One of the reasons the students on the Novus International Undergraduate Networking Day were able to take this great tour of the St. Louis facilities at Novus, Pfizer and Monsanto was because of the scholarships they received from the Missouri Colleges Fund, a not-for-profit group of 16 small, private Missouri colleges and universities that work together to acquire resources to help educate students in member private liberal-arts colleges and universities. And the Missouri Colleges Fund was able to help pay for these bright students’ educations because of the generous donations of Novus, Pfizer and Monsanto.

During the welcome breakfast, President of the Missouri Colleges Fund, Mike Backer, thanked Novus’ VP of Research and Development, Chris Knight, for the company’s continued support of the fund and the students. To show his appreciation, Backer presented Knight with a folder of biographies of each of the students who received money from Novus. As you can see in the picture, Knight was very happy and surprised to receive the folder.

The evening before the event, I talked to Backer, and he told me that Novus is giving these students a unique opportunity to see these operations for themselves.

“Novus is giving more than just money. They’re providing an additional learning experience.”

Backer added that it’s not just the education of the students. The public in general needs to know how important it is to fund the sciences in our institutes of higher learning.

“Anytime we can get the word out there for the colleges fund, for independent schools, and to help promote education, it’s a good thing… good for Novus, good for the colleges, good for our economy.”

I know I posted this before, but just in case you missed it, listen to my entire conversation with Mike here: MikeBacker1.mp3

2009 Novus International Undergraduate Networking Day Photo Set