THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University’s graduate schools have received $200,000 in gifts to expand a successful teaching program and launch an accounting lecture series.

The estate of the late CLU alumna and former teacher Susan E. Price donated $150,000 to the Graduate School of Education to expand its pilot program for using drama techniques as a teaching strategy in all subject areas in the Moorpark Unified School District. CLU’s Department of Teacher Education will now take the new Susan Greiser Price Arts Integration Program to other school districts throughout the region and incorporate music, art and dance as well.

Sixty teachers are currently using the Project ACT (Active, Collaborative, Transformative) approach in six elementary schools. Students learn about various subjects and demonstrate their understanding through theater games, creative dramatics, drama enactments and process drama.

Initial results show that student achievement, measured by grades, has improved. English learners are more engaged, teachers are reenergized and CLU teacher candidates and undergraduate interns involved in the program are developing a better understanding of the teaching and learning process.

Project ACT was originally funded for four years by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The new endowed gift will provide annual funding for training additional teachers, teacher candidates and undergraduate interns.

Price earned a bachelor’s degree in drama from CLU in 1966 and went on to teach elementary school for more than 30 years in Camarillo, Saugus and Green Bay, Wis. She was passionate about the integration of arts into the curriculum.

The estate of Ernest A. Alne donated $50,000 to the School of Management for a new accounting lecture series. The Ernest A. Alne Accounting Lectureship will enable School of Management faculty and Accounting Club students to invite notable business and accounting professionals to share their insights on the latest business and accounting practices, standards and issues with students, alumni, professionals and the public. CLU may use part of the grant to host a foreign visiting scholar in spring.

A retired accounting executive and member of the American Institute of CPAs, Alne served on CLU’s Board of Regents, Convocation and California Lutheran Educational Foundation Board.