Conejo Math Teacher Wins $10,000 Grant
A Thousand Oaks elementary school teacher is one of 35 instructors nationwide to receive a $10,000 grant from Toyota Motor Sales and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Colleen Briner-Schmidt, who teaches a kindergarten and first-grade class, was selected from a pool of several hundred applicants. She has taught at Conejo Elementary School for six years.
The grant will provide funding for an after-school mentoring program she developed to promote math and science for fifth- and sixth-grade girls.
Through the program, female students at Moorpark College act as mentors for the elementary schoolchildren. The goal is to encourage girls to attend college and pursue careers in math, science and technology.
Toyota’s Investment in Mathematics Excellence grants are awarded every two years. They are geared toward improving mathematics education by giving teachers at all grade levels the financial support they need to implement innovative math projects.
The grant is one of the largest nationwide offered to math teachers.
Last summer, Briner-Schmidt, 45, received a similar grant from the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship Program.
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