The San Diego Foundation Teachers’ Fund recently awarded 63 teachers across 16 San Diego County School Districts a total of $50,748 in grants to help strengthen more than 4,000 students’ ties to the community and to provide opportunities for learning.
The grants benefit teachers of kindergarten through 12th grade who focus on various areas of curricula, including visual and performing arts, science, technology and language arts. “Students who become engaged in the community learn more effectively, feel more empowered and become better citizens,” said Kara Quinlan, ninth-grade physics teacher at High Tech High Chula Vista. “As teachers, we can only bring so much into the classroom that stimulates the students and foments excitement about learning. Being able to see, touch, smell, hear and taste gives a valuable perspective on the lesson, which is exactly what the extra funding from The San Diego Foundation allowed me to provide.
“Many students,” Quinlan explained, “didn’t know they had the skills to build a working robot that could conduct valuable research. Now, students are excited to go into engineering and want to work with marine biology and robotics as a direct result of the project.
“Many of my students,” Quinlan noted, “don’t have a computer or access to the internet at home, so it’s my duty to expose them to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in the classroom and open their minds to possibilities they did not know existed, ignite curiosity and make them think about STEM fields as career options.”
Since 1995, the Teachers’ Fund has granted more than $1 million to more than 1,000 deserving teachers regionwide. Since its inception, more than 32,000 students have been directly impacted by the program, which helps improve teaching effectiveness and increase student engagement through innovative classroom lessons and real-world projects. 
The fund has also enabled many teachers to leverage their projects into long-term community collaborations, resulting in even greater impact. Ruth Maas, a teacher at Cajon Valley Middle School, received a $1,000 grant to teach students information technology, communications, leadership and problem solving skills. The students then managed the school’s Student Technology Help Desk, assisting teachers and students with daily technical issues, maintaining technology equipment and finding solutions to technical problems. Community members were also invited to the school on a monthly basis for technical assistance.
The students’ work greatly accelerated technology advancements at the school, leading to school district leaders’ recognition of the program and interest in expanding it districtwide and the school receiving a Classroom of the Future Foundation grant award of $5,000.
The San Diego Foundation will accept Teachers’ Fund applications for the 2014-15 school year beginning Wednesday, Sept. 17 through Wednesday, Oct. 22. Public school teachers interested in applying and individuals interested in donating should visit sdfoundation.org/TeachersFund.