About Us

Project SEED has been instrumental in the lives of its students and classroom teachers. Here are some of their stories.

• Tiffany K. Girard, Parent of Former Project SEED student
  
  “I wanted to take a moment to thank the providers and supporters of Project SEED. My family relocated back to Michigan this year from Indianapolis, Indiana last year where my son was blessed with the opportunity to participate in Project SEED. I am saddened to discover that while you are able to offer your program in Michigan, currently, only one school district in the entire state is able to benefit from the empowering, exciting program that has the ability to turn a young mind on to advanced math for the first time, and engender a love of mathematics even for a child who otherwise struggled with basic math functions and a growing resentment toward the subject … like my son.
  
  My child who is now in the six grade found his first academic love in the third grade within Project SEED. If your program were offered in any area feasible for us to move to, we would move just so he could again experience this level of success and joy in such a valuable area of learning. You see, my son, who is gifted, now reads at the “beyond high school” level, and is somewhat advanced in math problem solving, is also learning challenged. … In a sentence, the mechanics of Project Seed speak best to the way my son learns best. …
  
  From K-4th, my son went to the most highly sought after public school in Indianapolis - an IB magnet school ranked number one in the country in 2011- and went briefly to the 2nd highest scoring public school in the state before relocating back to Michigan, and If you ask him today, as I did just yesterday, almost two years after his last Project SEED class what he is most looking for in a school program, he will tell you, ‘one that has Project SEED in it.’
  
  For my son, for all the sons and daughters in Michigan schools who deserve to be inspired by the unique joy your program brings in such a vital subject area, it is my sincere hope and prayer that your program will be allowed to expand into many, many other school districts … Math is the gateway to so many essential fields like medicine, engineering, science, entrepreneurship, etc. and I’ve seen firsthand that Project SEED is the vehicle to get so many more of our children on the path to professions which will help grow our state’s economy and strengthen our students’ academic careers, both of which are much needed in Michigan and throughout our country. My only other wish would be to have other academic subjects incorporate your ingredients to successful, joyful, active learning.”

• Demarron Berkeley, former SEED student, Attorney

  “My strongest memories about Project SEED, and the excitement we had whenever it was a SEED day, we all got really excited about math and learning new things. I developed a love of learning—it made me want to go outside of school and investigate things. It oriented my approach to learning where I took more ownership of it. I developed a lot of confidence—even to challenge a teacher. It builds foundations for later on. I think my approach to learning and teaching is more Socratic…I try to get the students engaged like the SEED teachers did. I’m 38 now…the fact that I still remember (Project SEED) so vividly—how engaged I was—tells you the impact of Project SEED on my life and how I’ve carried it with me through the years.”

• Erica Hemphill: Former SEED Student, Current Math Teacher

  “Project SEED benefitted me personally in that it introduced me to higher-level math at an early age. It allowed me to be exposed to that math and not be afraid of it.”

• Latrina Rhinehart: 5th Grade Teacher

  “I’ve noticed because (the SEED instructor) does a lot of mental math problems, that I’m getting better at it, and so my anxiety with number sense has actually decreased because of this.”

• Susan Yerkes-Bender, Teacher

  “I learned so much as a teacher, because it had been awhile since I had watched someone use the Socratic method of teaching with a classroom. That method of querying the students to get their responses so that they come to develop their own answers and come to their own conclusions - that’s a real art! I learned a great deal as a teacher in observing another teacher do that, and then I found I was better able to use that myself.”

• 6th grade student, Compton, California
  
  “Project SEED was fun, creative, and imaginative. It helped with my math skills. I learned a whole lot more than I thought. On my bad days I would think of ditching but knew it would help so I went anyways.”