Before he was confirmed as NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman was a billionaire who flew to space twice and also had a reputation for donating to good causes.<\/p>\n
That altruism continued with an announcement Thursday that Isaacman has promised $500,000 to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), an Orlando-based nonprofit that was formed in 1984 by the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts.<\/p>\n
The donation, to be doled out over five years, is the largest one-time, personal gift in the history of the organization, which awards scholarships to students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis extraordinary commitment represents a defining moment for the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation,\u201d said ASF\u2019s CEO and President Colleen Middlebrooks. \u201cJared\u2019s investment will elevate our ability to identify and support the nation\u2019s most promising STEM students while reinforcing the importance of building a strong pipeline of talent for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isaacman hopes the scholarship will help students \u201ctackle hard problems,\u201d according to a press release about his donation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout my career, I\u2019ve been inspired by those who push the boundaries of what\u2019s possible \u2014 and by the people who are determined to go even further,\u201d said Isaacman in a press release. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation is doing \u2014 championing students who take risks, tackle hard problems and pursue bold ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isaacman received a bachelor\u2019s degree in aeronautics<\/a> in 2011 from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, but that was after he had earned his fortune as founder and CEO of credit-card processing company Shift4 Payments, which allowed him to pursue his love of aircraft and eventually spaceflight.<\/p>\n \u201cASF isn\u2019t just supporting scholars \u2014 it\u2019s fueling a community of innovators connected to those who have led exploration firsthand,\u201d he said. \u201cThese students are the Artemis generation, and their potential is limitless. I\u2019m incredibly excited to support their journey as they push beyond what we know today.\u201d<\/p>\n His charitable past was part of the both of his private space missions flown aboard SpaceX Crew Dragons \u2014 Inspiraiton4 in 2021<\/a> and Polaris Dawn in 2024<\/a>. The first mission helped raise nearly $250 million for St. Jude\u2019s Children\u2019s Research Hospital, to which he himself had already donated more than $100 million over the years. Polaris Dawn also featured efforts to raise funds for the medical nonprofit based in Memphis known for treating childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.<\/p>\n Over more than 40 years, the ASF\u00a0 has awarded more than $10 million in scholarships to students across the U.S. while also providing mentorship from astronauts, several of whom are on the foundation\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a truly organization-changing gift \u2014 one that will expand opportunity, strengthen our mission and impact scholars for generations to come,\u201d Middlebrooks said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he was confirmed as NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman was a billionaire who flew to space twice and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,113,114,115,139,141,140,554,109,76686,1769],"class_list":["post-342299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-science","tag-social","tag-social-business","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}