Neuroscience major at Luther College gets a boost from a Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust grant

Pictured L to R: Stephanie Fretham, Kristy Gould and Scott Carlson.

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust has given Luther College $200,000 to enhance curriculum and provide educational laboratory experiences for students in Luther's new neuroscience major.

Luther biology professor Scott Carlson, assistant professor Stephanie Fretham and psychology professor Kristy Gould wrote the grant application.  Luther director of corporate and foundation relations Jeanie Lovell coordinated the proposal process.

Luther will use the grant to purchase technology that addresses neuroscience education on three levels: cellular, organismal and cognitive. In addition to benefiting the neuroscience major, the new equipment will enhance the teaching of current and future biology and psychology courses.

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is one of the largest private philanthropic foundations in the state of Iowa with assets of more than $300 million and annual grant distributions of more than $15 million. It was created through the will of Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine industrialist and philanthropist, who died in 1981.  Since the beginning of the trust's grant-making activities in 1987, nearly $330 million has been distributed in the form of 2,100 individual grants. Biomedical and scientific research; primary, secondary and higher education; and other issues related to the needs of youth are the program areas of greatest interest to the Carver Charitable Trust.