In March 2021, we quietly launched the Kabul School Connection, a program that linked Canyon Crest Academy high school students to peers in Afghanistan. The conversations on Zoom began after news broke about a suicide bombing of the Mawoud tutoring center.

In the weeks that followed, teens from Mawoud and Canyon Crest talked about dreams and goals and explored questions of daily life. Students in Kabul found a unique platform to discuss feelings they experienced as a result of the bombing.

Kabul School Connection was organized by Julya Kenna and included Mawoud’s principal, Najibullah Yousefi, Canyon Crest Academy teacher Timothy Stiven, and Fary Moini and Steve Brown of the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club.

The Samuel Lawrence Foundation proudly supports Dr. Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD. Her research focuses on repairing electromagnetic field damage and cell phone radiation damage in Gulf War veterans. The Golomb Research Group studies various conditions related to oxidative stress and cell energy impairments.

Spotlight Work: Recent research on Gulf War illness and other health problems in vetereans of the 1991 Gulf War: Effects of toxicant exposures during deployment (January 2016)

The Samuel Lawrence Foundation is proud to help fund the Earth Microbiome Project, which aims to construct a microbial map of the planet. This massive collaborative effort is a systematic attempt to characterize global microbial taxonomic and functional diversity for the benefit of the planet and humankind.

This project exemplifies the idea of open science and crowd-sourcing data analysis to enable universal principles to be explored. The standardized collection, curation, and analysis allow for a significant interpretation of ecological trends.

SLF served as the Choir’s fiscal sponsor until 2018 when the group successfully launched under their own nonprofit tax status. Voices of Our City Choir is a choir for people experiencing homelessness in San Diego. The organization aims to transform the perception and experience of homelessness by building bridges that connect diverse communities in positive ways through musical performance, advocacy, and education.

The Samuel Lawrence Foundation helped Voices of Our City Choir through their developmental phases and continues to enthusiastically support the nonprofit.

The Samuel Lawrence Foundation partnered with the Association for Research in Otolarynology (ARO) to present an evening of science and music. The concert connected hearing scientists, musicians, young people, and the community to the science of sound. This special event, held at Balboa Theatre, included music from Danny Green Trio and Mainly Mozart Quartet, paired with a multimedia presentation from three renowned hearing scientists.

By bridging science and music into a harmonious concert, SLF amplified community engagement and community understanding.

STEAM Leadership Series brings high-tech science to San Diego Unified high school students through engaging events. The program connects students with leading science professionals who deliver lectures and give career advice from the podium at top research institutions. Students hear from diverse speakers that inspire then to pursue their dreams and provide them with the knowledge on where to start.

The Samuel Lawrence Foundation brainstorms and helps produce these innovative educational events throughout each year.