On Thursday, April 4, English teacher Jeanne Hanigan opened an early morning email announcing that she had received a national Fund For Teachers grant. Hanigan joked, “I thought celebrating my birthday during spring break was the best present; this surprise thrilled me even more.”

As a newly appointed Fund For Teachers Fellow, she will participate in a workshop in Spain and also visit a sister Jesuit school there (Jesuits Sarrià – Sant Ignasi).  As her project abstract indicates, Hanigan will “attend the Creativity Workshop in Barcelona to learn ways of incorporating more creativity in the classroom, provide students new outlets of expression, and navigate connections for a global scholars program.”

Hanigan explained, “I will leave for Spain right after school gets out in June. I can’t wait to share with our school all that I learn…and then return to encourage other colleagues interested in creating their own personal development grant applications.”

Hanigan’s project is one of 277 grants funded this year. (Click here to see the 2024 Fund for Teachers fellow and their projects.) It took her four years to secure a FFT grant. She persevered even after Covid hit and the creativity workshops were not offered internationally. She also sought grant application feedback from former FFT staff members and former FFT recipients.

She attributes her successful proposal to the assistance of those peers and the tenacity she possessed. “I told my classes about the process — the rough draft writing, the initial rejections, the arduous rewriting, and the eventual approval. I want my students to know that even in the professional world you continue learning and growing – even after high school and college.”

Hanigan has not been back to Barcelona since she studied in France in 1986 and vacationed in Spain. Hanigan admits, “I need to brush up on my Spanish (which I studied as a high school student). Overall, I am excited, but a bit anxious, too.  I am also humbled to be a part of the 2024 Fund for Teachers fellows cohort and, of course, this Bellarmine community.”