Four Connecticut educators are among the 70 teachers nationwide to receive NEA Foundation Summer 2025 Grants to Educators. The winners are Bethany Bromley, Stonington Middle School; Dana Saccomano, East Hartford Public Schools; Kayte Wheeler-Penezic, Mile Creek Elementary School, Old Lyme; and Elizabeth Boots, Canterbury Elementary School.
Bromley plans to use her Envision Equity grant to bring Surcari, an award-winning Latin American performance group, to Stonington Middle School. The ensemble will represent the culmination of a multifaceted celebration of Latinx voices and traditions.
Saccomano and Wheeler-Penezic both received Learning & Leadership Grants. Saccomano is using hers to complete two week-long trainings grounded in the Suzuki education method. Serving approximately 200 beginning string students across four elementary schools in her district, she will use this in-person professional learning experience to design listening activities for students to enhance the benefits of Suzuki methodology. Wheeler-Penezic is traveling to Peru where she will attend an intensive program that focuses on language proficiency and early language acquisition strategies. She plans to use her new knowledge to help create a more engaging, culturally rich, and age-appropriate curriculum for her first through fifth graders.
The Student Success grant Boots received will allow her to build a Discovery Den for her k-2 special education students, which will serve as a dedicated area where students can explore, create, discover, and innovate through STEM-based activities, such as science experiments and model construction. She seeks to provide hands-on learning experiences that foster creativity, problem solving, and collaboration.
One of the NEA Foundation’s longstanding commitments is to provide grants of up to $5,000 to classroom educators, education support professionals, and specialized instructional support personnel.
Each round, the Foundation offer grants in three categories:
- Envision Equity Grants empower educators to demonstrate exemplary teaching and learning while advancing students’ cultural understanding and appreciation, anti-racism commitments, and/or understanding of civic engagement and democracy.
- Learning & Leadership Grants support greater equity and excellence in teaching and learning by ensuring that educators have opportunities to participate in effective, high-quality professional development, such as study groups, mentoring, lesson study, and action research.
- Student Success Grants enable educators in various settings to further their knowledge of standards-based subject matter and engage students in projects that promote critical thinking, self-directed learning, and real-world application of learning.
