The Shikhar & Kristin Saxena Foundation is committed to improving the way children in our community are educated. We believe in supporting innovation in teaching and exploring new ways to help children reach their full potential. New research and theories in education indicate that traditional teaching practices may not always be the most effective way to help students master important concepts and skills. Classroom teachers experience first-hand the limitations of these models and can offer invaluable insight into effective changes that can be implemented.

We aim to assist in creating an education system that breeds new types of thinking, opportunities for mastery of material, and excitement for learning. This can only be achieved in an environment where educators are allowed to explore new ideas, experiment, and use measurable performance indicators to determine the relative success of their efforts. It is our hope that innovative educators can provide data that may serve as a proof of concept for new methods and modalities of teaching.

For this reason we are extremely excited to be partnering with Brownell Talbot School to offer an Education Innovation Grant. Brownell Talbot is Nebraska’s only private, independent school serving students in preschool through grade 12. Their independent status provides Brownell with a unique opportunity to implement new programs in a timely manner. The purpose of this grant is to provide funds for teachers at Brownell Talbot seeking to implement innovative strategies in their classroom for the 2021-2022 school year. We share Brownell Talbot’s mission to inspire and challenge students. We are eager to receive proposals from the teachers and are honored to have the opportunity to help bring some of these plans to fruition.