The HMC Designing Futures Foundation board of directors is delighted to announce the award of community project grants for the Riverside Art Museum, Promise Scholars and Santiago High School. Community projects are an initiative from HMC’s non-profit Designing Futures Foundation (DFF) that empowers HMC teams to create, lead and complete projects that positively impact the communities in which they live and work. Over the past few months, employees proposed their project ideas to the DFF Board of Directors for funding consideration. The following projects were selected to receive grants:
Riverside Art Museum
The Riverside Art Museum (RAM) has been awarded a second $10,000 grant, bringing the total DFF grant to $20,000 to support the renovation of the existing Julia Morgan historical wall that serves as an integral part of the museum’s K-12 arts education school programs and is the only display of its kind in a Julia Morgan building showcasing her work. Julia Morgan is one of the most prolific and important American architects and the first female honored with The American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. RAM is housed in a former YWCA building designed by Julia Morgan and built in 1929.
Team HMC includes Dan Benner, who also serves as a museum trustee, Beryl Mensonides, Sunita Ram, Israel Pena and Leina Naverson.
>>Read about the first RAM DFF grant
>>Learn about the architectural significance of the RAM YWCA building
Promise Scholars
A grant of $5,000 has been awarded to Promise Scholars to support universal college access programs in the Ontario-Montclair School District. Specifically, the DFF funding will support Promise Scholars programs at Vineyard STEM Academy and will include:
// 5th grade community college visits to either Chaffey or Norco
// 6th grade business leader class presentations
// 8th grade visit to Harvey Mudd College
An initiative of the Ontario-Montclair School District (OMSD), Promise Scholars is working to establish a PK-16 pipeline in partnership with Chaffey Join Union High School District, Chaffey Community College, California State University, San Bernardino, the cities of Ontario and Montclair, The Community Foundation, Alliance for Education and Inland Empire United Way. Promise Scholars is one of the first universal comprehensive college access programs of its kind in San Bernardino County and its goal is to increase the college-going rate for all OMSD students by 50%.
>>Read about the work of Promise Scholars in the Huffington Post
Santiago High School
A grant of $2,350 has been awarded to Santiago High School in the Corona-Norco Unified School District to support student participation in the SkillsUSA architecture competition. Bill Brown, the engineering and architecture chair, leads the team at Santiago HS.
Leo Romero and Sunita Ram are the HMC champions of this project and they will support the program through volunteerism.
