badenwürttembergstiftung

One of the things I learned when traveling in Germany is that words can be long and new words can be formed by stringing many words together. The point of this is that I never quite could say the name of the organization I visited during excursion day. The Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (BW Stifftung), which translates to Baden-Württemberg Foundation, is named for the state and is a wealthy foundation that is governed by members of the state ministry. Its beginnings sound a little questionable but I’m certain that has something to do with the manner in which our gracious host explained it to us. According to Dr. Philipp Jeandrée, communications spokesperson for the foundation, the ministry sold its shares in the state’s energy consortium when the consortium went public, and the foundation’s wealth is estimated at 75 billion euro today.

As such, the BW Stifftung can generously appropriate 40-50 million euro annually toward STEM research, education and society and culture. The one stipulation is that all funds go toward the innovation and sustainability of the state. This foundation is also a working foundation, meaning it decides where its funds go and it provides management oversight to the programs it funds.

The most interesting program I learned about is the Discover Industry Bus, which according to Jeandrèe, serves schools across the state with the goal to expose girls to STEM. I wish there was a way to get it to Virginia!