundation

Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF), headquartered in San Jose, California, is a non-profit organization that seeks to create resources and programs for students and educators in Silicon Valley in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.^[4][5][6] The SVEF was founded as a result of a merger of the San Jose Education Foundation and Santa Clara County Education Foundation.^[1][7]

Funding

Recent financials and funding

The SVEF's total expenditures in the 2015 fiscal year netted around $5,132,000. These funds were focused 78% on the SVEF's programs, 14% on fundraising, and 8% on management.^[8]

At their 11th annual Pioneers and Purpose dinner, the SVEF raised more than $1.3 million for its purpose of expanding STEM education in the Silicon Valley. This money came from various donors, some of which are big figures at large corporations such as Intel and SanDisk, as well as venture-capitalist John Doerr.^[9] Intel and SanDisk are also sponsors of the SVEF, among other corporations such as Adobe, Oracle, Cisco, Chevron, and many more.^[10]

Past funding

Since its launch in 2008, SVEF has received support from large foundations focused on improving education in the United States and reducing the achievement gap.

• The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has been a key partner of SVEF since its launch.^[1] The Knight Foundation granted $1.7 million to partially fund the Silicon Valley STEM initiative, that would raise a total of $3 million.^[11][12]
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made grants of $351,493 (October 2013, for the iHub),^[13] $750,000 (October 2014),^[14] and $1,616,641 (April 2015).^[15]
• The Hewlett Foundation made grants of $470,000 (July 2009),^[16] $50,000 (November 2009),^[17] and $100,000 (July 2011).^[18]

SVEF has also previously partnered with ConvergeUS, a charity co-founded by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.^[19]

Initiatives and partnerships

The SVEF has developed various resources available to school districts around Silicon Valley.

Elevate [Math] and [Science]

This program is a 75-hour, 19-day-long summer intervention program that focuses on preparing 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th graders for more advanced math and science courses, as well as offering teachers a 35-hour course for the development of their skills, which is based on Common Core ideals.^[20][21]

iHub

This pilot program is a platform for entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley to propose various educational products and technological solutions in order to improve education. Feedback from both students and teachers allows for entrepreneurs to further enhance their products, potentially for later introduction into the market. Collaborators and partners of this program include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Stanford Graduate School of Education, and several others.^[13][22] It is distinct from the iHub located in Kenya.

The SVEF also hosts the Learning Innovation Hub (iHub) Pitch Games, in which entrepreneurs present a product or business model, and judges proceed to ask them questions with which the judges get a better feel for the product or business model, and decide winners. Funding for the competition comes from grants made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.^[6][23]

49ers STEM Leadership Institute

This program was established in a partnership between the San Francisco 49ers, the SVEF, and the Santa Clara Unified School District. It is a 6 year long program for grades 7-12, which offers a college-preparatory curriculum that is focused on STEM.^[24][25][26]

Teacher Innovation Grants

Sponsors such as Wells Fargo allow the SVEF to make annual grants called Teacher Innovation Grants (TIG)^[27] to teachers in Silicon Valley who apply for this grant. Individual teachers are allowed to apply for up to $1000 for class projects or field-trips, whereas 2 or more teachers are allowed to apply for up to $1500. SVEF has made nearly $800,000 worth of grants for around 1,400 teachers.^[27]

East Side Alliance

The East Side Alliance (ESA) is a partnership between 8 school districts in the state of California and Silicon Valley, which serves around 85,000 students. Partners and districts in the ESA agree to collaborate towards common goals, in order to benefit students. San Jose State University is also a member of this partnership, and students of member districts are hence given an opportunity for admission to the university by better fitting their standards.^[28][29]

See also

• Silicon Valley Community Foundation
• Education in the United States
• Achievement gap in the United States
• Startup:Education

References

External links

• Official Website