By Julie Faryniarz
Greenwich Alliance for Education has been giving out Reaching Out Grant money since before I started as the Executive Director in 2009. Grants are innovative, educational, inspiring for educators, and make learning accessible for all students. They total nearly $2M in investment. Examples are AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), Unbound Innovations XR, eSports, Dare 2 Care (SEL), Sensory Rooms, Developing Artist, Makerspaces, Innovation Lab, and Theater. The Reaching Out Grants Committee is working right now to evaluate recent submissions from the schools to make a recommendation for 2024-2025 projects to the Board of Directors at the end of month.
We currently have two Theater Arts grant programs at New Lebanon and Julian Curtiss Elementary Schools. When I watch the students sing and dance in the musical productions or belt out a memorized one minute monologue from a famous speech in the Declamation Contest, my heart fills up with joy. I think this New Lebanon 4th grader sums it up, “At first I was very nervous to speak loudly in front of people. But speaking in front of people wasn’t too scary. So at the end, when I did it, I wasn’t nervous. I was confident and brave.”
The idea for an inclusive and comprehensive Theater Arts grant program came to us in 2021 from Carol Pugliano-Martin, a 2023 Distinguished Teacher at New Lebanon School. Equipped with a Masters degree from NYU in Educational Theater and five years of experience directing the school musical, she observed students who had difficulties academically shine in a musical production. Students even told her that theater changed their lives.
Fast forward to 2024 and Theater Arts is now part of the culture at New Lebanon with fifteen teachers directing the many aspects of the theater offerings and student participation at an all time high. There are theater opportunities for all 317 students including field trips to live performances at the Ridgefield Playhouse, in-school theater residences/productions through TheaterWorks USA, after-school Theater Clubs, Declamation Contests, a 5th grade musical production – this year it was Willy Wonka Kids – and much more. Parents delight in watching their children perform and beam with pride and encouragement.
In 2022, New Lebanon School was named a Connecticut State School of Distinction in the area of high growth with high needs populations in English Language Arts. The theater program contributes to the growth in student’s background knowledge, speaking and listening skills, and confidence building. In addition, it increases access for low/moderate income students to enrichment programs linked to closing the opportunity gap and addresses Greenwich Public School Strategic Goals #1,Mastery of Reading, and #5, Increase Student Sense of Belonging.
Julian Curtiss, adopting the New Lebanon model, had many enthusiastic participants this first year. Grant champions Sandra Grandinetti, Ariel Wilshaw and John Ehlinger are eagerly awaiting news about Reaching Out Grant funding for the coming school year.
Greenwich Alliance for Education believes in expanding opportunities for students by investing in arts programming, whether it be through Reaching Out Grants or Tuning In To Music. Tuning In To Music launched in 2006 and more than 450 students have received 16,000 hours of free musical instruction. Research shows that “students who had increased arts education experiences saw improvements in writing achievement, emotional and cognitive empathy, school engagement and higher education aspirations, while they had a lower incidence of disciplinary infractions” (Brownell, New York Times, May 2, 2023).
For me, as the Executive Director of the Greenwich Alliance, I see the arts programs as a way to celebrate students, encourage them to grow beyond what they thought they were capable of doing, a chance to explore and potentially develop a new passion, and most of all to have a lot of fun.
Interested in supporting the arts? www.greenwichalliance.org
Julie Faryniarz is the Executive Director of the Greenwich Alliance for Education since 2009. She is a YWCA Women Who Inspires Honoree, a PTAC Excellence Award recipient and mother of three children who graduated from the Greenwich Public Schools.
