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GSSM Awarded $150,000 Grant by The Byerly Foundation
February 10, 2010
The South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM) has been awarded a $150,000 grant from The Byerly Foundation, a $24 million private organization in Hartsville that aims to improve the quality of life for its residents and attract businesses, tourism and families to the area.This investment will be applied to the GSSM Foundation's ongoing Expect Great Things Endowment and Programming Campaign, a fundraising effort designed to build the school's endowment while, at the same time, providing seed money for new curriculum and program opportunities.
"GSSM is a treasure for the state of South Carolina, and Hartsvillians are proud to host these hard- working young scholars in our delightful small city," said Richard Puffer, the organization's executive director. "From the perspective of The Byerly Foundation, this most recent grant is an investment in Hartsville that touches our goals of helping improve both education and economic development."
The Byerly Foundation investment works within the Expect Great Things campaign mission of supporting the school's ongoing campus expansion project by financing beautification enhancements, including landscaping, hardscaping, irrigation and maintenance.
"Thanks to this generous gift from the Byerly Foundation, as soon as our construction is complete we can have our entire campus take on an appearance worthy of the great education that transpires here, and worthy of the fine community in which we learn and thrive," said Dr. Murray Brockman, GSSM president.
GSSM, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, serves a high-achieving segment of the state's high school juniors and seniors who are passionate about science, mathematics and technology and who are motivated to increase their knowledge in these subjects.
The school got its humble start on Hartsville's Coker College campus, through the vision and foresight of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell and retired Sonoco Chairman and CEO Charlie Coker. Student enrollment has since flourished and GSSM has firmly established itself as the premier high school for South Carolina's brightest young minds. In April 2008, thanks to funds allocated by the S.C. General Assembly, officials broke ground on an additional 70,000 square feet that will provide the campus with much-needed additional activity and academic space.
One of only 14 public, residential high schools in the country that specialize in science and mathematics, GSSM offers an early college experience to its students and allows them to earn college credits for many of their math and science courses.
In the future, school officials plan to more than double the faculty and student population and increase GSSM's scope to include an Economics and Finance Institute that recognizes technology-based businesses as generators of wealth and prosperity and teaches young people how to navigate between science and finance.
