The STEM Spark: Mr. Grant Money & The Girls Who Code Club
Friday, May 9 – St. Louis, MO 🇺🇸
When one teacher lit the match, he handed her the fuel.
Together, they built more than a club.
They built a movement.
One Idea, Two Rejections, Three Weeks of Silence
Three weeks.
That’s how long it had been since Ms. Jennings submitted her third mini-grant request for after-school funding.
Two rejections. One form email. One polite “we regret to inform you.”
And still—one idea she refused to let go.
She called it Spark.
Not just a coding club. A space designed for one purpose: to close the confidence gap she saw widening every semester in her own classroom.
In her 7th-grade computer science class, the boys treated Scratch and Python like a game. But the girls—bright, intuitive, just as capable—held back. Not because they didn’t care. But because they were afraid of “getting it wrong.” Afraid of not belonging.
Ms. Jennings didn’t just want to teach code.
She wanted to rewrite the script.
A Launchpad Built on Hope, Not Hardware
Spark wasn’t just a club. It was a launchpad.
A space for girls to ask questions without apology. To test, break, build, and rebuild. To explore AI and animation, HTML and hardware—without boys grabbing the mouse or dominating the demo.
But Spark needed more than vision. It needed infrastructure.
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Laptops
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Working Wi-Fi
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After-school snacks
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Guest speakers
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Mentorship
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Software licenses
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And most importantly—compensation for the hours Ms. Jennings would be putting in after the last bell, unpaid.
She wrote three grant applications. Small ones. Local ones. All came back no.
She started to wonder if Spark would have to stay a dream scribbled in her lesson plan margin.
When the Right Name Slides Across the Table
It happened during lunch duty. A fellow teacher from a neighboring district leaned over and slid her a name on a sticky note.
“Mr. Grant Money,” she whispered. “He’s not just a guy. He’s the guy.”
Ms. Jennings laughed. But she texted the number anyway.
They set a Zoom call for Friday. Between 3rd period and 4th.
She logged in from a windowless classroom, still wearing her badge, with a half-eaten granola bar beside her. He logged in from a sunlit office with color-coded binders behind him labeled ED-STEM '23, Title IV-A, and ESSER Carryovers.
Crisp navy suit. Warm tone. Clear agenda.
“You’ve got the passion,” he said. “What you need now is strategy.”
Grants That Exist—But No One Tells Teachers About
That’s when everything changed.
Mr. Grant Money laid out a roadmap no administrator had ever mentioned.
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Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment – a federal funding stream underused at the middle school level.
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University mini-grants tied to STEM equity and outreach.
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Perkins V funds – commonly thought to be for high school CTE, but eligible for middle school pre-CTE programs.
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Private STEM foundations – actively seeking programs with a mission of gender equity, innovation, and digital access.
💡 Insider Knowledge: Title IV-A funds can support coding clubs and digital learning tools—if you match your narrative to the grant language under "well-rounded education" or "safe and healthy schools."
Building a Narrative Funders Couldn’t Ignore
Together, they got to work.
They crafted a proposal that wasn’t just a request—it was a declaration. They aligned Spark with state tech literacy standards and national goals for girls in STEM.
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Statistics on female attrition in tech
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Testimonials from students
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A phased implementation calendar
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A plan for sustainability and replication
They didn’t just tell a story.
They showed a strategy.
And six weeks later, Spark was funded. Fully.
From One Spark to a Systemic Shift
The funding didn’t just buy laptops.
It covered:
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12 Chromebooks
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5 premium software licenses
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A stipend for Ms. Jennings
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Healthy snacks
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Transportation support
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3 community partnerships—like a Black women-in-tech nonprofit that sends mentors every month
By spring, Spark hosted its first hackathon—seven teams, thirty girls, and a surprise visit from a local tech CEO who offered job-shadowing to the winners.
By summer, Spark students were accepted to statewide STEM camps.
By fall, Ms. Jennings was invited to present Spark at a regional ed-tech conference.
She didn’t just get the club she imagined.
She built a program other schools now want to replicate.
The Blueprint Was There. She Just Needed the Match.
Ms. Jennings didn’t need a miracle. She needed a map.
Mr. Grant Money didn’t show up with a check and a smile.
He showed up with structure. With language. With knowledge no one had offered her in years of training.
Because passion shouldn’t be punished.
And after-school innovation shouldn’t depend on luck.
He didn’t just fund a club.
He passed a torch.
Now Spark burns bright—after the bell, after hours, after expectations.
Because one teacher had the vision.
And one grant strategist knew how to make it real.
💬 Discussion Questions
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Why are middle school girls in STEM often overlooked by funding—even as national equity initiatives grow?
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How can teachers access hidden education grants like Title IV-A or Perkins V?
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What role does storytelling and narrative strategy play in winning grants?
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Why is non-dilutive education funding (grants, not PTO or investor capital) essential for school-based equity programs?
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How can community partnerships elevate a school’s funding case and deepen impact?
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