Over $7,600 in grant money supporting green campus projects has been awarded to Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district educators, the district announced Monday.
The grants are part of EcoRise, a school-based organization that aims to empower young people to take on challenges in their schools and communities by learning about sustainability, innovation and social entrepreneurship, the district said in a news release.
Teachers and librarians at the district applied for the project-based learning grants to ignite sustainability practices in students, it said.
According to the district, a dozen educators received funds for projects at 10 campuses.
Those projects include plastic waste reduction programs, outdoor eating spaces and gardening initiatives.
Denisse Ochoa, librarian for the PSJA North high school, wrote about what a combined $1,200 in grant money received by her campus will go toward.
“Our PSJA North EcoFriends are excited to have been awarded two grants by EcoRise totaling over $1,200,” she wrote. “These funds will be used to create a green wall at our library to help purify the air and to buy supplies to help clean and maintain our school gardens.”
This isn’t the first time PSJA ISD has been involved with EcoRise.
Last year two of the district’s educators were selected from a competitive pool of applicants to be EcoRise Teacher Ambassadors.
