When Rachna Nath was checking emails at work one day in 2018, she found one that described how high school students could apply for grants if they came up with an innovative idea.
Intrigued by the message, Nath, who teaches science at Arizona College Prep High School, began working with students after school to invent solutions to real-world problems.
Students learned to brainstorm solutions, research existing patents, and were taught how to apply for grants to build prototypes of their new products.
What started as an after-school program for the students will become a year-long class this fall for about 30 students who are working on a variety of projects and applying for multiple patents.
Nath’s work caught the attention of the editors at TIME, who named her to the first-ever TIME Innovative Teachers project, which profiles 10 teachers who are “changing the landscape of education in America through innovation.”
As Nath notes, she never intended for the grant writing opportunity to become a program.
“I wanted my students to understand what opportunities were available to them, and I wanted them to have something that they could put onto their resume that would help them get into a good school,” she says, adding that some of her students now own their own companies.
Rath learned that she was named one of TIME’s Innovative Teachers in the same way she found out about the grant writing opportunity: through an unexpected email.
“It was a big surprise, and I was not expecting it at all until I got the email,” she says. “It feels good that my work with my students is being noticed, and I’m just blown away and am very, very grateful.”