(ABC 6 News) – Debra Las from John Adams Middle School is being awarded a grant by the Society for Science, a Washington D.C. based nonprofit dedicated to helping the advancement of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Las earned the award based on her dedication to STEM learning.

Lass runs a STEM mentoring lab after school where students get to work on their own science projects with the help of volunteers from Mayo Clinic’s Biomedical Graduate School.

Oraculi, a local nonprofit, helps make the lab possible both in recruiting mentors as well as financially supporting students for science competitions. Las shares one of the reason why this grant is so important.

“For some kids, they don’t have a stem professional in their lives, and so we want to give them those opportunities.”

Out of the entire country, 41 teachers were chosen and a total of $110,000 was granted nationwide.