Duke Energy is charging up summertime education programs, including numerous ones focusing on STEM and work force development, with $2.7 million in grants.

More than 70 programs are receiving funding, such as:

  • Read and Feed, Wake County, to support a mobile, after-school literacy program for low-income elementary school children in Raleigh’s highest needs communities.

“We are grateful to Duke Energy for their support of Read and Feed and our mission to build children’s confidence and competence with individualized tutoring,” said Kati Mullan, executive director, Read and Feed. “Their grant will allow us to implement tablets and digital learning into our program curriculum this Fall, which will be an exciting and interactive tool for our children and volunteers.”

  • Boys and Girls Club of Greater Durham – STEM Fridays

Expand STEM programming beyond the classroom through weekly projects, experiments and lessons Durham Co. Orange Co.

  • Boys and Girls Club of Henderson County – Project READ

Promote literacy for 1,000 at-risk youth, mitigate summer learning loss and avoid “summer slide” Henderson Co.

  • Boys and Girls Club of Central Carolina – STEM Rising

Motivate students in grades K-12 to explore STEM careers Chatham Co. Lee Co.

  • Boys and Girls Club of Wake County – Project Learn: Academic Success & STEM Instruction

Provide a learning environment that enables youth to excel in academic instruction and exposes students to STEM activities during the summer and after school Wake Co.

The 2017 grants are from the Duke Energy Foundation.

“Our goal is to build a brighter future for the communities we’re fortunate to serve,” said David Fountain, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president. “That begins with smart investments in the people who will successfully move our industry, workforce and state forward.”

Other program highlights include:

  • Enable America VetConnect, Eastern NC, to provide disabled veterans, wounded warriors and spouses with job-seeking training and support.

“Duke Energy’s steadfast support of our transitioning military families and disabled veterans continues to make our mission a reality in the lives of many,” said Richard Salem, chairman and CEO of Enable America’s VetConnect program. “We are proud to be a Duke Energy partner, working side by side in providing “hands on” employment assistance programs; truly, “good things happen when people have jobs.”

  • Winston Salem Foundation – Project Impact, Forsyth County, to help accelerate the reading performance of at-risk first graders.

“Thanks to Duke Energy’s support of Project Impact and Early Steps, we will significantly expand our reach next year – multiplying the impact of a program that builds reading skills in our district’s highest-need first graders,” said Cynthia Barber, reading interventionist coordinator.

  • NC Agricultural and Technical State University, Guilford County, to support the Helping Orient Minorities to Engineering (HOME) program that attracts and retains minority students in engineering and computer science.

“Duke Energy’s support of the HOME Program enables us to attract, retain and educate more high-achieving students in Engineering and Computer Science and to develop the engineering leaders of tomorrow,” said North Carolina A&T College of Engineering Dean Robin Coger. “We’re very grateful to have Duke Energy as a partner in this work, which is not only important for our students, but critical for the future of our state and nation.”

For a full list of grant recipients, see:

https://www.duke-energy.com/_/media/PDFs/community/2017-K-12-Grant-Recipient-List.pdf