AKRON, Ohio (June 9, 2022) —GAR Foundation announced $350,000 in funding to 42 teams of educators through its annual Educator Initiative Grant (EIG) program. The EIG program offers grants to K-12 educators in Summit County’s public and nonprofit private schools who present classroom innovations to support student success.
“We’re proud to continue supporting classroom teachers in Summit County with the EIG program,” said Kirstin Toth, senior vice president of GAR Foundation. “We wanted to be especially supportive for teachers post-Covid, to help students get back on track where needed. Each year we receive so many creative ideas for how to support student learning and this year
was no exception.”
Many projects this year focus not only on academic achievement but also on helping students with social-emotional learning. These crucial skills, such as regulating emotions and establishing strong relationships, are essential to success in school and beyond.
At Bridges Learning Center, the MY SONG project received support for a second year. MY SONG allows students to compose and perform autobiographical music pieces in a form of music therapy, with the express purpose of helping students cope with the impact of the pandemic and other traumas they may have experienced.
At Bath Elementary’s Land Lab, their project “In Case You Find a Tree” is an example of innovative teaching and learning where students will be outside reading and sharing stories in the woods while studying natural habitats and gathering data.
More than $5.6 million has been deployed into local classrooms since the inception of the Educator Initiative Grant program in 2004.
“We are so proud of the work teachers put into developing these concepts this past year, especially with so much on their plates. The projects that came forward are truly cutting edge,” said Lucille Esposito, EIG program manager for GAR Foundation.
The schools and projects receiving support this year include:
Akron Public Schools with Summit County Juvenile Detention Center
- Familiar melody played in a new key: Learning history through music & writing in a detention facility, $10,000
- Making Manipulatives: Integrating STEAM, SEL, & Service-Learning at a Juvenile Detention Center, $5,000
Archbishop Hoban High School
- Escape From Trig Island, $9,710
- Knight and Day Café, $9,230
- Reflecting on My Journey Through Iconography, $7,670
- Words and Actions Matter/Connect Before We Correct, $8,300
Barberton High School
- eSports – A Magic Carpet Ride to Graduation, $10,000
- Good Morning BHS, $4,600
Bath Elementary School
- Just In Case You Find a Tree, $9,990
- Bath Land Lab – Not All Classrooms Have Four Walls, $8,850
Bridges Learning Center
- MY SONG2: Empowering Students to Continue to use the Arts to Recover from the Effects of Trauma, $9,880
- The RAGE Must Go On! Regulation: Access to Growing Emotionally, $5,350
Cuyahoga Falls City Schools
- Speak Up for the Nonverbal, $9,930
Cuyahoga Falls High School
- Cuyahoga Falls Learning Garden Network 2.0, $10,000
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy
- Finding the Joy in Learning Again, $2,650
- CVCA Virtual Reality Lab and Studio, $9,500
East CLC
- Grooming the Dragon Culture, $7,800
Gordon DeWitt Elementary School
- Code, Calm, Create, Compose!, $8,590
- Life Skills Learning Zone Year 2, $5,170
Hudson City Schools
- My Voice, My Story, My Self: Exploring My Identity, Valuing Diversity, $10,000
Hyre CLC
- Hyre Hawk’s Nest: Learning and Growing, $9,990
- The Global Game League 2.0, $9,860
Jennings CLC
- Virtual Village At Jennings Part 3: Supporting SEL Using VR to Build Empathy and Increase Equity, $9,910
Judith A. Resnick CLC
- Building Creative and Critical Thinkers Brick by Brick, $6,340
The Lippman School
- Virtual Village At Lippman: Supporting SEL Using Virtual Reality to Build Empathy & Increase Equity, $10,000
Mason CLC
- Mason Monarch Outdoor Classroom, $10,000
Norton Middle School
- Mental Health Makeover for Middle School, $9,300
Old Trail School
- Magnificent Things, $9,640
- Mapping Monarchs: Migration and Metaphor, $9,950
- The Physics of Everyday Life, $5,000
Our Lady of the Elms School
- 100 Years: The Story of Us Continues, $4,930
- Elms Inc Reboot: Middle School Design Studio, $9,940
- Panther Productions: Take Two, $3,150
- Rethinking Beauty, $4,700
- Streams of Consciousness 2.0, $7,430
Richfield Elementary School
- A Community in Our Backyard, $10,000
Spring Garden Waldorf School
- Forest and Field Kindergarten, $9,660
Springfield High School and Junior High
- Generating Classroom Energy through EmPOWERing Student Leaders, $8,000
Stow-Munroe Falls High School
- Teaching Career Skills Through Virtual and Augmented Reality, $9,980
Stow-Munroe Falls High School and Kimpton Middle School
- Bulldogs Taking Action: Impact at the Secondary Level, $10,000
Tallmadge Elementary School
- These Boots Were Made for Walkin’ Phase II, $10,000
Twinsburg High School
- Promoting a School Culture that Celebrates Diversity and Inclusion Through Literature, $10,000