Past Grants Recipients
During the last grant cycle HSEF was proud to award grants totaling more than $110,000. Learn more about the recipients of our staff and student led grants, how many students will be impacted and more about their proposals below.
January 2025 Grant Recipients
BUILD FLY CODE! (Fishers Junior High)
Sharon Deam
Student Impact | 836
Using drones in coding lessons offers an immersive, hands-on way to teach essential skills like problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork. Drones bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application, making learning to code an exciting and deeply engaging experience for students. This approach promotes a comprehensive understanding of STEM concepts and encourages students to explore future tech careers, all while having fun!
Fueling Literacy Growth: Student Achievement in Reading through a Charismatic Book Room (Geist Elementary School)
Jenny Dickerson
Student Impact | 836
This project will give students access to books they can read during independent reading time and during teacher-led small group instruction. The books will be part of a school-wide bookroom with researched-based relevant books, organized by a specific skill, with an interactive Google Slideshow for teachers to quickly find the books needed. A portion of these books will allow early readers the ability to decode texts. The rest of the books allow third and fourth grade struggling readers to decode words while reading books with age relevant content.
Film Studio Class (Hamilton Southeastern High School)
Jeremiah Follis
Student Impact | 1000
Hamilton Southeastern High School will be offering a new class that will operate like yearbook, newspaper, and broadcasting. This Film Studio class be a fully functioning film studio. Students will work in groups writing, producing, filming, editing, and promoting their own films that will be shown theatrically and entered in film festivals. This project will provide equipment including cameras, lights, microphones, computers and more. The equipment will be used in each class, each semester, year after year.
Exceptional Learners / ENL Coffee Cart (Harrison Parkway Elementary)
Kari Goldstein
Student Impact | 181
Harrison Parkway Elementary’s Special Education and ENL students are working to run a coffee and snack cart. The coffee/snack cart is a great opportunity for Special Education students to practice both communication and life skills, and ENL students to practice speaking English. There are four groups each Friday that push the cart to their assigned area and greet the staff member and ask what they would like from the coffee/snack cart.
Film Theory Final Film Project (Fishers Junior High)
Kurt Henderson
Student Impact | 100
The Final Film Project serves as the final exam for a Film Theory class at Fishers Junior High. Students take everything they learned over the semester to conceptualize, write, storyboard, shoot, and produce their own short films as a team. At the end of the semester, students present their films and vote for a series of awards based on their classmates’ films. This project will incorporate a variety of film props and materials for creating sets.
Mrs. Kincaid’s Breakout EDU (Riverside Junior High)
Amber Kincaid
Student Impact | 1500
This project supports digital Breakout EDU kits. Breakout EDU are games that allow students to think differently and outside the box. They turn the classroom into an Escape Room and are great incentives for students. Students are able to exercise prior learned knowledge and obtain new knowledge.
FJH 500 (Fishers Junior High)
Deborah Kletch
Student Impact | 450
This project will provide multiple Hoverboards and seat attachments. These devices will provide fantastic opportunities for students to experience several of the Science physics units with hands-on experiences. Using these Hoverboards would connect several Indiana Science state standards as well as having the possibility to connect cross curricular to other subjects like Social Studies, English, Tech Education, Art, Health, and Math.
Increasing Independence and Communication through Adaptive Play (PreSchool)
Tonya Kneller
Student Impact | 60
This project will focus on increasing accessibility and independence for some of our youngest learners with complex physical, medical and communication needs. Many of our students rely on adult support throughout their day, using equipment to help them move or walk and devices to help them communicate. By providing a wider variety of adaptive materials and toys, we can reduce some of the barriers they face every day. We want our students to feel the joy of independently playing with their favorite toy or engaging with educational experiences, while also gaining confidence in having their voices heard.
Science of Reading Kinesthetic Learning Activities for UFLI Units (Harrison Parkway Elementary)
Rachel Milligan
Student Impact | 100
The Harrison Parkway Elementary Title I teachers are working to curate a collection of kinesthetic and hands-on activities to supplement the units within our new UFLI phonics curriculum. Students respond best to instruction presented with different modes of learning. The goal is to integrate kinesthetic and hands-on activities into intervention group lessons to strengthen students’ understanding of phonics concepts. Activities can also be used by classroom teachers in small groups to increase students’ accountability and transference of skills into their every day work.
Gaga XP Multi Purpose equipment for Physical Education (Sand Creek Intermediate)
Kristin Panning
Student Impact | 830
There are endless possibilities with the Multi-Use GagaXP Pit. This is a light-weight and durable tool for promoting exercise and physical activity, social skills and learning through play. This customizable Gaga ball pit can be transformed into various shapes and sizes, opening up countless new games and activities including: Gaga Ball, Pickleball, Foosball, Knee Hockey, Extended 4 Square, Hockey, Shuffleboard, Tennis, Badminton, Nitro Ball, and many more.
Sensory Library (FOCUS)
Mae Pierce
Student Impact | 50
Students at FOCUS Day are exceptional learners with a variety of sensory needs. Each student has different needs to keep them regulated and focused. This project would create a library of sensory items that could be checked out by students or teachers to support our classes. Students can explore different options and find what works best for them.
Rosanne Parry Author Impact (Sand Creek Intermediate)
Kelsey Renbarger
Student Impact | 825
This project was a combined effort of current and former fifth graders to not only request an author visit, additional novels for the classroom, but how to come together and write a grant proposal as well. Students came together three different mornings an hour before school to organize, plan, research and submit this grant. After a profound impact of Rosanne Parry’s, “A Wolf Called Wander,” novel: students are hoping to be able to organize a virtual Rosanne Parry visit and order new books.
Coding, Robotics and Cross-Curricular Application in K-4 (Thorpe Creek Elementary)
Kristin Schenck
Student Impact | 620
This project will foster student interest in coding and robotics schoolwide by implementing Dash Robot Wonder Packs into STEAM class. This has significant implications for providing students with hands-on learning experiences in coding, serving as a universal language within a multi-lingual institution, and being a resource that can be adapted throughout the entirety of students’ K-4 education.
Social Studies and Science ALIVE (Sand Creek Intermediate)
Robyn Stout
Student Impact | 820
This project will provide a set of Class VR Goggles to be used with other materials as a part of stations that can make social studies topics (such as American Revolution) come ALIVE. Class VR has a curriculum library that is amazing! The VR content library, mixed with hands-on materials, will put a whole new spin on Social Studies and Science content areas!
2nd Grade High-Interest Book Clubs (Harrison Parkway Elementary)
Brandy Wilkinson
Student Impact | 125
Implementation of the Science of Reading in our classrooms has allowed teachers to lay a strong foundation for our readers. Access to high-quality decodable books has increased engagement and, as a result, reading skills. The goal is to maintain this engagement by providing high-interest chapter books for readers who are ready to move on from a primary focus on decoding. Book Clubs will provide an opportunity to build comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency in a collaborative learning format. Students will work together to set goals, question, discuss, and build confidence as readers of longer and more complex texts.
Think Big, Learn Big: Teaching the Brain Behind Learning (Harrison Parkway Elementary)
Ramona Williams
Student Impact | 560
This grant will impact students by promoting mental well-being, self-awareness, and emotional regulation. The Calm app introduces mindfulness practices, helping students manage stress and develop emotional resilience. Neuroscience education fosters curiosity about how the brain works, supporting cognitive and social development. By integrating an SEL library, students gain tools to navigate relationships, manage emotions, and improve decision-making. Together, these strategies create a holistic approach to student growth, enhancing their academic performance, mental health, and overall social-emotional skills, empowering them to thrive both inside and outside the classroom.
WE can be the CHANGE (HSE Intermediate/Junior High)
Robin Young
Student Impact | 150
The purpose of this project is for students to see that they can impact our world. Students have been researching Global Goals, community needs, and the needs of families at HIJH. From this research, they plan to create a wide variety of student-led charities that will have an impact on these needs. According to students: “Our big project is all about helping people, animals, and the planet! Each group has a special mission, like making blankets, cleaning parks, saving water, or sharing toys and supplies. We’re working together to make the world a kinder, cleaner, and better place for everyone!”
Robotics for All: Engaging Young Learners with VEX GO (Sand Creek Elementary)
Tiffany Zaleski
Student Impact | 300
This project will provide all students in Grades 2-4 with engaging, meaningful, hands-on STEM experiences. Through a VEX Go classroom set, students will gain confidence in engineering, competency in coding, and get authentic practice in collaborative problem solving. The VEX Go system includes real world, standards-based activities that allow all students to participate. Students will build robots to simulate solving everyday problems, including sustaining structures through severe weather, rescuing animals, and predicting motion in self-driving vehicles. Students must be creative and resilient as they work to make adjustments and overcome obstacles to meet activity goals.
