MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (September 26, 2019) — A grant from Compeer Financial's Fund for Rural America will help area school children develop a deeper understanding of local agriculture and its application to place.
Compeer Financial's Fund for Rural America has awarded a $10,000 grant for place-based agricultural-education to the Rural Schools Collaborative and Monmouth College.
The grant will be used to support projects designed by sixth-grade students and teachers at Central Intermediate School in Monmouth to cultivate the students' environmental interest through designing and implementing local agriculture-based projects.
About 170 Central sixth-graders will work at Monmouth College's Educational Garden and Market Farm to analyze soil, explore alternative methods of food production, and begin planning for a school-based environmental land-use project. The students will also work with local experts and resources to create place-based academic projects that can be adopted by other schools.
"The project will provide teachers and students with the important agricultural knowledge that allows them to enhance their understanding of several sciences, the environment, and nutrition," said Monmouth Educational Studies Department Chair Craig Vivian. "They will also learn how land can be used or modified in order to benefit the community."
The Central sixth-graders and their teachers will be assisted by Monmouth teacher-education students in the College's Teachers Allied with Rural Towns and Neighborhood Schools program, also known as TARTANS. The TARTANS program, which has a partnership with the Rural Schools Collaborative, prepares select Monmouth teacher-education students to be teacher-leaders in rural school systems.
Based at Monmouth, the Rural Schools Collaborative is a national organization that strengthens the bonds between rural schools and communities through place-based engagement, rural philanthropy, and developing teacher-leaders.
Compeer Financial's Fund for Rural America strengthens rural areas by identifying and investing in opportunities for rural residents and communities that Compeer Financial serves.
Pictured above, from left: Amjad Karkout, Monmouth academic secretary; Gary Funk, Rural Schools Collaborative director; Julia Levine, Rural Schools Collaborative, communications and narrative coordinator; Tamara La Prad, educational studies professor; Sherry Bair, educational studies professor; Shane Kaiser, Compeer Financial insurance officer; Karen Schieler, Compeer Financial's Fund for Rural America senior corporate giving specialist; Mark Willhardt, dean of the faculty; Josh Gibb, Rural Schools Collaborative board of directors chair; Craig Vivian, educational studies chair; Bradley Rowe, educational studies professor; Michelle Holschuh Simmons, educational studies professor; Nathan Schroeder, mathematics major/teacher education junior from Watseka, Illinois; and Jennifer Dickens, educational studies director of partnership s and initiatives.
