Amherst Education Foundation Announces 2025-26 Excellence Grants

Source: Amherst Education Foundation

The Amherst Education Foundation (AEF) has announced the winners of its 2025-2026 Excellence Grants. A total of $29,621 in grants have been awarded to five projects in support of programs spread throughout the Amherst-Pelham School District.

The Amherst Education Foundation, Inc. is an independent, non-profit organization committed to promoting students’ educational equity, supporting diversity, stimulating excellence and mobilizing broad community support for the public schools of Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury. Supporters include businesses, parents, and other concerned citizens who share the belief that strong public schools are essential for a thriving community.

The 2025-2026 excellence grant awardees are:

A Wider Lens: An Intergenerational Arts Partnership
Lead Grantee: Kristen Ripley
Grant Amount: $7,689
School: High School
Description: This program will bring students enrolled in the High School’s Black & White Photography and/or Water Color Painting courses together with Amherst-area elders for a series of collaborative sessions. Kristen Ripley and Elena Betke-Brunswick have partnered with the Amherst Senior Center for oral history interviews, black & white film photography, and narrative painting. Through this community-based learning experience, students will apply their classroom skills in an authentic and dynamic context. The class will culminate in an art show featuring creative works and accompanying text from the oral history interviews, and a reception for the Amherst-area community. Ultimately, this partnership will expand intergenerational connections among participants, challenge art students to create work based on authentic content, and honor the experiences and perspectives of our community elders.

Crocker Farm Bike Club
Lead Grantee: Judah Hughes
Grant Amount: $8,345
School: Crocker Farm Elementary
Description: The Bike Club at Crocker Farm will expand so that more students in grades 4th through 6th are able to develop their cycling skills, make friends, build confidence, and have fun. With an emphasis on inclusivity and safety, this free and volunteer-run program, will engage students, educators and families in building community and connections through biking. Students will build and strengthen physical, mental and emotional skills through structured opportunities for movement, problem solving and cooperation.

Neurodiversity In Play: Sensory Immersive Learning Spaces
Lead Grantee: Emily Dannen
Grant Amount: $8,113
School: Early Education Center
Description: Dr. Emily Dannen and Swetha Krishnaswamy will be purchasing sensory based materials to provide an immersive learning space in the Early Education Center. For neurodiverse students, sensory play is a powerful tool that promotes self-regulation and supports cognitive development, language and social skills. The project will diversify, modify and enhance the learning opportunities provided to our community and early learners in the preschool program. Sensory immersive spaces improve regulation, increased attention, improved emotional-social skills, problem solving and learning outcomes.

Teaching James By Percival Everett
Lead Grantee: Chris Herland
Grant Amount: $972
School: High School
Description: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a core text for the junior year English elective American Literature and Nature. Within that course, Chris will be purchasing and teaching the new book James by Percival Everett, and take its students on a field trip to Mark Twain’s house in Hartford, CT. Everett’s book recounts Twain’s narrative from the perspective of Jim, Huck’s enslaved companion who is escaping his bondage. James recently won the National Book Award and it was a finalist for the Pulitzer. The addition of the text to the course will open a number of avenues for student writing, research, discussion and presentation.

Woven Together
Lead Grantee: Laura Evonne Steinman
Grant Amount: $4,500
School: Wildwood Elementary
Description: Laura will be purchasing a permanent Saori loom for the art studio at Wildwood. The loom will allow students in grade K-6 to learn Saori weaving, which originated in Japan in the 1960s. This free-form weaving technique fosters creativity, individuality, and self-expression, and allows for collaborative weaving projects. The initiative will cultivate teamwork, dedication, and patience, providing a platform for students of all ages to learn, share and create together.