Young Sheldon inspires new STEM initiative
The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation today announced a new grant program, THE YOUNG SHELDON STEM INITIATIVE, to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in public schools.
Chuck Lorre enlisted his fellow Young Sheldon executive producers Steven Molaro and Jim Parsons, Warner Bros. Television Group and CBS to fund the program which will support two-year educational grants totalling more than $600,000.
Chuck Lorre said, “To those of us involved in making it, Young Sheldon is more than a television series. At its heart, it’s a story about potential. When the education of a child is supported, there is no limit to what that child might eventually achieve. We hope that in some small way, this program gives these public schools more STEM educational tools in the classroom for teachers to nurture and ignite the curiosity of students who will ultimately become our future leaders and scholars.”
The grants will be distributed to nineteen schools across Southern California, where the show is produced, and East Texas, where the show is set.
Along with funding educational equipment including robotics kits, Vernier probeware, lab tables and 3-D printers, the grants will see students in Texas take annual field trips to Space Center Houston, while students in California will visit NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Of the nineteen schools selected for grants, executive producer and narrator Jim Parsons attended the three schools in the Klein, Texas school district, while star Montana Jordan, who plays Georgie, attended the two Ore City, Texas schools. Young Sheldon frequently films at Van Nuys High School, one of the selected Southern California schools.
