Plainfield South High School 2025 graduate Elaina Poston is one of five people nationwide to receive a GritGrant.
Poston’s former teacher, Breanna Roti, nominated her for the grant. Poston was on one of the high school’s INCubator team, whose startup, Essentially Fresh, won the district’s inaugural Entrepreneurial Student Pitch Night on May 6.
The GritGrant, sponsored by Uncharted Learning a
nd The McKenzie Foundation, rewards students for showing grit like resilience and focus, and character traits such as kindness and discipline.
“Elaina has a powerful combination of passion, perseverance, and never quit attitude,” Roti said in her nomination letter.
She was motivated and inspired by the program and her peers to commit fully to the work on Essentially Fresh, Roti said.
Roti leads the INCubator classes at PSHS. The INCubator entrepreneurial classes were launched in August 2024 at District 202’s four high schools.
Poston, now a freshman at the University of Kansas, learned she won the grant this summer when she attended an INCubator conference to support a different PSHS team.
The grant founder, James McKenzie, announced the winners by putting their photos up on the big screen during the conference.
“I was very emotional,” she said of seeing her photo among the winners.
INCubatoredu is a national program that provides specialized curriculum to hundreds of member schools in more than a dozen states.
The program provides online instruction materials, consultation on how the classroom is designed, a coaching and mentoring framework and professional development resources for the year-long course.
McKenzie presented the trophy and a $2,500 check to Poston on December 16, in the PSHS INCubator classroom in front of family, administration, and current INCubator students.
Poston encouraged current students to keep working in the class and that hard work will pay off later.
“Never give up. I know it sounds cringy, it sounds cheesy but everything you do is going to go unrecognized, and you may feel like no one is appreciative of all your hard work and efforts,” she said during the presentation on December 16.
“It’s important you keep putting in your all into everything because one day someone is going to recognize it and appreciate all you do.”
Poston is the first District 202 student to win this grant.
