Trustees for the AAPG Foundation recently agreed to fund proposals that will:
- Provide young students with opportunities to directly experience the world of geosciences
- Help the public better understand, appreciate and even enjoy geological impacts and influences in their lives
- Expose young students to a host of geoscience activities and hands-on field trips
- Open doors for university-level students to pursue a career in the geosciences
- Help ensure continuation of a program that is improving lives around the world through humanitarian efforts that utilize geoscience knowledge and expertise
Approving these proposals during the Trustees recent meeting is big news in itself – but wait … there’s more.
The AAPG Foundation Trustees are eager to do even more with the gifts that they generously receive throughout the year. What they’d like to have are even more proposals to consider.
“We did have quite a few proposals to consider and made many awards during our most recent meeting,” Foundation Chair Jim McGhay commented after the November session. “In fact, I’m pretty sure that we’re getting more proposals this year than in prior years.
“But the thing is, we also have some funding availability that is going unused or underutilized,” he added. “We want to find ways where we can help even more people and projects in the world of geosciences.”
The Trustees are actively trying to “encourage our supporters and interested others to assist us in seeking out existing or startup programs that will fit our mission and could help us extend our reach,” McGhay said.
“Our mission is all about supporting educational and scientific activities in the field of geology and geosciences,” McGhay said,” and that goes for projects that benefit students, professionals and, increasingly, the public.
“Thanks to the gifts of our generous supporters, we’re able to do so much,” McGhay said, “and through their suggestions and direct proposals, we hope to do so much more.”
So, McGhay added, if you have a “good idea on how we help a good geoscience project, please let us know!”
Putting Gifts to Work
The AAPG Foundation is known around the world for its financial support of several programs that are managed by the Programs Team at AAPG, spearheaded by Susie Nolen (team lead), Heather Hodges and Adriane Hausher.
Those Foundation-supported activities have included AAPG’s Distinguished Lecture program, the Imperial Barrel Award, the Sustainable Development in Energy Competition, Grants-in-Aid, the new Field Camp Scholarship program (replacing the long-time L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant program), the Deanna and Paul Strunk Military Veterans Scholarship Program, geoscience teaching awards and various K-12 initiatives.
“Those are all programs that directly support our mission statement of supporting educational and scientific activities for geology and the geosciences,” McGhay said.
“But we know there are other ways – through non-program projects and activities – that that we can help through our support,” he continued.
Those examples would include various geoscience education efforts, professional development opportunities and public outreach components.
“We have recently helped a YMCA STEM initiative, a state-wide program to get natural resource education into K-12 curriculum, and an oil and gas symposium for legislative staffers in Washington, D.C.,” McGhay said, “and we are working to support continuing education for professional geoscientists.”
Specific proposals approved by the Trustees at their recent meeting included support for:
- K-12 teachers to participate in a Buffalo Bayou Field Trip in the Houston area, suggested by the DEG-Education Committee
- Improvements and digital updates at the Dinosaur Ridge Paleontology Data Preservation Project near Denver
- The GEO-Rex project, which exposes K-12 students to a geoscience summer camp (field trips, lab work, etc.) at the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University
- Development of the West Texas Geological Society’s 100-Year Anniversary Core Workshop, including the potential for a Permian Basin core repository
- The fourth year of the Sustainable Development in Energy Competition, managed by the AAPG Sustainable Development Committee, an event that has grown in international participation and significance
- Continued support for the Geoscientists Without Borders program, which offers geoscience expertise and leadership to help in cultural and humane efforts around the world
“The Foundation is having an impact on people’s lives,” McGhay said, “but even as we expand our reach, we know there is much more that we could do.
“Again, I ask for all of our donor and supporter base to not only continue your generous support – none of this is possible without you – but also give us your ideas on other ways we can help.”