School news is more than an extracurricular at Grover Beach Elementary. Students volunteer to go in before classes begin to brainstorm and write articles for the school newspaper, the Gopher Gazette.
For students, it promotes literacy in two different ways. First, the writers get to learn critical thinking skills and journalistic writing through creating the articles. Readers get to improve their skills with materials beyond their textbooks and curriculum reading.
To support their literacy project, SESLOC gave Grover Beach Elementary an education grant of $337.50 to print the student-run school newspaper in full color. The grant will cover publishing a copy for every student across all grades.
SESLOC Education Grants help educators by expanding classroom level resources to enhance lesson plans beyond what schools can budget for. Grants are given for up to $500 and are awarded to those programs that reflect the Credit Union values.
In June alone, SESLOC granted $3,269.39 in grants, bringing the grand total for the 2024-2025 school year to 64 grants valued at $29,893.10. Additional grants in the 2024-2025 school year were awarded to:
- $500 to Orcutt Academy for ironing board, irons, sewing notions, fabric, and batting for the Home Economics program to teach students about hand quilting.
- $463.11 to Cappy Culver Elementary in Paso Robles for sensory bins to support cognitive development, language, literacy, and fine motor skill growth.
- $500 to Mission Prep to purchase materials for a high-altitude ballon project supporting the school’s Physics Club.
- $500 to Santa Lucia School’s middle school students for eight sets of watercolor palettes and other artistic supplies to support visual arts in nature studies, literature responses, and visual storytelling for their podcast series.
SESLOC members can help our mission to help classroom education grow by continuing to support local schools by sharing the grant application with the teachers in your community. And if you are a teacher looking for new ways to energize your classroom with a little extra support, apply today!