Helping Teachers and Showing Love Through Crayons
As the days shorten and the morning air holds a hint of fall, recent graduates from Cedarville University’s School of Education and Social Work class of 2025 are back in the classroom — but no longer as students.
As the days shorten and the morning air holds a hint of fall, recent graduates from Cedarville University’s School of Education and Social Work class of 2025 are back in the classroom — but no longer as students. This year, they started teaching in classrooms of their own.
As first-year teachers, these 2025 graduates faced the pressure of equipping their classrooms with the necessary supplies — resources that can easily cost over $1,000. But this year, Cedarville University partnered with , a nonprofit teacher resource center in Dayton, Ohio, to host the First-Year Teacher Shop program. This event provided classroom supplies to Cedarville’s newly minted teachers at no cost.
Malena Ball, a 2022 communication graduate from Cedarville, works as the marketing coordinator at Crayons to Classrooms and initiated the partnership with Cedarville University.
“We believe that first-year teachers should feel excited and energized for their first class. They should be preparing themselves for this new adventure! We at Crayons to Classrooms aim to ease the financial burden placed on them,” said Ball.
, associate professor of education, and 12 new teachers from the university attended the event. The first-year teachers reconnected with their former professor and loaded their shopping carts with classroom supplies at no cost.
Crayons to Classrooms serves teachers who work in low-income school districts, and many of these first-year teachers will face situations where their students will not have the supplies they need. Their students could come to school without a backpack or with a pencil but nothing to write on.
“Students need tools for success,” said Ball. “It is distracting and difficult to educate when the students do not have the physical resources to complete assignments or to learn.”
Avery Jackson, a first-year kindergarten teacher at , had the privilege of attending the event. “Shopping at Crayons to Classrooms gave me so many supplies, some that I never knew I needed,” said Jackson. “Their mission has allowed me to create a classroom atmosphere where my students can learn and grow and ensure that they always have what they need.”
“Relationships that teachers build with students are so important. Students will never ask you about your faith unless they trust you,” said Brown. “Students need to know that you care about them beyond two plus two or the Pythagorean theorem. Care comes from having an extra backpack when their strap breaks. Or from having a band-aid when they scrape their knee. Teachers need to show Christ and his love to their students.”
Thanks to the efforts of Ball and Brown, the First-Year Teacher Shop program donated over $15,600 in classroom supplies to the 12 Cedarville alumni who attended.
Moving forward, they plan to transition the annual event into one that includes more faculty and recently graduated students. They also hope to continue the partnership by allowing undergraduate students in Cedarville’s program to volunteer with Crayons to Classrooms. In this way, students can support the nonprofit’s ministry before Crayons to Classrooms gives back to them after graduation.
Cedarville University, an evangelical Christian institution in southwest Ohio, offers undergraduate and graduate residential and online programs across arts, sciences and professional fields. With 7,625 students, it ranks among Ohio's largest private universities and is recognized by The Wall Street Journal as being among the nation’s top three evangelical universities. Cedarville is also known for its vibrant Christian community, challenging academics and high graduation and retention rates. Learn more at cedarville.edu. &Բ;