Greenwood Genetic Center receives grant
October 12, 2009
C/O Index Journal
The National Human Genome Research Institute has awarded a grant in the amount of $860,000 to the Education Division of the Greenwood Genetic Center.
Funding will be over a two-year period with the project under the direction of Leta M. Tribble, director of education at the Center.
“These funds from the National Institutes of Health will allow us to enhance the on-campus and outreach educational activities of the Center, especially those that involve high school students and teachers,” said Roger Stevenson, director of the Greenwood Genetic Center.
Funds will be used to expand the Center’s Outreach Education programs. The project has two components:
- A Genetics Education Center, housed in an existing building on the GGC campus, will provide laboratory-based activities in human genetics and biotechnology for visiting classes.
- A Mobile Genetics Education Laboratory, a 40-foot bus designed and equipped as a science laboratory, to provide laboratory-based activities in human genetics and biotechnology. The Mobile Lab will focus on serving students and teachers in communities from which travel to the Center’s main campus is not practical.
One of the project’s key supporters, Ray Wilson, director of the Western Piedmont Education Consortium, states “If our students are to compete for jobs in the health care field and in technologies of the future, we must offer them experiences that will expose them to the technology and ideas used in the field today.”
According to Tribble, “This project is a natural extension of our long-standing education programs and will allow for expanded service to South Carolina’s students, teachers, and their communities. There is a need for strengthening genetic literacy as we deal with issues of ethics, technology, personal health care decisions, and future employability.”
