FROM as early as 12 years old, Michelle Lewis knew she had a passion for teaching with an objective to nurture and motivate young minds. Lewis now lives her passion, serving as a teacher at Water Valley Primary School for the last 17 years.

She is known by her students, past and present, as a teacher who greets students with a warm smile, and who has a firm, no-nonsense work attitude. Her objective is to see her students, especially the boys, do well.

In 2013 Lewis — then a grade four teacher — saw that the boys were lagging behind the girls in their academic performance.

She told the Jamaica Observer that she tried everything to get improvements in their performance, but nothing seemed to be working. “It bothered me a lot and it caused my brain to work overtime to see how this could be addressed,” Lewis said.

Then, she reached out to her male students to ask what she could do to push them to improve.

“I asked them what could help to motivate them to perform better in their schoolwork and one boy responded, ‘money miss’.

The teacher took this into consideration, even as she encouraged those boys to work harder.

As those boys moved from grade four into grades five and six, Lewis closely monitored the progress as she tried to motivate them.

During discussions with her husband about how to motivate the boys, the Lewis Foundation was conceptualised.

The couple decided that the foundation would reward boys who achieved an average of 70 per cent or more.

Those boys, who were now sixth graders, would become the first recipients, which was initially financed through the profits from cane and seasonal fruits that Lewis sold.

“I sold small cane bags for $30 and fruits once they were available. The profit was small, but as the saying goes, every mikkle makes a muckle. I used the money from that to put in a small pardner plan to fund the cause,” said Lewis.

In the first year only four boys had reached the 70 per cent or more target, and the money earned by the foundation was shared among them.

The following year the number of boys meeting the threshold increased, and the foundation decided that the boy with the highest average would receiving $10,000; the one with the second highest average received $8,000; while the third-place finisher was given $6,000.

Since then several boys have achieved and bettered the 70 per cent mark and Lewis said with the foundation now in its 12th year, the plan is to set the bar higher.

“My husband and I hope that for this year a boy will achieve an average of 90 and over and raise the reward money a little more,” Lewis said.