Author: BEF Editor

Thanks to our generous donors Beaverton Education Foundation has awarded $16,711, funding 12 classroom projects for the 2023-24 academic year.

Tick Tock! Help our Camp Achieve Students Tell Time

Greenway + McKay Elementary Schools
Students Served: 75
Recipients: Trina Simkins-Moore & Brule Speck 
Award: $750

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

Camp Achieve students in third through fifth grade from Greenway and McKay elementary schools are learning to read an analog clock using hands-on tools. Thanks to your support and our generous Building STEAM 4 All funders, 75 easy-to-read watches were purchased to supplement district curriculum and show lessons in real time. 

Expand Art & Film Opportunities at BASE

BASE
Students Served: 100
Recipient: Jared Agard
Award: $1,000

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

BASE art students are achieving even greater success thanks to funds raised for supplies and audio equipment for the school’s recording studio to make even more award-winning news stories for PBS Student Reporting Labs.

A Golden Dream for the AHS Boys Soccer Program

Aloha High School
Students Served: 70
Recipient: Julio Abad Guzman
Award: $2,365

The AHS Boys soccer program can expand to four teams and include as many students who want to participate as possible thanks to funding from the AHS community.

Bring Geography to Life!

ACMA
Students Served: 190
Recipient: Brooke Warren
Award: $862

ACMA Social Studies students will get to participate in hands-on learning thanks to our community’s support for 35 dry erase world maps and U.S. maps to learn about the places and communities around us.

Building Community with STEAM Tubs

Sexton Mountain Elementary
Students Served: 86
Recipients: Heidi Demmitt, Emily Pike & Kelsey Baldwin
Award: $1,215

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

Sexton Mountain third graders can start their days off in a positive way with fully-supplied Soft Start STEAM Tubs, thanks to support for their Beaverton’s Choice project. Students will have opportunities to grow their skills in cooperation, collaboration, inclusiveness, critical thinking, problem solving and building community.

Send the Aloha Marching Band to the Championships!

Aloha High School
Students Served: 28 
Recipient: Aliyah Jackson
Award: $2,775

Funding provided in part by the Go Warriors! Opportunity Fund

The Aloha Marching Ensemble will participate in their early performance time for the 2023 NWAPA Championships at Autzen Stadium this October with funds to spend the night prior to this year’s culminating competition. This competition is especially meaningful, following last year’s success where the band won first place at every competition and scored high enough to perform in the final round at 2022 NWAPA Championships. 

Multisensory Tools to Support Handwriting Instruction

McKinley Elementary
Students Served: 350  
Recipients: Michael Vieira, Gretchen Johnson, Marla Davies & Chris Gillbertson
Award: $2,475

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative and Parents and Teachers for McKinley (PTM)

McKinley’s Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade students have access to LCD writing tablets that will provide purposeful, hands-on multi-sensory tools for  handwriting instruction and fun! These tools also provide teachers with opportunities to give in the moment corrective feedback. As a result, students’ writing will improve as well as the quality of their written compositions in higher grades.

Magic Out of Math

Whitford Middle School
Students Served: 480 
Recipients: Sandra Miller, Jyoti Shah, Andrew Gagnier & Chad Carnes
Award: $2,729

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

Whitford Middle School students smoothly transitioned into 8th grade AGS 1 math curriculum and feel confident taking notes to study for tests long into high school with Interactive Notebooks. Each pre-printed bound, spiral notebook has a structured setup with a glossary and helpful, customizable reference pages. 

A Performance that Will be “Out of this World!”

West Tualatin View Elementary
Students Served: 63
Recipients: Brooke Bailey, Kellie Tichenor & Peyton Matthews
Award: $540

Funding provided in part by the West TV PTC

Second grade teachers at West Tualatin View Elementary are able to organize a student performance of “Patterns in the Sky: Sun, Moon, and Stars” involving all second grade students’ talents and learning. Students are learning the information and skills while preparing a showcase of learning for the West TV community.

Pre-K Supply Drive!

Elmonica Elementary
Students Served: 36
Recipients: Michelle Hebden, Kristin Beckley & Ben Ruehlman
Award: $500

The brand new pre-K at Elmonica Elementary has needed supplies like playdough, paints and tricycles to help keep their four-year-olds active and engaged thanks to our generous community.

Build Classroom Community with Books!

ACMA
Students Served: 165
Recipient: Lynn Chapman
Award: $1,040

Sixth through eighth grade students can read an entire novel as a class, thanks to support for their project. The process of reading a book together allows Lynn Chapman to explicitly teach characterization, plot, theme, and other aspects of a novel. Plus, it allows for rich discussions and builds classroom community.

Inspire Young Readers!

Greenway Elementary
Students Served: 41
Recipients: Cassidy Griswold & Susan Lewis
Award: $460

Fun, engaging, diverse decodable books that teach students how to read and also serve as windows and mirrors are now a part of Greenway Elementary’s decodable library. These books allow students to have books that support their individual needs and provide immediate opportunities for students to practice foundational skills while building a strong reading identity.  

Thanks to your generous contributions, the dollars raised are enabling enrichment programs in Beaverton schools that otherwise would not be possible. For current programs, and to begin your application, please visit Beaverton’s Choice, Beaverton Education Foundation’s online resource that brings community and classrooms together.

Thanks to our generous donors Beaverton Education Foundation has awarded $112,337, funding 75 classroom projects for the 2021-22 academic year.

The Mighty Molony Builders

Beaver Acres Elementary School
Students Served: 22
Recipient: Amy Molony
Award: $283

Amy Molony’s kindergartners will have even more tools to solve classroom challenges thanks to your generosity. Funds raised through Beaver Acres’ recent Beaverton’s Choice project will secure naturally-engaging items that help students find their voice, build and create. Students will be able to organically integrate construction into play scenarios that advance math skills as well as increase their ability to read body language, tell a story and appreciate others’ talents. 

Growing Interest and Representation with Books!

Nancy Ryles Elementary School
Students Served: 120
Recipients: Victoria Adair, Crystal Gittings and Bridget Peterson
Award: $1,500

Funding provided by the Mike Osborne Memorial Award Endowment Fund

Nancy Ryles fifth graders can expand their book collection with engaging, high-interest texts across reading levels with funds raised from their successful Beaverton’s Choice project and the Mike Osborne Memorial Award Endowment Fund. New books will provide representation of diverse characters and experiences that reflect their own classrooms, while also supporting Fantasy and Realistic Book club units. Book clubs are an opportunity for students to participate in collaborative discussions with their peers, grow their own ideas and create community around stories.

Beaver Acres Authors

Beaver Acres Elementary School
Students Served: 125
Recipients: Evan Churchill, Shannon Hanson, Sandra Hoppenrath, Randi Little and Angela Steindorf
Award: $700

After weeks of hard work, and thanks to our community’s generous support, Beaver Acres’ fifth graders will have their writing published in a book with enough copies for each student, plus extra for the school library. Student authors have been so inspired by the publishing goal they have worked tirelessly to plan, create and polish their stories for a broader audience, bringing greater purpose and authenticity to their work.

Help AHS Multicultural Soccer Program make their GOAL!

Aloha High School
Students Served: 60
Recipient: Enrique Abad Guzman 
Award: $1,350

Funding provided in part by the Aloha High School Booster Club 

Aloha High School students will strengthen social and community values and build self-esteem with funds raised through Beaverton’s Choice to participate in our region’s most successful and significant Multicultural Soccer League. League participation gives students increased opportunities to develop pride in accomplishments earned through hard work.

Middle School Social Studies Comes Alive Through Art

Aloha Huber Park K-8 
Students Served: 65
Recipient: Kaydi Taylor
Award: $1,000

Funding provided by the BEF Building STEAM 4 All Initiative

Social studies students at Aloha Huber Park K-8 can continue creating art projects inspired by their studies, thanks to our generous community. Using funds raised through Kaydi Taylor’s Beaverton’s Choice project, students have the supplies needed to create their projects, often using the classroom’s Cricut Design machine. Classes will finish the year studying Latin American history and the rise of Early Humans, complete with complimentary art that brings the subjects they are studying to life. 

Restoring Our Green Space

Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering
Students Served: 500
Recipient: Katy Reid
Award: $3,010

Funding provided by the BEF Building STEAM 4 All Initiative

Your support of the BASE community garden gives students an abundance of opportunities to flourish and develop the three powerful traits of our school mascot, the Phoenix – responsibility, persistence and collaboration. Funds raised will replace garden beds, re-open the garden to interested 6-12th grade crews, create a new drip irrigation system and small greenhouse for 6-9th grade Health classes to start seeds in early spring, when learning about nutrition. Another portion will be used by our neighbors in the Community Transition Program. Finally, funds will support a long-term project for AP Environmental Science students in grades 10-12 to research and plan how to redesign the space.

Connecting Outdoors

Jacob Wismer Elementary 
Students Served: 500
Recipient: Merideth Brundidge
Award: $2,075

Funding provided by the BEF Building STEAM 4 All Initiative

Jacob Wismer students can connect with nature, while they learn outside thanks to our generous community. Funds raised from Merideth Brundidge’s recent Beaverton’s Choice project provide the supplies necessary for her fifth graders to design and create outdoor classrooms that can be used by the whole school. 

What will the Falcons Create Next?

Five Oaks Middle School
Students Served: 850
Recipient: Suzanne Peerenboom
Award: $1,086

Funding provided by the BEF Building STEAM 4 All Initiative

Five Oaks seventh grade science students can create life-like 3D models of molecules thanks to our generous community’s support of their Beaverton’s Choice project. Money raised purchased 3D printers and the supplies needed to help students design and build projects showing how atoms bond to create molecules. Additional printers and supplies will help create keychains to recognize student-of-the-month recipients.

Thanks to your generous contributions, the dollars raised are enabling enrichment programs in Beaverton schools that otherwise would not be possible. For current programs, and to begin your application, please visit Beaverton’s Choice, Beaverton Education Foundation’s online resource that brings community and classrooms together.

As Beaverton Education Foundation begins our 35th year, we are honored to announce our Board leaders for 2022-23: Rajesh Shah, Chair; Kimberly Ogadhoh, Vice Chair and Dayna Weller, Treasurer. We recently asked the new Executive Leadership team about their goals for the coming year.

Ready to become a part of BEF’s leadership? We are currently accepting Board member applications. Learn more today.

Beaverton Education Foundation has Mountain View Middle School students covered, helping meet their needs before, during and after school. Whether it’s the wellness center, a leadership class, or after school clubs, BEF’s awards create a multidimensional combination of academic and social emotional support, which is especially critical as schools rebound from the pandemic. 

“BEF has been an essential partner to Mountain View Middle School,” says Carol Baltazar, one of Mountain View’s assistant principals. “BEF’s funding of meaningful and effective programs has had an incredible impact on our students. All of these programs work together to continue to improve overall outcomes for our kids.”

Before school, as well as during lunchtime, students turn to the Health and Wellness Center, which provides much-needed safe and calming spaces for all students. Through a wide variety of tools, activities and strategies, students learn how to manage their emotions and improve their attitudes and confidence so they are ready to learn. Staff members also work closely with students to provide individualized assistance.

Students in the Upgrade Program open their eyes to careers in the trades. The leadership class, as it’s called at Mountain View, shows middle schoolers career options they may not have considered before, and lets them try out the trades like construction and auto tech. “Upgrade can set them on a path toward better paying jobs that don’t require a four-year college degree,” says Janine Weir, who leads the District’s high school success coordination and development efforts. By exposing students to these opportunities in middle school — at Mountain View and two others — they are more likely to engage with them during high school. 

After school, students in the Safe and Sound 4 Student Success (S4) program benefit from a special combination of academic support, peer-to-peer relationship building, soccer and other enrichment activities to help students thrive in school and beyond. BEF first funded S4 nine years ago and the District recently committed additional funds to complement BEF’s ongoing commitment. The program uses the incentive of playing on a school sports team and participating in numerous after school clubs to engage the students in academic and social supports that ease the transition so middle schoolers can become successful high school students. Drama, yearbook, 3D printing and dance club are just a few of the nearly two dozen after school clubs that benefit from BEF awards. 

“We are proud to help Mountain View Middle School, and all Beaverton schools, be an enriching environment and offer positive experiences to students throughout their day,” says Kristine Baggett, BEF’s executive director. 

BEF relies on its partnerships with Beaverton educators, who come to BEF with solutions to the challenges they face. “They’re our eyes and ears in the schools, and Mountain View Middle School educators have really tapped into how BEF can help in so many ways,” says Baggett. “At Mountain View and across the District, we’re able to help schools serve students who need support, while providing opportunities for all students.”

“I love how you can express yourself through art, and my art has really grown while I’ve taken classes at school,” says Angelina Conklin, a senior at Westview High School who’s headed to Portland State University next year. 

Beaverton Education Foundation’s support for the arts in schools rallies the community so artists like Angelina have opportunities to tap into their creativity and round out their education, and have new ways to learn that keep them engaged in school. By engaging with educators and connecting with donors, BEF enables donors to make long-term investments in our students across all Beaverton schools. 

Jim Meier and Mike Herzog, both Beaverton High School alumni, first started the Herzog-Meier Senior Arts Scholarship Awards 34 years ago. Their sons Chris Meier and Tom Herzog, the current partners at Herzog-Meier Auto Center, continue the tradition and have worked closely with BEF to elevate the program. Each year, senior students from the Beaverton high schools display their work to the public in the Herzog-Meier Auto Center showroom. And this year nine students from different Beaverton high schools each received a $1,000 scholarship to help with rising education costs. 

“Sometimes things like the arts get marginalized because of the unavailability of funds. We want to support kids in Beaverton art programs and give them an incentive to continue down that track,” says Chris. “I worry that we’ll lose the artists in the world, and this is one way to inspire them to keep going.”

“It’s really powerful that BEF and these donors value the arts,” says Tamara Ottum, the Mountainside High School art teacher who directed the show at Herzog-Meier. “Sometimes we feel so spread out across Beaverton, but then you come together at an art show like this, and it gives us a real sense of community.”  

Congratulations to all the Herzog-Meier Senior Arts Scholarship Awards winners:

• Rebecca Anderson, “The Comfort of My Room”, Beaverton High School
• Angelina Conklin, “Angelina”, Westview High School
• Taylor Igarta, “Bird”, Southridge High School
• Carter Kohler, “Everything the Light Touches is Yours, The Sun Has Already Set”, Arts & Communication Magnet Academy
• Helena Lieu, “RSVP”, International School of Beaverton
• Lexi Nakamura, “Balance”, Mountainside High School
• Abby Prior, “Habits Overtaking Me”, Sunset High School
• Gabi Gonzalez Rodriguez, “Clouds”, FLEX Online
• Carmen Smith, “ADHD”, Aloha High School

The following students received special commendations for their artwork:

• Michelle Abonce, “April Calendar”, Aloha High School
• Max Acoba, “Leaky Pipes”, Mountainside High School
• Jose Alvarez, “My Animal Garden”, Arts & Communication Magnet Academy
• Joyce Chen, “Childhood Amnesia”, Sunset High School
• Joyce Chen, “The Devil Whispered in My Ear”, Sunset High School
• Bryce Dahlgren, “Phil”, Mountainside High School
• Olivia Erickson, “Pomegranate”, Sunset High School
• Lexi Kahlhamer, “Turbulent Thinking”, Mountainside High School
• Courtney Karreman, “Bleeding Love,” Arts & Communication Magnet Academy
• Sadie Layman, “Plant Collection”, Southridge High School
• Kyra Mitch, “3y3”, Arts & Communication Magnet Academy
• Elena Orwick, “Patchwork Theory”, Mountainside High School
• Naue Pagtakhan, “Sliver of Light”, Beaverton High School
• Teresa Pham, “Controlled by the Wires”, Westview High School
• Zoe Pruitt, “Pants on Water”, Southridge High School
• Shaun Puthuparambil, “Untitled”, Westview High School
• Anna Scherer, “Almost”, Beaverton High School
• Nina Takahashi, “Compulsions”, Southridge High School
• Alesya Zaytseva, “Cursed Cat Coffeehouse Poster”, International School of Beaverton
• Audrey Zhao, “Focus”, Westview High School

You can provide opportunities for expression and creative spaces to build problem-solving skills at all Beaverton schools. Support BEF’s arts and music programs today.