Two schools get grants
Published 11:20 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and Isle of Wight Academy each have been awarded a $1,000 grant from the ExxonMobil Educational Alliance, a group that provides Exxon and Mobil retailers with educational funds to support their communities.
The grants are two of 3,900 awarded to schools across the country.
Both schools partnered with Brian Atwood of Parker Oil and Propane to apply for the grants. Atwood has two children who attend NSA.
Nansemond-Suffolk will apply the grant funds to the school’s annual fund, which supports the school’s mission and educational programs, said Ashley Greene, the communications coordinator at NSA.
She said there is not a specific plan for how the school will use the funds.
The Suffolk school has received grants from ExxonMobil in the past, but this is the largest sum it has been awarded.
Greene said NSA was lucky Atwood approached the school about the funding.
“We are fortunate he thought about it, and we were eligible to get the grant,” she said. “We were fortunate to be awarded it.”
Like NSA, Isle of Wight Academy will use the money to supplement its annual fund.
“It’s very nice that someone in the community was willing to work with us and secure funding for the kids,” said Joseph G. Whitley, the lower school assistant headmaster and director of admissions at Isle of Wight Academy. “It’s a good feeling.”
He said this is the third year IWA has secured the grant, and it will most likely be used to enhance the school’s math and science program.
“We are in the process of putting “smart-board” technology in the school,” Whitley said. “It will probably be used to put them in math classrooms.”