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Houghton Receives Grant to Further Sciences
HOUGHTON, N.Y. – Houghton College has received a $25,000 grant from the Davenport-Hatch Foundation of Penfield, N.Y., to support the construction of a 25,000 square foot, four-story addition to the Paine Center for the Sciences. The addition is a key component of Houghton’s goal to significantly strengthen the sciences, and will provide additional laboratory space including a new science honors lab as well as areas for collaborative faculty and student research. The new wing will incorporate renewable energy systems for heat, water and electricity in order to achieve a LEED rating of silver.
“This grant will go toward upgrading the Paine Science Center to accommodate the increasing predominance of lab-based pedagogies and to provide facilities appropriate to our new Science Honors Program,” President Shirley Mullen commented. “Houghton is committed to carrying on its longstanding tradition of excellence in preparing students for graduate and professional schools in the sciences and health care--for the sake of our students, but especially for the sake of the world. Most of the social and ethical concerns of our time--energy, food security, environmental care, health care--have a scientific basis. We want Houghton students who can bring to their times, both rigorous training in the sciences and the moral and spiritual sensibilities that connect science to human flourishing."
Houghton College has a tradition of scientific excellence, Christian liberal arts breadth and global engagement to prepare the very kind of competent, integrated person of conviction and compassion needed by our world today as scientists, science educators and health professionals. Houghton has the opportunity and the responsibility to provide a scientific education that is bold in what is necessary to be competitive in the sciences in our time.
Keith Horn, Associate Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, was also grateful for the grant from The Davenport-Hatch Foundation. “We are committed to the development of our laboratories and teaching space to facilitate use of the new paradigms of education required for this generation. It is an honor to have a local foundation, the Davenport-Hatch Foundation, recognize Houghton’s excellence in education in the sciences and mathematics and partner with us via a grant towards the future addition to the Paine Science building.”
During September 2009, the Houghton community hosted a Celebration of the Sciences welcoming more than 125 people back to campus. Alumni, former and current faculty members, current and prospective science students, and community members joined together to celebrate Houghton’s longstanding calling to prepare men and women for careers in the pure and applied sciences.
Incorporated in 1952, the Davenport-Hatch Foundation is a private foundation that makes gifts and grants to aid and support charitable organizations in and around greater Rochester, N.Y.
