The St. Joe Community Foundation presented checks totaling more than $197,000 to the Florida State University Foundation in Panama City to support FSU Panama City programs offering science/engineering initiatives as well as services for autistic children.

The ASCENT program (Advancing Science and Career Education in New Technologies) received $122,527, while the Early Childhood Autism Program received $75,000.

“The big focus area is to further expand the successes we have had with our initial eighteen Integrated Technology Clubs previously funded by the St. Joe Community Foundation, as well as continue our iCampPC four-week summer camps,” said ASCENT Assistant Director Suzanne Remedies.  “Our ITCs focus on exposing students to new and emerging technologies through before- and after-school clubs, summer camps and team events with the ultimate goal of developing a younger pipeline of students who will become our region’s workforce of tomorrow.”

Remedies noted that the success ASCENT had in its first year was due to funding support from the St. Joe Community Foundation.  In 2022, the Foundation awarded $135,000 to ASCENT. In that initial year, students participating in ITCs earned more than 280 industry certifications outside of Career Technical Education pathways.

ASCENT is a 6-year, $23 million project partially funded by Triumph Gulf Coast Inc., designed to contribute to the development of a strong, regional workforce in cybersecurity and new technologies. The Triumph grant, part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement, pledges $11.5 million in matching funds to money raised by or donated to ASCENT. Learn more at PC.FSU.edu/ascent.

For ECAP, the donation will be employed to bolster upgrades to the clinic as well as scholarships for low-income clients.

“We will be using $25,000 for continuing renovations throughout the clinic,” said ECAP Clinical Coordinator Dakota Januchowski. “Last year, we also partnered up with The St. Joe Community Foundation to completely renovate our original clinic room. Since then, we've been on a mission to continue these renovations and bring the clinic into the 21st century.”

The remaining $50,000 will go to scholarships that provide free Applied Behavior Analysis services to underprivileged children in Bay County diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. ECAP is the only non-profit ABA program in the Panhandle to provide in-home and in-clinic services for children diagnosed with or presenting symptoms of developmental delays or disabilities. Learn more at PC.FSU.edu/ecap.

“As of August 2024, we will have nine individuals receiving some form of financial assistance to pay for a therapy that is endorsed by the Surgeon General as the primary form of treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder,” Januchowski said.

The St. Joe Community Foundation was established in 1999 as a separate entity from the St. Joe Company. The Foundation provides grants to 501(c)3 nonprofits in the areas of education, environmental stewardship, building healthier communities and programs that honor the cultural arts. Learn more at Joe.com/community-foundation.

Established in 1960, the FSU Foundation now manages an endowment of $785.2 million, with a mission to enhance the academic vision and priorities of FSU through fundraising activities and funds management. Learn more at Foundation.FSU.edu.