Fifteen public schools from across the country – Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Washington, West Virginia – have won $40,000* in technology as finalists in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow contest, a national competition to raise enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

Three grand prize winners will be chosen by a panel of judges; a fourth will be chosen by Samsung employees; and a fifth, the Community Choice Award winner, will be determined by public online voting. The grand prize winners, who will be announced at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference in March, are invited to a special awards ceremony on April 17 in Washington, D.C.

Online voting for the Community Choice winner is open until 11:59 p.m. EST, March 4, 2013 at www.samsung.com/solvefortomorrow and the Samsung Facebook Solve tab at www.facebook.com/SamsungUSA.

“We are very excited about our finalists and congratulate them for the creativity and hard work they showed through their entries,” said David Steel, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy of Samsung Electronics North America. “Solve for Tomorrow provides an opportunity for students and teachers to apply their creativity and knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math to real world environmental issues in their communities. We hope the challenge of this contest, together with the technology for winning schools, will help inspire the students of today to become the leaders and innovators of tomorrow.”

More than 1,600 schools across the country entered the contest that kicked off in August with an essay response to how STEM can help the environment in their community. Seventy-five classrooms - 25 from each of the following three categories: rural, suburban, urban**– selected as semi-finalists received a Samsung camcorder, laptop, and Adobe editing software to create videos to compete in the video phase of the contest that answered the challenge: How can STEM help improve the environment in your community?

These 15 finalists now have a chance to win one of five grand prizes valued at $110,000* from Samsung, the Adobe Foundation, and DIRECTV. You can download each school’s video via the links below.

As part of Samsung Hope for Children, the company’s philanthropic initiative focusing on health, education, and sustainability, Solve for Tomorrow encourages teachers to engage students in STEM by raising enthusiasm for these subjects and addressing the technology gap in classrooms. With the top 15 schools each receiving at least $40,000* of technology and the top five receiving at least $110,000* of technology, the total value of prizes awarded to participating schools total more than $1 million*.

Sounds bites from John Legend and David Steel and B-roll for the Solve for Tomorrow program can be downloaded here: http://tinyb.it/1752C313A21F.

* Estimated Retail Value

** As categorized by the Department of Education with Town included in Suburban.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in consumer electronics and the core components that go into them. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of televisions, smartphones, personal computers, printers, cameras, home appliances, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 235,000 people across 75 countries with annual sales exceeding US$143 billion. Our goal is opening new possibilities for people everywhere. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.

About Samsung Hope for Children

Samsung is dedicated to creating products that inspire passion and enable people to live Smarter Lives. Samsung Hope for Children represents the company’s philanthropic commitment in the U.S. to help improve children’s health, education and sustainability. Since 2002, Samsung Electronics America and its retail and business partners have helped more than 400 schools, community-based foundations, and charities throughout the U.S. raise awareness of and funding for their causes. For more information please visit: www.samsung.com/hope.