DELAURO ANNOUNCES $148,000 GRANT FOR YALE PEABODY MUSEUM

Award will fund EVOLUTIONS afterschool program for local high school students

New Haven, CT – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) announced a $148,015 Museums for America grant to the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University today.

Administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, the Museums for America grants are highly competitive, with only 160 of the 481 projects submitted from across the nation being selected. Totaling $18.8 million in grants, each institution selected is required to provide at least a 1:1 funding match, resulting in an additional $32 million in funding.

The award and matching dollars will be used to help fund the EVOLUTIONS (EVOking Learning & Understanding Through Investigations Of the Natural Sciences) afterschool program, which is provided for free to New Haven public school students. Through the EVOLUTIONS program, local students spend one afternoon a week at the museum helping to set up exhibitions, attending seminars, participating in field trips, and interning in Yale laboratories. The students earn academic credit while learning the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills they need to be successful in college and in their careers. Approximately half of the students participating in the EVOLUTIONS program this year will be funded by the Museums for America grant and matching funds.

“I am very pleased that the Peabody Museum has been awarded the Museums for America Grant, which the museum will match, dollar-for-dollar. This is a great example of how public-private partnerships can help get young people excited about science and history while enhancing their learning experience with skills they will use in both their collegiate and professional careers,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “I look forward to seeing how this award positively impacts our communities and, most importantly, our students.”

“This grant is wonderful news.” said Peabody Museum Director Derek Briggs. “The Museum is enormously grateful to IMLS whose support ensures the continuation of this vital program that has so successfully instilled the bug for learning and the sciences in scores of students and opened the door for careers they might not have dreamt possible.”