2025 Tadler Grant Awarded to Emilie Cushing
The Tadler Grant offers exceptional professional development opportunities to exemplary GUS teachers, who then apply their firsthand experiences and knowledge to the classroom. Established by former Trustee Richard Tadler and his wife Donna P ’05 ’09, the grant has provided GUS faculty members a wide range of amazing experiences from attending educational conferences to traveling to foreign countries.
This year, we are pleased to announce that the 2025 Tadler Grant has been awarded to Science Teacher Emilie Cushing. The grant will allow Ms. Cushing to travel to Hawaiʻi, where she will visit Volcanoes National Park, learn about sustainable farming practices, and, she hopes, swim with sea turtles.
“This experience promises to enrich the GUS science program by bringing to life the core themes explored in both 5th and 6th grade: the land and the people.” shared Ms. Cushing. “Witnessing active volcanoes and the living geology of Hawaiʻi will provide powerful, firsthand insight into concepts we explore in 5th grade, such as rock formation, plate tectonics, and the ‘fire-born' nature of granite – especially meaningful given that ancient volcanoes once shaped our own North Shore!”
Her direct exposure to the environment will enable her to create lessons that deepen students' understanding of the living landscape around them. Her visit will also expand the classroom’s conversations about land stewardship and human impact on the environment – themes that align with both the fifth and sixth grade science curricula.
She also hopes to deepen her understanding of Indigenous Hawaiian stewardship and knowledge systems: “This trip will strengthen our shared commitment to fostering environmental responsibility, cultural awareness, and a sense of wonder—values at the heart of the GUS mission.”
We look forward to the ways Ms. Cushing’s journey will inspire both her teaching and her students, continuing the Tadler Grant’s legacy of transforming learning through real-world experience.