California Academy of Sciences Receives
Hearst Foundation Grant for Education Endowment

SAN FRANCISCO (December 22, 1998) – The California Academy of Sciences is delighted to announce a gift of $200,000 from the Hearst Foundation to establish the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Science Education. "The Academy is deeply grateful for the Hearst Foundation’s long history of support for science education at the Academy. This gift ensures that we will have the necessary resources to develop our education priorities to their fullest potential," said Academy Executive Director, Dr. Patrick Kociolek.

The Hearst Foundation Endowment for Education will support the development of long-term education programs at the Academy. "This important endowment gift provides long-term stability for the programs that serve all of the Academy’s many constituencies. This is an opportunity to enhance science literacy in our community, and increase appreciation and understanding of the natural world. We hope that the Hearst Foundation’s confirmation of the essential nature of our work will stimulate other contributions to the new Education Endowment at the California Academy of Sciences," says Dr. Samuel Taylor, Chairman and Curator of Education at the California Academy of Sciences.

The mission of the California Academy of Sciences is to explore and explain the natural world through scientific research and education. Education programs at the Academy enable lay people to develop an intimate knowledge of the natural world by providing access to systematic biologists whose work documents the Earth’s diversity.

The Academy of Sciences includes eight scientific research departments - anthropology, aquatic biology, botany, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate zoology and geology, and ornithology and mammalogy.