The grant from Thunderbirds Charities will bolster our Classroom Support Team (CST) program. This high-impact initiative, which places trained interns and volunteers directly into classrooms, operates from September to March each school year. Over the past cycle, eleven interns contributed over 1,100 service hours across the Madrid Neighborhood School and Wilson School District, reaching more than 400 students. This effort resulted in 60% of teachers reporting that they gained at least two hours per week for individual planning.

With this new funding, the program will be able to recruit and train more interns, strengthen instructional support, and broaden its reach to additional classrooms and grade levels. These funds will directly enhance teacher capacity by reducing clerical and supervisory duties. Additionally, CST interns play a vital role in academic and emotional interventions, small group instruction, and classroom management, leading to a significant improvement in student behavior and academic engagement.

Ultimately, this investment will enable more students to receive the individual attention they need to thrive, allowing more teachers to focus on meaningful instruction, and providing more future educators with real-world classroom experience. This ripple effect of impact throughout the community is a testament to the CST program’s value and its contribution to the broader education system.

Million Dollar Teacher Project

This grant is part of the Spring 2025 cycle. View a list of all Recent Grantees.