SYEMC awards $7,020 in grants to local teachers
DOBSON, N.C. — Excitement filled the classrooms of 11 teachers from the Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation service area in September as surprise visits were made to the winners of this year’s Bright Ideas Education Grants.
Surry-Yadkin EMC staff visited each winning school, carrying signs that displayed the grant amounts that the winning teachers had been awarded for their projects. Students, faculty and staff were all on board with the surprise visits to celebrate in the delight of their teachers having been chosen to fulfill their desired ventures.
A panel of retired educators from the Surry-Yadkin EMC service area blind-judged the applications in mid-September. The grants provide funding for innovative classroom projects, with $7,020 being awarded overall.
This year’s local Bright Ideas Education Grant winners are:
* Jessica Caudle, kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Elementary School in Hays. Caudle received $225 for her idea, “Listen to Learn: Building Strong Readers Through Listening,” which will enable students to enhance their listening comprehension and develop their ability to understand and recall information and grow their vocabulary.
* Amy Elizabeth Davis, art teacher at Piney Grove Middle School in Lawsonville. Davis was awarded $250 for her idea, “STEM in Art.” This grant will fund the purchase of a chomp saw to allow students to use materials like cardboard to create art work.
* Crystal Fain, science teacher at Mount Airy High School. Fain received $400 for her project, “The Wobble Effect: Finding the Sun-Earth-Moon Center of Mass.” The project will allow students in earth and environmental science to use Lego Technic Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit sets to visualize abstract concepts of how the planets work together.
* Kayla Bare, kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Elementary School in Hays. Bare was awarded $450 for her idea, “Little Learners, Big Thinkers: Kindergarten STEM Bins,” which provides students with opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics through play-based, inquiry-driven activities.
* Marie Hauser, seventh-grade teacher at Mount Airy Middle School. Hauser was selected to receive $500 for her idea, “Grow It Bears.” This project will provide funding to transform at existing, underused outdoor space at the school into a vibrant and purposeful outdoor classroom by adding vegetable and flower gardens, bird feeders and wildlife observation areas, and outdoor learning features to make it a living laboratory for hands-on experiences.
* Annabelle Lewis, an art teacher at Mountain View Elementary School in Hays. Lewis received $700 for her project, “Illuminating Local Biodiversity through Cyanotype Sun Prints,” which will allow students to explore art and science through investigating the diverse plant and insect life in their community and capture their findings using the historical photographic process of cyanotype printing.
* Kandice Norman, STEAM teacher at J.J. Jones Intermediate School in Mount Airy, was awarded $750 for her idea, “Sparking Innovation: Hands-On Circuitry & Invention Labs for Grades 3-5,” which will be used to purchase the needed tools to help students grasp abstract scientific concepts like electricity, current flow and energy transformation.
* Jeffrey Robertson, carpentry teacher at West Stokes High School, received $845 for his project, “Carpentry/Electrical 101 Learning the Basics,” which will support the construction of a tiny home on an old flatbed trailer so students can learn hands-on trade skills. The electrical instructor will assist by teaching his Electrical 1 and 2 students how to rough in the electrical wiring for the home.
* Tracy Horton, eighth-grade science teacher at Chestnut Grove Middle School, received $900 for her idea, “Energy By Design.” This project will allow students to explore renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and analyze the benefits and tradeoffs associated with various energy sources while considering how diverse energy sources contribute to a reliable electric grid using renewable energy engineering kits.
* Candice Haynes, a teacher at Mount Airy Middle School, received $1,000 for her idea, “STEM Outside the Classroom Walls.” This project will provide hands-on, career-connected STEM learning by tying science concepts to careers and skills in fields such as engineering, manufacturing, construction, environmental science and technology.
* Christina Bell, art teacher at Chestnut Grove Middle School, received $1,000 for his idea, “Waste to Wonder: The Reclaimed Art Garden.” This project will allow students to transform discarded materials into a large-scale collaborative art installation inspired by contemporary artists like Thomas Dambo and Romero Britto. They will investigate how Dambo uses the reclaimed materials to create sculptures and Britto uses bold color, line, shape, and pattern to create engaging public art, using what they learn to create their own artistic solutions.
The 11 projects will enhance the opportunity for growth in an innovative and hands-on approach in each of the selected schools in Surry, Stokes, Wilkes, Yadkin and Forsyth counties.
Surry-Yadkin EMC is one of 26 electric cooperatives in North Carolina offering Bright Ideas Education Grants to teachers. Since 1994, North Carolina’s electric cooperatives have awarded $17 million in Bright Ideas funding for nearly 16,000 projects supporting teachers and benefitting more than 3.8 million students.
The Bright Ideas grant program is part of Surry-Yadkin EMC’s ongoing commitment to building a brighter future through support of education.
Bright Ideas grant applications are accepted by SYEMC each year from April through mid-September and winning proposals are selected in a competitive evaluation process by a panel of judges. The application process will reopen for interested teachers in April 2027.
To learn more Surry-Yadkin EMC’s programs that impact local students and communities, visit syemc.com/youth-programs. For more information about Bright Ideas grants, visit www.ncbrightideas.com.
