Thank You, Coastal Community Foundation
Ms. Park is one of eighteen Sage Creek (SCHS) and Carlsbad High School (CHS) teachers who are receiving much appreciated support from Coastal Community Foundation’s EdVentures Fund. This generous grant program reaches directly into the classroom to supplement STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) programs with hands-on, interactive, educational projects that stimulate learning and enhance the curriculum.
“We are pleased to support the work of Carlsbad Unified’s teachers,” said Laura Fleming, Program Officer at Coastal Community Foundation. “EdVentures provides enhancements to Career Technical Education and Visual and Performing Arts Pathways projects to spark students’ curiosity, encourage creativity, and, perhaps, lead to future careers.”
At CHS, EdVentures grants will help provide new musical arrangements for Music teacher Jessie Bullock’s choir and Peter Manzi’s Band Drumline. Juliana Quinones, SCHS Music teacher, will be able to purchase ukeleles and guitars. Jessica Allen, CHS Orchestra teacher, can bring in professional string players to help students with tone development. And CHS Dance teacher Jackie Solomon’s grant will help fund Dance Extreme, showcasing all genres of dance, including hip hop, jazz, contemporary, tap, and Latin.
Also with grants from the EdVentures Fund, Art teachers Megan Herrick (SCHS) and Kelly Foulk (CHS) will pay for student mural projects on campus, and SCHS 3D Design teacher Cathryn Burroughs’s students will create a Community Totem. SCHS Art teacher Sierra Aguilar’s students are using art to send a message of change by showing how plastic waste impacts our ocean ecosystems. CHS Art teacher Elizabeth Vincelette’s students are using clay and paint to bring a uniquely designed character to life. Krista King’s CHS Photo students are hand painting their own photography backdrops. CHS Ceramics teacher Lisa Smith will fund the Empty Bowls Project, in which art students will make ceramic bowls, fill them with soup, sell them, and contribute funds raised to fight hunger.
Jillian Porter Eshelman, SCHS theatre teacher, is able to invite accomplished guest artists--such as Elan McMahon, a professional musical director for the Old Globe--to share their talents at a Drama Artist Workshop. CHS Theater teacher Matthew Fauls-Rivas’s Lancer Players will be producing Amelie: The Musical in the spring, with a student orchestra, crew, actors, stage managers, and a student assistant director. “The grant will help fund music books, the music director, and tools to build the set,” said Mr. Fauls-Rivas. “Students learn many important skills like collaboration, pitch matching, harmonizing, and acting.”
CHSTV Broadcast teacher Doug Green will be running a Saturday workshop for 5th grade aspiring journalists, taking them through the entire process of producing a live newscast, which then will be live-streamed.
CHS teacher Susie Becker’s Fashion students will use CCF grant funds for material to sew Carlsbags that they will donate to the Assistance League resale shop. And CHS Business teacher Carol King’s Virtual Enterprise students will have a new Trade Fair Booth.
EdVentures Fund projects may provide real world applications or needed classroom materials. In total, Coastal Community Foundation awarded a grant of $20,179.29 to Carlsbad Educational Foundation (CEF) from its EdVentures program. CEF receives the funding and disburse the grant awards to the recipients. The grant range per teacher is $500-$1,500.
Coastal Community Foundation manages over 80 different funds, encouraging and facilitating philanthropy by connecting donors with community needs.
