Just before the school year ended, we celebrated the second group of our Bright Idea grant winners. This included Ms. Silva and Ms. Natalie Avitua at Margil Elementary, SAISD. Ms Dawn Silva shared, "Ms. Natalie and I are excited we were able to get some funds to create a safe outdoor space that includes new furniture and new manipulatives so our students can just enjoy themselves outside, can problems solve and they can create new friendships and keep learning as they do every day so thank you so much." See our full list of grant winners at https://saisdfoundation.com/about/impact/#BrightIdea (fb)

Thanks to the generous support of our partners at Accenture, the SAISD Foundation fulfilled seven DonorsChoose mini-grant requests, directly impacting 1,255 students across seven SAISD campuses. These grants funded educational STEM kits and classroom materials that bring learning to life. At Lanier High School, Dr. Cardenas purchased human anatomy models for his juniors, helping students connect with biology in a hands-on way. “These models are exactly what we have been needing... Future doctors and scientists are sure to be born,” he shared. At Hawthorne Academy, first-year kindergarten teacher Estefanie Cantu used her grant to introduce math manipulatives. “My students have been able to touch, move, and manipulate numbers, making learning both meaningful and fun,” she said. Thank you, Accenture, for empowering our students and teachers. If your company or organization would like to support classroom projects—whether in STEM, the arts, or literacy—we’d love to help you get started. Contact us at SAISDFoundation@saisd.net to get started. (fb)