VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Two Vigo County teachers were recipients of a Teacher Creativity Fellowship Grant through Lilly Endowment Incorporated.
104 teachers received the grant for 2024.
The program funds a renewal project for the recipients. Those projects were submitted after a lengthy and time-consuming grant-writing process. The grant was designed to help restore a commitment to the education profession while stimulating creativity which is sure to enhance the educational experience of their students.
At Lost Creek Elementary School, in the classroom with mountains painted on the windows and tents pitched for reading, you’ll find fifth-grade teacher, Kyle Kirchner.
“I have a passion in the classroom for storytelling and just hearing the stories of the kids,” he said.
That passion coupled with a love to travel inspired Mr. Kirchner’s grant application.
“My favorite part of every time that we go somewhere is the evening, of coming back, starting the campfire, sitting around, retelling the day’s adventures,” Kirchner said when reflecting on his travel adventures.
Kirchner’s project is called ‘Caravan Campfire Chronicles.’
“What campfire chronicles kind of encompasses is that storytelling and those legends and folklore,” Kirchner explained.
It’s a chance for him to experience self-renewal and adventure by visiting wild settings and landscapes within national parks and forests.
Over at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in a classroom at the top of the stairs, students are right at home surrounded by books, plants, and travel maps. There you’ll find Carlee Sluder, eighth grade Literature and Language Arts teacher. Mrs. Sluder is also a recipient of the Lilly grant.
“It’s so, so cool,” Sluder said. “It’s wonderful, I’m so happy for both of us,” she added.
Sluder said she is actually friends with the Kirchner family. They inspired her and her husband, Josh, to get a camper van of their own. Mr. Sluder, even helped them with the build-out to convert their van.
Sluder’s van was at the center of her grant proposal. “It looks ridiculous, It looks like a giant marshmallow,” she said while laughing. “Which made us love the idea to call it ‘Puft.’ For the Stay Puft Marshmallow van. My husband loves Ghost Busters.”
She said her husband, who also teaches at Wilson, helped her plan the trip of a lifetime.
“We wanted to do something that pulled what we love to do and what we love to teach all into one,” she said.
Her project titled, “I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts: A Journey into Gothic Literature’s Most Loved Legends and Lore,” is an opportunity for Sluder to gain knowledge and inspiration by visiting East Coast locations where favorite stories were written while traveling in the ‘Stay Puft Marshmallow Van.’
“Travel really does expand the mind,” she said. “It gives you the opportunity to see from so many different perspectives and opens you up to the entire world around you and we do that through reading stories together, so when we don’t have the means to travel, we can travel in our minds, but physically getting out there and traveling makes such a difference as well. So, I’m really looking forward to sharing the real-life experience that goes along with fictional experience, with my students.”
Both Sluder and Kirchner are excited about this once-in-a-lifetime experience this summer. A trip they said would take them years to save for.
As they set out on their road trips, WTWO plans to check in on their adventures across the county.
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