[caption id="attachment_22858" align="alignright" width="300"]<a href="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SCHOOLS-OR-COMMUNITY-Okatie-Elem.jpg"><img class="wp-image-22858 size-medium" src="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SCHOOLS-OR-COMMUNITY-Okatie-Elem-300x238.jpg" alt="SCHOOLS OR COMMUNITY - Okatie Elem" width="300" height="238" /></a> From left to right: Jan Samuel Okatie Elementary, Peggi Martin Okatie Elementary, Ben Duncan CenturyLink Market Development Manager and Kendra Beauford CenturyLink Retail Store Consultant.[/caption]

CenturyLink Foundation recently announced the winners of the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation’s Teachers and Technology grant program. The program, which has been offered since 2008, 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.

“We were excited to see the innovation and creativity in this year’s grants applications,” said Randy Wood, CenturyLink VP of Operations for Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. “It’s encouraging to see teachers’ enthusiasm for bringing new learning tools and techniques into their classrooms, and we are pleased to be able to help expose students to more educational technology in their daily school lives.”

Okatie Elementary will receive $5,000 to provide iPads for first grade. The grant was submitted by Jan Samuel and Okatie Elementary was chosen out of more than 1,000 schools across the country who applied.