First year teachers receive coveted grants from Georgia Power

December 21, 2015

By: Tedi Rountree

Two teachers in Glynn County have been awarded sought-after grants from a key community supporter to help offset the costs of supplying a classroom with needed tools.

Both recent graduates of College of Coastal Georgia, teachers Cherie Alston and Brandon Evans were recently named recipients of Georgia Power’s New Teacher Assistance Grant.

For more than a decade, Georgia Power has issued the grant, providing first year teachers with $1,000 to purchase classroom supplies.

All too often, teachers dig into their own pockets to buy school supplies for their students. This grant, however, helps new teachers offset that expense, said Jim Weidhaas, director of public relations for the Glynn County School System.

The grants, too, are a way of encouraging the best and brightest new teachers, both locally and throughout the state, by helping them purchase the needed materials, Weidhaas said.

“The first five years of a teacher’s career can be the most critical,” Weidhaas said. “We as a school system need the support of the community, of the business community, and Georgia Power has stepped up to recognize that.”

With the grant program, which launched 12 years ago, Georgia Power is trying to do just that: support encourage and stimulate excelled learning and educational tactics statewide, said Wayne Grimes, energy efficiency education coordinator for Georgia Power, who recently presented Alston and Evans with their grant checks.

Alston is a first-grade teacher at Altama Elementary School, and Evans teaches 10th grade world literature and Read 180 at Brunswick High School.

Grimes noted that Alston and Evans were among 41 grant recipients throughout Georgia this year.

“These grants are our way of encouraging and supporting new teachers and giving back to education in our community,” Grimes said.

Nominations are submitted by professors at public colleges and universities across the state that have education programs to Georgia Power. Candidates must be in the top 25 percent of their graduating class academically and must have shown a high aptitude for teaching while in college. After graduation, grant candidates also must obtain a full-time teaching contract at a public school in Georgia, Weidhaas said.

The two teacher receiving the grants this year are certainly worthy of the recognition, Weidhaas said.

“They have chosen a very noble profession,” Weidhaas said.

Glynn County Board of Education chair Hank Yeargan agreed, adding that the school system is grateful to Georgia Power and all community advocates and businesses for their ongoing support.

“We must say a big thank you,” Yeargan said. “Our community is always there to help us support education.”