Long Island Students Win Butterflies & Ukuleles
Jovia Financial FCU grants $44,000 in wishes for teachers.
A Long Island credit union is granting $44,000 in teacher wishes this year from building a courtyard classroom, butterfly garden and to buying ukuleles for an elementary school.
Jovia Financial Federal Credit Union, Westbury, N.Y. ($3.4 billion in assets, 199,120 members) announced Monday that it is funding 111 innovative classroom projects though its Funding Your Ideas (FYI) Teacher Grants.
Last year Jovia’s teacher grant committee reviewed hundreds of proposals from teachers and administrators for awards of up to $500 per program. Besides the butterfly and ukulele projects, the grantees include proposals to:
- Purchase laptops for pre-vocational education
- Improve a language skills program
- Introduce sensory diet items in special education lunch rooms
- Establish creative coding programs in classrooms.
The credit union was founded by school employees in 1938 as Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union and was the state’s eighth largest in assets as of September. It changed its name last September to Jovia.
In addition to the Funding Your Ideas Teacher Grants, Jovia conducts a number of education related programs. It works with Adelphi and Hofstra universities on Long Island to create financial literacy programs to benefit local students. Jovia also grants more than $1 million each year in scholarships to local students and delivers free kits to local schools to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
Applications for the next round of FYI grants are being accepted until October 31.