Published: July 05, 2008 11:31 pm      

Area business gives grant for geography studies to schools

Starting this year, local elementary and middle schools will get the chance to receive a grant to help teach one of the most overlooked subjects in schools today: geography.

Science Hill Independent School principal Rita Presley was presented with a $5,000 grant Friday from Robert Tierney, owner of HLCC Group, PLCC, based in Eubank, to help its students receive the resources necessary to learn about the world around them.

“We’re just very honored to have access to these resources,” Presley said. “We hope to use these to further our students’ interest in geography.”

The grant, called “ ... through the inquisitive mind of a child,” was established to “ensure that our local county students have the opportunity to establish and increase a good foundation in world geography, both politically and to provide a better understanding of the interconnections of people, places and environments and their impact on our students’ lives,” according to a statement released from the business.

“Geography is just so important in our lives, and it touches our lives every day,” Tierney said.

Geography was deemed a “core academic subject” by the “No Child Left behind Act,” but it is the only core subject that does not receive federal funding since NCLB went into effect in 2002.

Without the funding for resources necessary to bring geographic study to the classroom, Tierney said American students will continue to enter the world knowing less about the physical world than students in other parts of the world.

“Let’s get rid of the ignorance,” he said.

The grant will go toward resource materials from the National Geographic Society, the Education Network, lesson materials and classroom maps, library materials such as atlases and travel expenses for trips to the annual National geographic Conference or tuition for university geography courses or online geography courses from an accredited university to be approved by HLCC Group, PLLC.

Every school that receives the grant is also required to hold a “geography bee” before the end of the school year.

Tierney said he decided to establish the grant after he met Madison Barker, a Science Hill Student who conveyed her love of rocks and types of money from different areas of the world.

Calling Madison a “wonderfully inquisitive” young girl, Tierney thanked her and her mother Michelle Barker for being the inspiration for the grant.

National Geographic Organization representative Ginny Hammock was on hand for the presentation, and she said the non-profit organization was honored to be included in the event.

“If children don’t know where they are, they don’t have a clue what’s around them,” she said.

Tierney said he hopes this year’s presentation of the first “ ... through the inquisitive mind of a child” grant ever given will start a trend of local businesses taking steps to ensure their local public schools reach their students in any way they can.

“We just hope other small businesses will realize they should have a duty and commitment to their community,” he said.

Tierney said he hopes the grant will reach children who may realize through their studies that they have a love for the physical world and its peoples and a love for travel, as he himself developed.

“Geography was always one thing that captured my mind,” he said.

The grant is available to elementary and middle schools in Pulaski and Lincoln counties.