Red Wing High School alumnus Dwight Diercks has pledged $3.2 million to help Red Wing Public Schools become a center of excellence in artificial intelligence education. This is one of the largest gifts in district history.
Diercks, a 1986 graduate of Red Wing High School and senior vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA, made the five-year commitment with his wife, Dian, to support “Flight Path 2030,” a districtwide initiative aimed at preparing students for a future shaped by AI. The pledge comes at a time when schools nationwide are exploring how to responsibly integrate artificial intelligence into teaching and learning.
School Board members formally accepted the gift at their meeting on Monday, July 28.
“This generous gift will help us equip students to use artificial intelligence ethically, responsibly, and creatively,” said Superintendent Bob Jaszczak. “It also empowers our staff to reimagine what learning can look like now, and into the future.”
Flight Path 2030 will embed AI-integrated computing education across all grade levels, while offering a specialized “AICE Flight Path” for tech-focused students.
AI-integrated computing education is a progressive, interdisciplinary approach that embeds age-appropriate computing, data, and AI literacy into core subjects and electives — empowering students to understand, evaluate, and responsibly apply emerging technologies across disciplines.
The goal: By 2030, every graduate will be digitally fluent, ethically grounded, and workforce-ready.
Diercks credits Red Wing Central High School teacher Ron Gray, whom he once called “the best math teacher in all of Red Wing,” for inspiring his career in technology. He studied computer science and engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering and now leads a global software engineering team at NVIDIA, a world leader in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
“This extraordinary gift lays the groundwork for bold thinking about how we prepare students for the future and support the staff who guide them. We’re deeply grateful to Dwight and Dian Diercks for investing in our district’s future,” said Board Chair Ryan Riester.
The Flight Path 2030 vision was developed with strategic guidance from Laura Schmidt, who supported the district in designing an initiative grounded in its educational goals and aligned with the Diercks family’s philanthropic priorities.
“This is a transformative moment for our schools and our community,” Jaszczak said. “We look forward to sharing more in September as the initiative takes shape.”
