STEAM Hub announces first grants and opens second round

The Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub awarded its first two grants to Umpqua Community College and Southwest Oregon Area Health Education Center and will be accepting letters of intent from organizations applying for its second round until Tuesday, Jan. 23.

UCC received $4,000 for its Eighth Annual Explore Engineering 2015 event, an evening in which the college and local businesses share information about job and education opportunities in engineering, surveying, computing and computer science. The event is Jan. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Danny Lang Teaching, Learning and Event Center at UCC, 1140 Umpqua College Road, Winchester.

AHEC received $15,980 to support its Bright Works Oregon Healthcare Team program. The AHEC program allows “students to view monthly healthcare career presentations, gain 60+ volunteer hours working on a community health project with health-focused organizations as well as community leaders, build a professional portfolio, work directly with local mentors that have ties to our local healthcare industry, attend two hands-on career days, and apply for a small monetary educational award to support students in the program that have an intent to pursue a health profession and return to a rural region in Oregon.”

UCC and AHEC are both DCPSS partners who applied for UVSH funding during this first round of mini grants. Grant awards are open to any project and organization that supports overall vision of UVSH and the critical attributes of providing quality STEAM learning experiences to Douglas County residents.

The second round of mini grants is now open and UVSH will be accepting letters of intent until Jan. 23. Applications for funding are due Feb. 6. Funds granted by this mini-grant must be spent by June 30, 2015.