Paxon Teacher selected for Target Grant
Mai D. Keisling, an art teacher at Paxon School for Advanced Studies, was selected from more than 16,000 applicants around the country for a $1,000 Target Field Trip Grant.
The Target Field Trip Grant provides educators the opportunity to offer field trips as a means for their students to learn outside the classroom, as field trips are typically one of the first items eliminated from school curriculum because of budget constraints.
The program awards as many as 1,600 educators grants of up to $1,000 each to fund a student field trip.
Keisling is using the grant to take 140 of her art history and sculpture students to the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville.
"I feel a sense of accomplishment in receiving this grant," Keisling said. "It was a creative way to pay for a field trip and save my students money. My students and I are very excited, and we appreciate Target’s support."
Keisling received information about the grant by e-mail the day the application was due and knew that it was crucial for her art students to visit a museum. She spent her planning period completing the application process.
Criteria for selection of the grant included the description of the field trip, the benefits to students, the tie-in to the school curriculum, the number of students impacted and the proposed use of funds.
Keisling will be taking her students to the Cummer on February 27, March 4 and March 6, and to MOCA on April 8.
