GIA Supports AGS with $50,000 Education Grant

Institute’s support to sister organization reaches nearly $150,000 in 2018

CARLSBAD, Calif. – April 30, 2018 – The American Gem Society (AGS) will receive a $50,000 grant from GIA to fund awards for GIA education for AGS members, bringing GIA’s financial support for AGS to nearly $150,000 for 2018.
 
Announcing the grant at the Robert M. Shipley Award^® luncheon during the recent AGS Conclave in Nashville, Tennessee, GIA President and CEO Susan Jacques said, “We are thrilled to be able to support AGS with this education grant. Education and certification are the core competencies of our closely related organizations and they are the keys to helping jewelers reach success.” Jacques continued, “Through our closely aligned missions, AGS and GIA protect consumers and ensure their trust in gems and jewelry.”
 
“I would like to thank the entire team at GIA and the Institute’s Board of Governors for this generous grant,” said Katherine Bodoh, CEO of the American Gem Society and AGS Laboratories. “This gift will allow AGS members access to the education they need to obtain their titles. We are extremely grateful and look forward to working together to fulfill our founder's vision of consumer protection.”
 
AGS will administer the awards. Eligible recipients must be AGS members and meet certain requirements. AGS members interested in the awards may contact AGS at (702) 255-6500 ext. 1034; email AGSeducation@ags.org.
 
Both GIA and AGS were founded in the 1930s by Robert M. Shipley to help realize his vision that educated jewelers would, in his words, “become masters of the subject matter’ and ‘members of a whole new kind of association – a true guild.” GIA offers education and diplomas; AGS offers the guild structure and professional credentials. Each organization brings their strengths to the common missions of protecting consumers and ensuring their trust in gems and jewelry.
 
GIA will also sponsor the GIA Diamond Grading, Gem Identification and Colored Stone Grading lab classes offered at AGS in Las Vegas this year.
 
For press inquiries, please contact Nellie Barnett at nbarnett@gia.edu or +1 760-603-4184.
 
_{About AGS
The American Gem Society (AGS) is a nonprofit trade association of fine jewelry professionals dedicated to setting, maintaining and promoting the highest standards of ethical conduct and professional behavior through education, accreditation, recertification of its membership, gemological standards, and gemological research.
 
The Society is committed to providing educational products to inform and protect the consumer and to contributing to the betterment of the trade by creating industry standards to protect the jewelry-buying public and the fine jewelry industry as a whole.
 
AGS Laboratories, founded to support the AGS mission, is a nonprofit diamond grading laboratory with a mission of consumer protection. Adhering to the AGS Diamond Grading Standards, AGS Laboratories is dedicated to offering diamond grading reports that provide consistency and accuracy based on science.}