The National Youth Science Foundation®, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation established in 1983 to plan, raise financial support for, and oversee the operation of the National Youth Science Camp® (NYSC). The NYSC, founded in 1963 by the State of West Virginia as part of its Centennial Celebration, was supported by the State for twenty years without private funding. Alumni and interested West Virginians who believed in the ideals of the NYSC formed the Foundation in 1983 to broaden support for the NYSC, and to research and develop programs of similar focus for different audiences.
Leading educators and corporate executives in the US continue to express concern that our students are not receiving the instruction and encouragement they need to become tomorrow’s leaders in science and technology. The National Youth Science Foundation, with support from the state of West Virginia, has been active in this area since 1963, when the first National Youth Science Camp was held.
Since then, nearly 5,000 of the nation’s top high school science students — about 100 each year — have been selected to attend the NYSC, free of charge, and to learn from a nationally preeminent faculty the excitement and social significance of careers in science.
NYSC is recognized as the nation’s premier science leadership program for college bound students, in part due to the extraordinary natural setting in the wilds of West Virginia combined with a program that is uniquely effective in instilling scientific curiosity, personal confidence, and an enduring sense of responsibility regarding the role of science in society.
America has much to lose if we cannot nurture young scientists who have the skills, vision, and enthusiasm to lead us into the future. With this concern in mind, the Foundation has developed a plan for expanded programs in science education that can reach many more bright young people each year from across the nation and around the globe, to encourage them to become leaders in science and technology.
These programs, with sufficient added financial and in-kind support, will build liaisons among promising science-interested young people throughout the world, change countless lives and motivate talented young people to become the science professionals of tomorrow. The Foundation proposes bold and effective programming that can help meet the need for global scientific leadership for generations. Standing behind these programs is nearly a half century of success of the National Youth Science Camp.
Trustees
Board of Trustees
George Bennett, Ph.D.
Chairman and CEO
Health Dialog Services Corporation
Boston, Massachusetts
Jill L. Cochran
International Business Machines, Inc.
Charleston, West Virginia
Michael Dybel
President
Strategic Technologies International, Inc.
Mundelein, Illinois
Zane Gresham, Esq.
Morrison and Foerster
San Francisco, California
David Hackleman, Ph.D.
Hewlett-Packard Company (ret)
Professor, Chemical Engineering (ret)
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon
Admiral T. Joseph Lopez
Director
National Interest Security Company
Fairfax, Virginia
M.R. Louthan, Jr., Ph.D.
Consulting Scientist (ret)
Savannah River National Laboratory
Radford, Virginia
Haywood D. McCallum, Jr.
President Emeritus
NYSC Alumni Association
Richmond, Virginia
Ronald G. Pearson
Charleston, West Virginia
John D. Rockefeller V, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
Scott S. Segal, Esq.
The Segal Law Firm
Charleston, West Virginia
L. Newton Thomas, Jr.
Carbon Industries, Inc. (ret)
Charleston, West Virginia
Dennis W. Wootan
Dennis W. Wootan Consulting Services
Santa Ana, California
Andrew N. Blackwood, Ed.D.
Executive Director
National Youth Science Foundation
Charleston, West Virginia
Trustees in Memoriam
Joseph M. Hutchison
Professor Emeritus
West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia
Thomas N. McJunkin, Esq.
Jackson Kelly PLLC
Charleston, West Virginia
Sen. Martha Wehrle
West Virginia State Senate 1989 – 1994
Charleston, West Virginia