LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / January 19, 2000

ST. ROSE – When Kim Bourgeois’ students at Albert Cammon Middle Schoolheard they had been awarded $2,500 in grant money, they didn’t get too excited.

When they heard it was from Michael Jordan, they got quite excited, according to Bourgeois.

Bourgeois, in her eighth year of teaching and in her fourth year in St.

Charles Parish Schools, applied for her first grant and won it, a $2,500 Jordan Fundamentals grant by his National Foundation for the Improvement of Education.

Bourgeois’ eighth-grade students will, because of this money, write, illustrate and publish two hard-bound books, one fiction and one non- fiction.

“People did this last year and this’ll let us do it,” student Adam Washington said. “I can’t wait to see how it’s going to come out.”The grants support lesson plans and thematic units that demonstrate instructional creativity and exemplify high learning expectations for under-served students.

This was one of 400 Jordan grants awarded this year in the first of a five-year program. The grants are available to teachers in grades sixthrough 12 and, in addition, at least 40 percent of the affected student population must be eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program.

Jordan was quoted as saying, “I hope these grants empower more teachers to do what they do best – find creative ways to give kids the means and the inspiration to succeed in academics, sports, family and in their lives.”Funding for the grants is provided in part by sales of Jordan-brand products. Information on the grant program is available online at www.nfie.com.

Return To News Stories