May 6, 2025
Grants continue partnership to support rural education
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation and Commerce Trust, granted a total of $80,078 to support career exploration programs at 17 rural school districts. The grants are part of the Coover Charitable Foundation’s long-standing support of the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership.
The recipients of the Coover/RSP Career Exploration Grants are:
- Aurora High School YEP/Alumni Outreach Center: $4,500 to take students on field trips that explore careers, leadership and networking opportunities, and cultural and placemaking projects.
- Billings R-IV School District: $5,000 to implement a career day/career fair for students in grades 7–12.
- Cape Girardeau Public Schools: $5,000 to provide stipends to cadet intern teachers during summer school programming.
- Cassville R-IV Schools: $4,000 to expand the Future Business Leaders of America program by adding career days, leadership conferences and workshops for students in grades 9–12.
- Cole Camp R-1 School District: $3,000 to take students on a career tour of various businesses and industries.
- Fairview School District: $5,000 to provide hands-on agricultural experiences that expose students in grades 3–8 to careers such as farming and environmental science.
- Glenwood R-8 School District: $4,898 to purchase video equipment to provide vlogging and content-creation experiences for students.
- Houston R-1 School District: $5,000 to provide STEM career exploration activities for students in grades 6–8.
- Lutie R-VI School District: $5,000 to provide STEM kits that allow for hands-on learning to students in grades K–8.
The CFO’s Beth Hughs and Ashley Walden present a Coover/RSP Career Exploration Grant to Mansfield R-IV’s Candice White.
- Mansfield R-IV School District: $4,850 to purchase and implement Xello, a career readiness platform, for students in grades 6–12.
- Marionville R-IX School District: $5,000 to provide Transitions class participants support for career exploration field trips, interview apparel, and career and job stations supplies.
- Niangua TLC: $3,893 to provide access to Adobe Creative Cloud applications for students in grades 6–12.
- Nixa R-II School District: $5,000 to transport students in grades K–6 on field trips featuring diverse careers and to support the teaching and education career exploration program.
- Ozark R-VI School District: $5,000 to implement the Client Connected Projects strategy, which engages students in problem-solving alongside industry professionals, nonprofits and community partners.
- Pleasant Hope R-VI Schools: $5,000 to support a variety of career field trips for students in grades 9–11.
- Steelville R-3 School District: $4,937 to support the Fusion Lab, which exposes students in grades 9–12 to high-demand careers in graphic design, digital marketing, e-commerce and advanced manufacturing.
- Strafford R-VI School District: $5,000 to support the Career Strong program, a career-focused partnership between the school district and local businesses.
“Preparing students for success after graduation extends well beyond reading, writing and arithmetic,” said Jill Reynolds, senior vice president at Commerce Trust and chair of the Coover Foundation grant selection committee. “We’re grateful to help these rural school districts provide immersive professional experiences to their students.”
Julia Dorothy Coover, a 30-year Commerce employee, founded the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory. The private foundation, managed by Commerce Trust, has funded more than $8.6 million in grants to benefit rural communities and school districts across the CFO’s service area since the partnership began in 2001.
The CFO founded the Rural Schools Partnership in 2009 as part of its regional commitment because schools are anchors for rural communities. Through the partnership, the CFO manages funds for rural school districts and school foundations. In addition to the collaboration with the Coover Charitable Foundation, key programs include the Ozarks Teacher Corps and the Youth Empowerment Project.
