Grants spark creativity in R.I. classrooms

FROM LEFT: Providence third-graders Natalia Bianchi and Keila Quinones hand thank-you cards to Letitia and John Carter and Rhode Island Foundation CEO Neil Steinberg after a press conference announcing the inaugural round of Spark Grants on Dec. 19. / COURTESY R.I. FOUNDATION
FROM LEFT: Providence third-graders Natalia Bianchi and Keila Quinones hand thank-you cards to Letitia and John Carter and Rhode Island Foundation CEO Neil Steinberg after a press conference announcing the inaugural round of Spark Grants on Dec. 19. / COURTESY R.I. FOUNDATION

Veazie Street Elementary School third graders Keila Quinones and Natalia Bianchi say they’ll use measuring and fractions to build a marimba with their class, and are eager to figure out just what that entails.
“I think it’s kind of cool because I’ve never done it before,” said Quinones, 9, who plays the recorder. “The hardest part [will be] building it with our bare hands and [using] the tools.”
Third-grade teacher Maureen Bracewell will be learning right along with them.
“I haven’t done anything like this before,” said Bracewell. “It’s going to be very challenging for us, but it’s also going to be very exciting.”
And that’s the intent of a new $75,000 “Spark” grant program conceived of and funded by Letitia and John Carter of Providence. While music teacher Kim Cotter-Lemus and Bracewell lead the way with their $800 grant-funded, marimba-building project, 78 other teachers are pursuing grant-funded projects they developed, and the Carters are carving a path the Rhode Island Foundation hopes other philanthropists will follow.
“The Carters reached out to start the conversation,” said Neil D. Steinberg, foundation president and CEO. “We’d like more people to do that.”
Reticent when it comes to speaking directly to the media, the Carters said in a prepared statement that they worked with the foundation to create this new grant program to inspire teachers and put city third-graders “on the path to a lifetime of academic achievement.” The couple wants both teachers and students to embrace hands-on learning, from math to storytelling.
Steinberg said the initiative the Carters undertook is a gesture the foundation would love to see other donors emulate.
“Part of our job in working with philanthropists is making the donors’ dreams come true,” said Steinberg in a phone interview. Apart from scholarships, “very few and not enough” donors fund new startup philanthropic programs like this one, he said.
Well-known and longtime supporters of education, the Carters approached the foundation with the idea this past summer.
“They said they’d love to do something that was direct and impactful with teachers to support teachers and students in the classroom,” said Steinberg.
Jessica David, the foundation’s vice president of strategy and community initiatives, helped flesh out the particulars, Steinberg said. Eligible expenses include software licenses, field trips, equipment and other resources that otherwise would not be available in the classroom. Full-time third-grade teachers in any public or charter school in Providence were eligible to apply. Most of the 54 applications received resulted in grants awarded to teachers at 22 of the city’s 24 elementary schools, Steinberg said. Funds are being distributed through the Providence School Department.
Bracewell and Cotter-Lemus say they and the students will build a frame for their marimba, a West African instrument similar to a xylophone, and use PVC pipes to amplify the sound. Cherry bars will span two octaves once the wood is meticulously shaved to a size that emits the right pitch and frequency when struck by a mallet.
“Students have to have math skills for measuring and ratios [and understand] the scientific skills of frequency, vibration and pitch, so it’s a hands-on application of what they are learning,” said Cotter-Lemus.
“When we get down to actually cutting the bars to the correct pitch it’s going to be very time-consuming to do that and we don’t want to make mistakes,” Bracewell added. “That will probably take us the longest amount of time to do.”
In another project funded with the grants, which averaged from about $700 to $1,000, teacher Sandy Leclerc will be able to spend $2,100 to buy microphones and other audio equipment for 57 students in three classrooms to help students at the Paul Cuffee School dramatize stories they write and illustrate.
Providence Schools Superintendent Susan Lusi expressed gratitude to the foundation and the Carters for the Spark program.
“Infusing grant funds directly into classrooms is an ideal way to stimulate and sustain the creative energy of our educators who seek to supplement the traditional methods in delivering important lessons to their students,” Lusi said.
While Spark Grants are for one-time expenses and cannot provide ongoing funding to sustain projects, Steinberg said the program will be evaluated when projects are complete to determine whether or not it may be offered again.
Once built, 650 students at Veazie Elementary will be able to use the marimba for years to come, Cotter-Lemus said.
“This is a concrete project [students] can engage in to use their skills and understand better,” said Cotter-Lemus. “That’s what we really need in education. •

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