Grants and Awards
NEARI Grants and Awards
NEARI Teaching Excellence Award
Application Period Opens November 1, 2024
Purpose
The NEARI Teaching Excellence Award is to recognize, reward, and promote excellence in teaching and advocacy for the profession.
Eligibility
All current NEARI teacher members with a minimum of three (3) years of teaching experience and membership in NEARI.
Award Nominations
NEARI members interested in nominating a candidate for the Teaching Excellence Award must submit their nominations between November 1 and November 30, 2024. The selection committee will notify nominees, encouraging them to apply for the award.
Nominate a member here starting November 1
Submission
All applications must be submitted through the online application system opening Jan 6, 2025, and closing February 3, 2025.
Notification
The awardee will be notified by March 4, 2025.
Award Selection Committee
The NEARI awards committee will consist of officers and members of NEARI.
Benefits
The NEARI awardee will receive expenses-paid travel to Washington, DC, for the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, to be held in February of 2026. Five awardees are selected for the Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence and receive $10,000 each plus expenses- paid travel to the Gala for themselves and a guest. The NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence recipient, selected from the five Horace Mann awardees, receives $25,000 in cash and a commemorative gift.
Nomination Package Requirements
The nomination application will include the following:
RESUME
The resume provides a brief, factual overview of the nominee's career, including positions held, degrees attained, honors received, etc. The resume may also describe personal achievements or activities that are not noted elsewhere. Two pages maximum.
NOMINEE'S STATEMENT
The nominee's statement must be written by the nominee, as a first-person narrative. The statement should include specific examples to illustrate all five of the award criteria.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
How have you grown as an educator throughout your career? Cite examples of ways you have developed your skills and/or adapted your practice over time. What strategies or methods do you use to support student learning and student success? Share a story about how your work has made a difference for a student or a group of students.
ADVOCACY FOR THE PROFESSION
How has your involvement in the National Education Association Rhode Island contributed to your success as an educator? How would you persuade a new colleague to join or become more active in NEARI? In what other ways do you serve as an advocate for the profession and for public education? Please include examples in your statement.
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND JUSTICE
How do you address issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in your interactions with students? What is the result of such efforts? How does your approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice affect your work? Please include examples.
FAMILY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
How have you been intentional in engaging families and community members to support student learning and success? How do you build relationships with parents and community members? Please include examples.
LEADERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
What experiences or activities have been most beneficial to your professional knowledge, skills, and practice? How have you contributed to the professional development of your colleagues? How has your professional growth made a difference for your students, school and community? Please include examples.
Criteria for Selection
Must be a NEARI/NEA member (including teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty and staff). Additionally, educators of all cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, heritages and races, gender and sexual orientations, abilities, and ideas are valued and encouraged to participate.
Nominations will be judged by the assembled awards selection committee using the following rubric:
| Criteria Section | Max Value |
|---|---|
| Professional Practice | 15 pts |
| Advocacy for the Profession | 15 pts |
| Commitment To Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice | 10 pts |
| Family and Community Engagement | 5 pts |
| Leadership in Professional Development | 5 pts |
Racial and Social Justice Grant
Application period is closed.
Purpose
NEARI has received a Community Advocacy and Partnership Engagement (CAPE) grant from NEA. These funds are to assist local unions in forming their own Racial and Social Justice Committees and to form partnerships with local community groups to address racial and social justice needs in the school community.
Eligibility
Locals do not need to currently be engaged in any racial and social justice work currently to be eligible to apply.
Grant Funds
Grant amounts will be between $3800-$6000 depending on the number of locals who apply. The grant will allow a maximum of 8 locals for funding.
Recipient Requirements
Local Unions who receive grant funds will be required to do the following:
- Create a needs assessment for the work the local RSJC plans to do
- Develop a plan of action to meet objectives of local RSJC
- Attend CAPE Beginning of Year Convening (late August 2024)
- Complete Quarterly report to be submitted to NEARI and the local Union
- Present twice during year to local Executive Board to update local on progress
- Engage in training opportunities and NEA mico-credential programs
- Participation in NEARI events to share the work of the local RSJC
Local Unions may use the grant funds for a variety of expenses involved in forming a local RSJ Committee including the following:
- Stipends for Committee chairs
- Event space
- Event materials
- Guest speakers
- Curriculum materials
NEARI and the NEARI RSJC will serve in a support role and assist local RSJC partnerships in the following ways:
- Support in completing the needs assessment
- Connecting locals with community partners and non-profits
- Research on best practices
- Technical and communication support
- Support on quarterly report
- Space and agendas for full CAPE convenings
If you are not the local union president and are interested in applying for these grant funds, please discuss and consult with your local union president and Executive Board prior to your application. Funds will be dispensed to the local treasurer and will be dispersed from the local.
Gail Colburn ESP of the Year Award
When you hear the phrase Education Support Professional, ESP for short, it’s difficult to imagine exactly what that person does every day and what kind of role they play in education. This catch-all term that describes many categories of workers – from teacher assistants and paraprofessionals to custodians, secretaries, and office managers – only scratches the surface of how these individuals contribute to the success of a school, a classroom, a student’s daily life.
2025 ESP of the Year
Get to know the 2025 ESP of the Year Christine Alves!
Nomination period is closed.
Providing support with kindness, caring, friendship, and commitment. It’s what an Education Support Professional does each day and every year we honor one among the many who exemplifies the ESP vocation.
The Education Support Professional (ESP) of the Year is a member who demonstrates outstanding accomplishments and reflects the vital role ESPs play in public education.
Nominate that favorite ESP colleague who contributes to student and school success each and every day. ESPs are the teacher assistants, paraprofessionals, custodians, secretaries, office managers, administrative assistants, maintenance personnel, campus police, and technical support staff in your schools.
The nominee chosen by the NEARI selection committee will be honored at the annual ESP Dinner in November with the Gail Colburn ESP of the Year award and will be submitted to represent Rhode Island in the national NEA ESP of the Year honor.
AWARD CRITERIA
The NEA ESP of the Year selection committee will review and score the nominations using the updated ESP of the Year award criteria outlined below. To assist in telling a story and focus on impact (instead of simply submitting a list of accomplishments), each criterion follws the same cadence: "What action was taken, and what impact did that action have?"
- Impact on students. Describe specific actions you have taken and how those actions positively impacted student learning, social-emotional well-being, health and/or safety.
- Impact on families and the community. Describe specific actions you have taken and how those actions have positively impacted families and/or the local community.
- Union engagement and activism, with a focus on ESP workforce issues. Describe how your engagement and activism with the local or state union/association have positively impacted ESPs' professional stature (e.g., importance and reputation), stability (e.g., wages, benefits, and job security), and/or effectiveness (e.g., professional practice).
- Impact on colleagues. Describe specific actions you have taken and how those actions have positively impacted colleagues at your school campus, school district, or worksite.
ELIGIBILITY
*The Nominee must be an active NEA/NEARI member for at least three years as of December 31, 2024 to be eligible. Retired members are not eligible for the award. Individuals must be nominated by their state affiliate through a state ESP award program.
NEA Aspiring Educators Scholarship
NEA-Retired Jack Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship
The NEA-Retired Jack Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship was created in memory of Jack Kinnaman, vice president and former advisory council member of NEA-Retired. In addition, Jack represented NEA-Retired on The NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, and in numerous active and retired local, state, and national association positions. He is most fondly remembered as supporting reading among younger students. Jack cared about students, especially those who were financially impacted and needed a helping hand, and it is his family's wish that the scholarships created in Jack’s honor go to such students.
Five scholarships of $3,500.00 will be awarded, and only students who have been a member of the NEA Aspiring Educators Program for at least one (1) year are eligible to apply.
Application Requirements
The deadline to apply closed on April 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. The application portal will reopen in December 2025.
NEA Foundation Grants and Scholarships
Envision Equity Grants
Envision Equity Grants enable educators to test creative new ideas and innovations, demonstrating exemplary teaching and learning, while advancing students’ cultural understanding and appreciation, anti-racism commitments, and understanding of civic engagement and democracy.
Learning & Leadership Grants
Educators frequently need outside resources to engage in meaningful professional development due to limited district funding. Learning and Leadership Grants enable educators to grow their leadership skills and invest in professional development to maximize their impact inside and outside the classroom.
Student Success Grants
The NEA Foundation believes public education should stimulate students’ curiosity and excitement about learning and help them become successful 21st-century global citizens. Student Success Grants supports educators who strive to implement innovative and effective forms of learning, helping students find joy in learning and achieve their potential.
Global Learning Fellowship
Bring the world to your classroom!
Through the NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellowship, public school educators develop the knowledge and skills to integrate global competency into their daily classroom instruction, advocate for global competency in their schools and districts, and help students to thrive in our increasingly interconnected world. Fellows transform their classrooms to give students a global perspective.
The field study country for the 2025 cohort is Costa Rica.
Application period for the 2026 cohort will open in December 2024.
