Due to an aging membership and the discontinuance of Raytheon Company’s (now RTX) annual financial support, on Sep 21, 2023, the RSVA Board of Directors made the difficult decision to legally dissolve RSVA and cease operation by the end of 2023.
We view this not as a loss, but rather as a Mission Accomplished.
When RSVA was founded a quarter-century ago, STEM education did not have the focus that it does today. Our founding members recognized the need and volunteered to help by applying the STEM knowledge they had used daily in their working careers to serve students in the communities where they resided. Over time, our membership grew, and new schools were served.
Raytheon Company, where most of our members had worked, provided generous annual financial support that facilitated our work and enabled monetary awards to schools and students to provide them and their STEM programs with: resources, motivation, and recognition.
But times have changed.
Today, the critical importance of STEM education has become more widely recognized and schools have responded to the need with more programs and trained staff, making RSVA volunteers less needed. Raytheon Company merged into what is now RTX and relocated its headquarters to Virginia. Our members (some active since our founding) have gotten older. Finally, Covid stopped us in our tracks, and the momentum lost could not be regained.
RSVA is now in the process of making Legacy Awards and distributing our remaining funds to the STEM programs in selected schools.
We would like to thank all of the schools, students, and staff we have had the pleasure to work with over our many years. We look to them to carry forward our mission of fostering high-quality STEM education in the future.
{This website and associated email (info@rsva.org) will remain online until June 2024. We encourage students and schools we have worked with to share their thoughts via email.}