The Oldham County Educational Foundation has been and is an outstanding partner with Oldham County Schools. Without OCEF, there are several programs that simply wouldn’t exist for students in elementary through high school. Just in the last several years, OCEF has provided funding for students to participate in robotics programs at all nine elementary schools and four middle schools. These are extremely expensive programs to maintain, so most of that cost would be shifted to families of the participants without OCEF’s support. The previous fall saw 50 GATES students travel to Queens, NY for the annual World Maker Faire. This event gave these students the chance to see cutting edge technology and stretch their own imaginations for what can be in the future.

OCEF has additionally been a partner with OCS’s GATES program with the Fit for Life program (high school health and PE), and Oldham County Summer Scholars (7th-11th graders) for several years. Both of these programs occur in the summer and give students the opportunity to stretch themselves with like-minded peers at a time of year that many students shut down their learning.

Having the support of OCEF has allowed the staff of Oldham County Schools GATES program to be creative in how we program for our students. Removing cost as a barrier to learning is a goal that schools and community leaders must work together to achieve. With OCEF’s continued support, there is no limit to what our students will be able to accomplish.