The Board of the Parents Association is proud to announce the recipients of the second cycle of the Parents Association Grant Program.  This program was instituted to provide funding for programs which support the education and enrichment of the students of MPA.  The funding provided is to support programs and/or curriculum and items that are outside the scope of other budgeted funds.  The program is open to all MPA faculty and staff.

The theme for this year’s program is the global education and enrichment of MPA students. There will be a total of three grant cycles for the 2006-2007 academic year.  The funding for these programs is provided through the fundraising efforts of the Parents Association.  For the first review cycle, $5,000 was available.  We received nine applications for the grants and awarded four grants.  For this current cycle, $7,000 was available.  We received seven applications and five grants were awarded. 

The recipients of the awards are:

Hannah Sullivan and Mike Downs were awarded $2,000 to allow for participation of staff and students in the RACE program at the Science Museum.  The grant will allow for viewing of the exhibit, as well as the development of programs to enable discussions of this important topic. 

The Mandarin Program at MPA was awarded $5,000.  A portion of that commitment will be awarded during this grant review period ($2,200) and the remainder will be awarded in the last grant cycle of the academic year.

Senora Castellanos was awarded $500 to bring a cultural performance group to MPA.  Senora has the opportunity to bring in either the Columbian musician Leo Lara and his wife to perform Latin music and teach students to play the Ocarina, or have Flamenco dancers come in to perform and teach students some of the dance steps of the Flamenco. 

Lorraine Anderson will receive $289 to establish the well-known Second Step Program at MPA.  This program is beneficial to Pre-K and Kindergarten students to enable their skills pertaining to emotions and conflict in different cultural situations.

Michael Thomsen is awarded $2,000 to aid ongoing research in the pond/rainwater garden area.  The MPA Community will have the opportunity to further support this project through the purchase of Gerten’s gift cards during the Spring Plant Sale.

Congratulations to our second-round grant recipients!