GCDS Receives $500k “Innovation in STEM Teaching” Grant From Endless

This fall, Greenwich Country Day School received a $500,000 grant designed to advance innovations in STEM teaching from Endless—a global network conceived to empower people through innovative technology. Building on the school’s interdisciplinary, applied approaches to STEM education, this grant will fund targeted recruitment of faculty as well as significant programmatic development in the Middle and Upper Schools. The grant will also support ambitious professional learning initiatives and opportunities for applied research and teaching. In addition, the grant fuels an innovative partnership with Endless, founded by Matt Dalio ’99 to enhance accessibility to tech education worldwide through game design and development in addition to other forms of applied STEM education.

"This generous grant will allow Country Day to move even further into a leadership position in STEM teaching and learning; we are so very grateful to Endless, Matt Dalio, and the Dalio family philanthropies for their ongoing support,” said Head of School Adam Rohdie. 

This grant recognizes and builds on the strength of the unique Creative Applied Technologies (CAT) Program at GCDS, which integrates the Computer Science, Design, Economics, and Policy programs. Team-taught courses linking the Math, Arts, Economics, and Engineering departments–many of which are led by faculty with backgrounds in university-level teaching and research–are core to this program. These courses are also built around partnerships with external companies and organizations, centered on opportunities for applied learning and research. 

The grant will also further expand independent mentored research opportunities for students in STEM fields, which have guided the school’s graduates to the top engineering and applied science research programs in the United States. In particular, the Endless Foundation team will partner with faculty in the Middle and Upper Schools to introduce students to powerful game design tools, which allow for the modeling of real-world environments, decision-making, and societal organization.

In addition, this program explicitly seeks to promote and advance an inclusive curriculum for underrepresented identities in science and technology. This grant will support the further expansion of Greenwich Country Day’s FEMS in STEM and Girls Who Code programs. Through the continued cultivation of partnerships with private and public organizations in the technology space, the grant will also promote the school’s organization of broader professional learning and public service programs in the New York Metro region.