Landmark donations support VISST’s long-term growth

We are thrilled to announce that, as our launch year comes to a close, VISST has received two landmark donations: Walter and Nancy Segsworth have pledged $100,000 to VISST over the next five years, and an anonymous couple has donated $1,000,000 to the school. These charitable contributions reshape the financial landscape for VISST. We would like to express our deepest appreciation to our donors for their incredible generosity.  

Gifts of this magnitude are atypical for a new school or even an established school. To us, this signals a belief in the importance of STEM education in the future of our society. In the words of our donors: 

“We benefitted greatly from a high quality STEM education offered by knowledgeable and enthusiastic teachers. Until VISST was established, we noted the absence of a school dedicated to excellence in science and technology. We believe VISST fills an important gap in Vancouver. Had a school like VISST been available when our children were young, they would have been so enthusiastic to attend. We hope that other children with interests in science and technology will benefit from what VISST can offer in the company of like-minded peers.”

- Anonymous Donors

“Canada has more university graduates per capita than virtually all countries but we are at the bottom of the list when it comes to those earning STEM degrees. What you are doing to get students turned on to, and proficient in, STEM subjects in their high school years is hugely important to seeing that we graduate more Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics students in the future.”

- Walter and Nancy Segsworth

What do these contributions mean for VISST? This solid financial base gives us the confidence to take steps that will most benefit VISST’s future. As VISST board member Murray Goldberg put it — drawing on his experience founding several successful companies and serving on the board of York House School and Harvey Mudd College — we should “invest in seeds, not food”. With these new funds in hand, we will be making long-term decisions about financial aid and hiring that would have otherwise been infeasible for a start-up organization. We are also now pursuing, with confidence, our expansion plan to increase the size and capabilities of our facility, including the addition of a science lab. 

At VISST our approach has always been to dream big for every aspect of the school, knowing that we could dampen our blue sky expectations as needed over time. From day one we’ve paid our teachers fairly while also offering significantly more prep time to collaborate and innovate. We’ve used a sliding scale, need-blind tuition model to make the school as accessible as possible for a socioeconomically diverse group of families. We set out on this journey with the hope (faith?) that we would find supporters who believe in what we’re doing, just like we do. As of today, it would seem that hope was not unfounded, nor that faith misplaced. It is an incredible vote of confidence for VISST that private individuals, and corporations like Teck Resources (with a past $25,000 donation), are stepping up to support what we do. It’s thanks to supporters like our anonymous donors and Walter and Nancy Segsworth that the skies above VISST remain bright and blue.