About Us

Where We Have Been

In the midst of the 2020 global pandemic, the Niswonger Foundation partnered with several organizations to provide advanced coursework and out-of-school time activities to students and professional learning to teachers through a project titled STEM Learning Design (STEM.LD). This project launched with $8.8 million in federal funds, which were awarded to the Niswonger Foundation through the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) competitive grant program.

One of the program’s initiatives, building curriculum and teaching capacity for the BioSTEM CTE pathway, kicked off in 2022 with Volunteer High School teaching the project’s very first BioSTEM courses. Fifty students enrolled in the pilot. In Fall 2025, over 900 students enrolled in BioSTEM pathway courses across seven school districts.

Where We Are Going

As the Foundation planned for the sunsetting of the STEM.LD project and the sustaining of its most successful components, NCP was born. And in 2025, a partnership with the University of Tennessee’s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) and Ballad Health gave way to another pathway–AI and data science.

The AI and data science pathway leverages the high school computer science course requirement as a gateway to advanced studies in emerging technologies like AI, data analytics, and computer science. Funding awarded through SCORE’s Future Forward Innovation Grant competition supports this pathway’s implementation in Kingsport City and Sullivan County high schools.