Grants in Action

Bringing Design Thinking to NPS Teachers

Through an NEF grant, NPS educators had the opportunity to attend a two-day professional development workshop to promote hands-on learning in their classrooms. The workshop, offered by the NuVu School in Cambridge and customized for the Needham Public Schools, aimed...

A Community Garden at High Rock

When the archeology dig boxes were no longer being used at High Rock Middle School, Steve Miller, the former community service learning coordinator, applied for an NEF grant to build five new accessible raised garden beds which would be used for students in a newly...

Rooting Students in Indigenous Knowledge

Through an NEF grant, all 3rd grade students are hearing from Annawon Weeden, a cultural educator and performing artist with the Mashpee Wampanoag, Pequot, and Narragansett tribes, on contemporary and traditional Wampanoag life. Students will get to see and touch...

Gallery 450 Makes Space for Creativity

In 2019, the NEF funded a multi-faceted grant for the art department at Needham High School. In addition to an artist-in-residence working with both students and staff, the grant funded the materials to establish a permanent gallery space in the new wing of the high...

Vox Books for Newman Kindergarten

Through an NEF grant, Newman Kindergarten students are growing their reading skills with a set of Vox books. Each hardcover picture book has a built-in audio player, allowing students to listen to a story and follow along -- without needing an extra device like a...

What’s Normal Anyway? A (Stigma-Obliterating) Disability Film Series

This Fall 2024 grant funded four evenings of disability education for the Needham community, with a film screening followed by a panel discussion exploring the film’s topics and how they affect or influence the experiences of youth in Needham (where over 1,000...

Cuerd@s Workshop at NHS Connections

With funding from a Fall 2023 grant, a workshop was held in February for students in the Connections program at Needham High School with Cuerd@s, an organization that provides embroidered clothing to support mental health. For the creator, the act of embroidery is...

Overcoming Barriers in Jazz: Musician Residency with Tia Fuller

This grant, along with funding from Needham High School Friends of Music, funded a two-week musician residency in which Tia Fuller— Grammy-nominated Black female jazz saxophonist, composer, Berklee professor, and featured musician in Pixar's Soul—shared her musical...

World Language Books

Last year, Elizabeth Hitron, librarian at Sunita Williams Elementary School, working with Kelly Haas, Sunita Williams’ ELL teacher, and Jenn Potter, Broadmeadow’s librarian, received a grant to fund the purchase of books written in languages other than English for all...