Excursion Grant Reports

Posted May 18, 2023

In Excursion Grant Program, grantmaking, PVF News

PVF’s Excursion Grant Program, funded by the Geballe Family and the Maxwell | Hanrahan Foundation, provides grants of up to $1,000 for teachers to take their students on field trips. For many students, these field trips mark the first time they are visiting a particular place, such as the beach or a museum. For many teachers, these grants allow them to teach beyond the restrictions of the classroom.

These grants are gone almost as soon as they are available, often with funding being exhausted within a month or two. This speaks to both the dedication of public school teachers and the need for funding that is often not available for field trips in the public school system.

Below, we have compiled a few quotes from Excursion Grant recipients who reported back to us about the impact of the program:

“My class and I would like to thank the Foundation for providing us the opportunity to go to and explore the California Academy of Sciences this school year. The students had so much fun walking through the living rainforest and actually experiencing tropical climate. They were also very intrigued my all of the species found in the aquarium. I think the biggest surprise and coolest thing they learned was that there are penguins in Africa! Thanks to the generosity of the foundation, my class was able to experience science in a fun and hands-on way.” – Alexandra Leonardo, 4th Grade Teacher at E.M. Downer Elementary School

“Students at Aspire Golden State Preparatory Academy would like to show their deep gratitude with the kindness and grant provided by the Excursion Grants Program to allow the Leadership and Mentorship class to take a field trip to Alcatraz Island. The grant money helped fund tickets to Alcatraz island for each student who went. Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, the Leadership and Mentorship class have spent the year giving back to students, teachers, staff and admin by creating and planning events, such as prep rallies, lunch activities, spirit week, and many other joyful events for students to enjoy. The grant allowed our leadership team to give back to our students as a way for seniors to be able to pass the baton down to underclassmen as they will now embark on the exhilarating experience as future leaders of GSP. During the field trip, the leadership students got the opportunity to go to Alcatraz island for the first time in their life. Students were able to partake in an audio tour where they learned about the prison conditions as well the experiences in what prisoners went through. In addition to learning about the prison itself, students also learned about the native history of the land. Throughout the excursion, I was able to witness the community and bond that was and continued to be built amongst the students of the Leadership class. Thank you again for your generosity of providing our students with this opportunity.” – Jenny Sar, 9^th Grade Lead & Math Department Lead at Aspire Golden State College Preparatory Academy

“Thank you so very much for making our field trip to the Oakland Museum possible. We were a group of 31 high school seniors and 3 staff members from James Logan High School in Union City. It was a beautiful day in Oakland and they had a lot of fun. Highlights included:

“Seeing the garden and the natural sciences exhibit”
“learning so much about California”
“the spotlight on Angela Davis”
“the psychological art pieces that reflect human behaviors”
“Hung Liu which in the Gallery of California Art. Her artwork seems very inspiring as she was an Asian woman artist which I don’t often see and most of her artwork portrays things from Asian culture”

Thank you again, for your generosity to make this possible! We had an AMAZING day! I hope to make this an annual trip for my students since many have never been to a museum or to the City of Oakland. Thanks again for your support.” – Indira Chakrabarti, James Logan High School

PVF believes that students deserve to experience adventure early on in their academic careers and are proud to partner with the Geballe Family and Maxwell | Hanrahan Foundation to administer this program.