The official biography below was current at the time of the award. See the organization's website for its latest information.

Established in 1983, Saturday Academy offers seven pre-college, community-based education programs focusing on the sciences, mathematics, and engineering for 6th-12th-grade students. The Academy: I. Has served an extremely large and diverse population of students -- approximately 38,000 students and teachers, over 50 percent of the students being women, with representation of ethnic minority students being above their representation in that general population (e.g., African-American, Hispanic, Native Americans), and including students with disabilities; students are served throughout Oregon and southern Washington through its regional centers; II. Includes teachers as an integral part of the program -- more than 750,000 hours of instruction provided; III. Has enlisted 3,400 community professionals to contribute their facilities, equipment, and expertise in a variety of creative and substantive ways; IV. Is a model of what cooperation and partnerships can achieve and provides a remarkable outreach and range of programs; V. Aligned with the Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century, the Goals 2000, Educate America Act, is a well-structured and managed operation, with distinct and well-categorized sectors for middle-schoolers and high-schoolers -- e.g., --  Apprenticeships in Science & Engineering  (ASE) -- e.g., placed 23 9th-11th grade high school students in research positions in industry, universities, and government agencies in 1994; -- Contemporary Applied Mathematics (CAM) Summer Institute and Saturday morning classes, together serving 650 African-American students since inception (funded by NSF); -- Outreach Initiative --identifies minority and bilingual science and engineering practitioners to serve as mentors and instructors for Saturday Academy programs; -- Futuremakers: Inventor/Mentor Program -- an in-school program for grades six through nine; -- The Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project; -- Saturday Academy Regional Centers; I. Has secured significant external funding (NSF, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, The Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project; Oregon Community Foundation, Tektronix Foundation, Intel Foundation, etc.).