Our Brains for Your Bucks

Fairmont State was one of only two schools in the state to receive funding in 2010 from the West Virginia Research Trust Fund’s STEM Grant Program for State Colleges and Universities, also known as "Bucks for Brains".

OSIX-FSU’s New Media Assessment Project was awarded a grant in the amount of $100,000, but there’s a catch. In order to actually receive these funds, Fairmont State will need the help of its alumni, friends and corporate partners. Through this matching grant challenge, the West Virginia Research Trust Fund will match private donations to OSXI-FSU up to $100,000.

Since this is a dollar for dollar match, donors to OSIX-FSU can double the impact their gift will have on this exciting and innovative program. These donations, matched by the grant, will fund stipends for student-analysts and technology enhancements that will create an efficient process to capture, parse, store and search large amounts of new media content related to national security and law enforcement. Through this program, students will have real-life, hands-on experience producing work that may be of direct benefit to the U.S. Intelligence Community. Through participation in this matching grant challenge and the support of donors, Fairmont State is able to offer students these meaningful and industrious educational experiences.

Established in 2008 by the state legislature, the Bucks for Brains program is intended to spur STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research. It has been designed as a matching grant program in order to encourage and leverage philanthropic support from individuals, corporations and other non-governmental sources to state colleges and universities.

For information on how you can support the OSIX-FSU student-analysts and further STEM research at Fairmont State by participating in this limited-time matching grant challenge, please contact Devanna Corley, vice president for Institutional Advancement at (304) 367-4375 or Devanna.Corley@fairmontstate.edu.

About this story: This story, written by Nita Coleman '10, was featured in the Summer 2011 edition of maroon & white. Click here to view this edition. To request a paper copy contact Beth Martin at (304) 367-4009.

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