Mary Lingberg - St. Michael School Receive Century Link Technology Grant

KELO TV interviews Mary Lingberg, 5th grade teacher at St. Michael School, Sioux Falls about $5,000 grant she wrote to upgrade school's technology.


St. Michael Catholic School wins $5,000 grant from the CenturyLink Foundation for innovative technology project.

MaryGrant01 460
Mary Lingberg receives $5,000 Grant Check on behalf of
St. Michael School from Rachel Woodman of CenturyLink

CenturyLink, Inc. in partnership with the South Dakota Department of Education, today announced a winner of the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation’s Teachers and Technology grant program at St. Michael School during a school assembly.  The program awards grants to schools in CenturyLink’s local service areas on behalf of teachers who have developed specific plans to innovatively implement technology in their classrooms.

St. Michael School was awarded $5,000 to purchase 14 ASUS Transformer book units for a Colonial Chronicles project that will impact 30 students.  Teacher Mary Lingberg submitted the project through a blind grant proposal.

The school’s current computer lab is utilized daily for scheduled computer classes, math fact practice and online testing for reading.  The ASUS units will be used as part of a mobile lab which will allow greater access to technology.

“With the availability of a mobile lab, teachers will be able to schedule times to bring the lab to their classrooms to work on 21st century learning projects,” said Lingberg in the grant proposal. 

AsusComp 400One learning project will be The Colonial Chronicles, a newspaper writing project as a culmination to Lingberg’s American Revolution unit.

“We were excited to see the innovation and creativity in this year’s grant applications,” said Julie Darrington, CenturyLink vice president of operations for North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.  “It’s encouraging to see teachers’ enthusiasm for bringing new learning tools and techiques into their classrooms, and we are pleased to be able to help expose students to more educational technology in their daily lives.”

Across the country, more than 1,000 grant applications were received.  In South Dakota nearly 30 teachers applied, with two winning schools selected by a review committee comprised of DOE members, previous winners, community members and CenturyLink representatives.