For the fifth year in a row, Mountain America Credit Union awarded 10 schoolteachers with $15,000 in education grants for students in grades K-12 in Utah, Idaho and Arizona. 

“It is like Christmas morning. It’s such a relief,” said Kelleen Leslie, who teaches fourth grade at Blackridge Elementary in Herriman, Utah. 

Leslie and nine other teachers received the news about being selected to receive up to $1,500 from Mountain America to help fund their classroom needs for the 2021-22 school year. 

Leslie, who teaches multiple subjects to 25 students, said the grant will help her achieve her dream of transforming her classroom into a creative and immersive critical-learning environment for her elementary students. 

“Some years we don't have the funds,” she said. “We've been talking as a fourth-grade team, ‘How are we going to find this extra money to do the things we want to do?’”

Since Mountain America began its Education Grants program in 2016, the credit union has given grants totaling more than $75,000 to 50 teachers and school leaders across a six-state footprint.

“I love being creative in the classroom and giving kids opportunities to experience different things besides just the core curriculum,” said Leslie. “The only way you can do that is by integrating different ideas and so I want to try to do room transformations.” 

Leslie explained that in previous years, she and other faculty members converted classrooms into a Jurassic Park-themed space, and even transported the students to Italy, with one mission in mind: to increase students’ excitement for learning.

In an Italian restaurant setup, students use raw pasta to develop reading and grammar skills.

“We teach commas and quotations, and the elbow pasta is just really fun to use,” said Leslie. 

In addition to six classroom transformations, she explained the funds will also be used to create an economics mall, where students can buy items to practice math and important life skills like earning and saving money. "These education grants exist to support teachers’ missions to help students achieve academic success,” said Spencer Carver, assistant vice president of select employer groups at Mountain America Credit Union, who helped organize the Education Grants program.

Teachers will use the funds for a wide variety of purposes including earth and science labs, math manipulatives and new books, as well as updating school libraries to promote financial and reading literacy.

“I take a subject matter and change my entire classroom, lessons and activities to fit the subject,” said Kylee Craven, an education grant recipient who teaches at Phoenix Day School for the Deaf in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Craven explained that room transformations are vital to her students’ learning. 

“Deaf students are, by nature, visual, kinesthetic learners,” she said. “Every student who comes through my door and experiences a room transformation will get to learn through experiences they will remember forever.”

In Boise, Idaho, Erica Nielsen from Koelsch Elementary School is using her grant to purchase educational supplies like mystery novel sets and dominos to enhance her students’ interest in reading and math curriculum. 

“For many of us, our best school memories are of an elementary classroom or teacher,” said Leslie. “It wasn't because they taught us spelling well or that they taught us how to do our timetables, but it's because they did fun, unique things to teach us those subjects — and that is my goal.”

This year’s education grant recipients are Andrew Groth, American Fork Junior High; Danyel Anderson, Roosevelt Elementary; Kylee Craven, Phoenix Day School for the Deaf; Carol Fackler, Crestview Elementary; Camille Farias, Dixon Middle School; Isabelle Hollandsworth, Elk Meadows Elementary; Kelleen Leslie, Blackridge Elementary; Erica Nielsen, Koelsch Elementary; Jessica Payne, Windridge Elementary; and Nani (Diana Leilani) Pierson, Windridge Elementary.

Mountain America Education Grant opportunities for 2022 will be announced on macu.com/scholarships. To qualify, applicants must be members of the credit union.