Bright Minds is excited to announce that we have awarded 27 Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) educators over $29,000 in grants for classroom and instructional projects aimed at enhancing student achievement, engagement, and wellbeing during the 2025-2026 school year. The projects will be delivered in 40 schools and are expected to impact thousands of students. Bright Mind’s partnership with Blossoms of Hope will fund 6 of the grants which are focused on youth mental health and wellbeing.
These grants are offered in recognition of HCPSS educators as incredible resources to identify innovative instructional approaches that address unique community or classroom needs and enhance student learning. Bright Minds Classroom Innovation Project grants seek to support student success, enrich teaching practices, strengthen school communities, and pilot important classroom and school projects.
This year’s grants are made possible by important funding received by Bright Minds from The Kahlert Foundation, Educational Systems Federal Credit Union, Sheehy Toyota of Laurel, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Colonial Pipeline, Blossoms of Hope, the Beyers family, the Armiger family, the Myers family, and other generous donors.
| Educator(s) | School/Office | Project Title | Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tricia Adkinson & Maggie Malone | Thomas Viaduct Middle School | “I Like to Move It, Move It”: Regulation Room | The Student Services team will build a transformative space with exercise equipment, tools, and prompts where students can move through tough emotions while experiencing personal growth in a safe, restorative space. |
| Whitney Albright | Mt. Hebron, River Hill, Oakland Mills, & Howard High Schools | Building Foundations for Lifelong Learning and Engagement Through Self-Regulation and Functional Motor Skill Development | Occupational therapists work with high school students with disabilities to develop essential skills in executive functioning, self-regulation, and functional motor skills, towards postsecondary success. |
| Mary Barbeito & Sarah Barone | Reservoir High School | The Growth Zone: Elevate Your Mind, Empower Your Life | The Student Services Team will facilitate mentoring discussions with small groups of female students in grades 10-12 who are often overlooked but face emotional or academic challenges, focusing on self-awareness, study skills, communication, and positive peer relationships. |
| Carlos Barrera Rodriguez | Oakland Mills Middle School | VR Voices: Language Learning in the Metaverse | Multilingual learner middle schoolers will use MetaQuest 3, an immersive virtual reality program, to boost their confidence and build English vocabulary through real-world conversational environments. |
| Kelly Clark | Rockburn Elementary School | Balanced Beginnings | Using hands-on materials, students can connect in a semi-structured, non-academic way each morning to foster a sense of calm and belonging as they transition into the full academic day. |
| Edryn Coleman | Oakland Mills High School | Restoring Community & Building Leaders through Choral Singing | Through a holistic approach that integrates musical skill development, leadership training, and community-building, this 2-day summer music enrichment camp will help students regain confidence in their voices, strengthen social-emotional connections, and foster a renewed sense of belonging. |
| Samantha Courtemanche | Fulton Elementary School | PBIS Prize Cart | Students earn the opportunity to buy fun prizes by earning “Falcon feathers” by demonstrating their school values of respect, positive relationships, and learning strategies. |
| Glenna Deekle | Deep Run Elementary School | Classroom Calming Corner Kits | Blossoms of Hope will partner with Deep Run ES to design and build calming corners in each classroom, where students experiencing stress, anxiety or sensory overload can access age-appropriate items to help them calm down, self-regulate, and remain included in classroom learning. |
| Claudia Eckstrom | Hanover Hills Elementary School | Counting Collections | Students use agency and decision-making skills during hands-on mathematics activities to better understand “the big ideas” in counting principles, foundational place value, skip counting, and number decomposition. |
| Melissa Hampson | Worthington Elementary School | Screen-Free Listening Centers: Hands-On Audiobooks | Educators will build early literacy skills and foster independence for multilingual learners and students with disabilities, by enhancing Pre-K listening centers with Yoto Mini Player and WonderBook devices and audiobook recordings. |
| Ruth Hazel | Hammond Middle School | Portable Dome Planetarium | Students will have a unique opportunity to connect with the night sky in real-time, enabling them to observe stars, planets, and other celestial phenomena during the school day via the Robinson Nature Center’s 6-foot portable planetarium dome. |
| Monica Heinlein & Christina Salapata | Manor Woods Elementary School | Zen Zones: Schoolwide Regulation Spaces | School counseling team will provide training for staff, as well as a set of materials, to implement and maintain a self-regulation space in their classrooms. |
| Alison Holcombe, Jamie Saperstein, Dawn Urian, & Whitney Frey | Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School | Yoto Listening Centers to Promote Early Literacy Skills | Kindergarten teachers will record interactive read-alouds on blank Yoto cards aligned with the “Being a Reader” curriculum, to promote fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition through engaging listening experiences. |
| Lauren Honza & Tonya Kyler | Hollifield Station Elementary School | Ron Clark Academy ‘Houses’ Model for PBIS | This whole-school PBIS program will create a dynamic, engaging culture to foster student accountability, collaboration, and school pride. |
| Erin Isch & Melody Green-Lewis | Howard High School | First Generation to College Cohort | Mentorship, college application support, career counseling, and a college visit field trip for first-generation Howard High School students. |
| Sharre Kim | Reservoir High School | Flow of Genetic Information | Hands-on biology class activities to build students’ knowledge in genetics, including DNA code, RNA code, through protein synthesis. |
| Jessica Lavallee | Veterans Elementary School | PenPower-Reading Inclusion for ALL | Multilingual learners and students with reading challenges will receive real-time language support by using a WorldPenScan to receive text-to-speech voice readings, and translations, through Bluetooth headphones, leading to more interactive and accessible learning experiences. |
| Theresa McClain & Heather Moore | Bellows Spring Elementary School | Creating Wonder around Reading with WonderBooks | Builds a collection of diverse and engaging audiobooks in the media center for students to use during independent reading time. |
| Shanté Owens-Young | Lake Elkhorn Middle School | Exploring the Heart | A safe space for 7th and 8th grade female students to explore their own identities, their interests, and their connections to others, while learning about real-world entrepreneurship and the role of local small businesses in their communities. |
| Katie Palmateer & Dr. Laura Cometa | Wilde Lake High School | Advancing Multilingual Literacy | By building a collection of high-interest multilingual books in the media center, this space will transform into a welcoming, engaging space for multilingual learners to develop their literacy skills while fostering a love of reading, leading to increased academic success and lifelong learning. |
| Dallas Rosenthal | Cedar Lane School | Insects Don’t BUG Us! | Students participating in Cedar Lane’s Horticulture Program will utilize ladybugs as beneficial insects in the school greenhouse as an alternative to pesticides. |
| Stacy Rosuck & Sanika Shah (Centennial High School Student) | Centennial High School | Hearts In Action “Mind Matters” Initiative | School club that promotes mental health awareness, emotional well-being, and social responsibility among high school students while strengthening connections within the broader community. |
| Lori Rudolph | Vision Services | Nuts & Bolts | Empowering high school students with visual impairments to perform their own home repairs, home maintenance and gardening tasks using basic hand tools. |
| Dana Scott, Sarah Lynch & Megan Scharmann | Oakland Mills High School | Bridging the Gap for Multilingual Learners | Through monthly professional learning sessions, teachers will build their knowledge and skills in evidence-based strategies to support multilingual learners (MLs) while also learning how to build community within their classrooms. |
| Julia Southern | Worthington Elementary School | Expanding HCPSS’ Cadre of Trained SPACE Facilitators | A school counselor will have the opportunity to become a trained facilitator for the Yale Child Center’s S.P.A.C.E. model: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. |
| Jennifer Vining, La Tanya Robinson, & Stephanie Reynolds | Social Work | Combating Student Anxiety by Empowering Parents-Implementing Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) Groups in Schools | Implementing 7-week parent intervention groups based on the Yale Child Center’s S.P.A.C.E. model: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. |
| Kim Wade, Lindsey Miles, Kyle Schofield, Marian Hoyt, & Ryleigh Carr | Guilford Park High School | Guilford Park Day of Service | The 9th Grade Team designed a fun and meaningful ‘Day of Service’ activity where students participated in a shared experience to benefit the community, while building relationships with one another and earning service learning hours. |
Grant recipients were recognized at a Howard County Board of Education meeting on September 25, 2025.
About Bright Minds staff and teacher grants:
Since 2009, Bright Minds has provided over $290,000 to staff and teacher grants in support of classroom innovation projects. These projects have focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); diversity and inclusion; business and entrepreneurship; civic awareness; fine arts; and other topics. Learn more about our staff and teacher grants program.
Contributions to the staff and teacher grant program can be made HERE.
About Bright Minds
Bright Minds Foundation works to ensure that each student has access to the education, resources, and opportunities they need to succeed at school and in life. We bring together community support for programs and initiatives that increase education access, equity, and innovation. Bright Minds programs respond to urgent and ongoing needs of students in four key areas: literacy and school readiness; digital inclusion and access to learning; education innovation and teacher support; and college access. Learn more about Bright Minds.
