Santa Fe Children's Museum lands grant for STEM program
Apr. 15—Think of STEM at Santa Fe Children's Museum, a program for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, as very early workforce development.
That's how Hannah Hausman, the museum's executive director, sees it. And in a way, that's how the Intel Foundation, which made a grant of $25,000 to the museum, also sees it.
Hausman says the money will go toward "all of our initiatives focused around STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] for children.
"For example, a [Los Alamos National Laboratory] scientist comes in and volunteers their time and hosts projects around — it could really be anything, like you'll see electricity, you'll see something about water," she said.
The Intel Foundation gave the museum the money as part of its year-end grant cycle, which last year donated $185,000 to 12 organizations, an Intel spokeswoman said. That includes others such as the Adelante Development Center, HopeWorks and Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity.
Hausman said this is the first time the museum has received money from the Intel Foundation.
"It took some time for us to develop the partnership," she said. "I think a lot of nonprofits sometimes think, 'Gosh, they're in Albuquerque. Why would they support Santa Fe?' The reality is that New Mexico has a lot of different companies and foundations that don't just limit [their money to Albuquerque]."
