Nissan has again supported local education by giving $50,000 to be used in the Business Education Partnership (BEP) mini-grant program. 

“We are proud to be able to provide mini-grants to teachers for up to $500 for their classrooms, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Nissan Foundation,” said Lee Rennick, Executive Director of the BEP Foundation, which coordinates the grant program. “It is thanks to this long-standing partnership with Nissan over the past 22 years that we have been able to enrich the learning experience of almost one million children.”

BEP/Nissan Teacher Mini Grants are given to K-12 teachers from Murfreesboro City and Rutherford County school systems to be used in their classrooms to enhance curriculum and to tie what is being learned in school to student’s everyday lives and possible careers. 

At Christiana Elementary School kindergarten students will not just be playing fairy princess or cowboy any more. Thanks to a BEP/Nissan Teacher Mini-Grant received at the semi-annual awards breakfast which took place recently at Stones River County Club, these students will have play boxes containing cross-curriculum, hands-on activities where they can explore world cultures, learn about careers and communities, and find out about nutrition. At Scales Elementary, Tim Jones’ sixth grade classroom will be studying Green Power by conducting experiments that compare and contrast energy sources like fossil fuel and solar power.

Vicki Smith, Nissan North America Senior Manager over Corporate Social Responsibility, and Dr. James Burton, a Business Education Partnership Foundation of Rutherford County (BEP) executive board member and dean of the Jennings A. Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University, handed out the certificates and grant monies to the Fall 2012 grant recipients.