But to Bliss Browne, it is enough to kick-start a world of ideas that will make some schools--and the city, by extension--a better place.

Browne heads the United Imagination Network, a collective of five elementary schools and one high school that will get a $25,000 grant from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an educational reform initiative sponsored by philanthropist Walter Annenberg.

The network is one of 35 clusters of schools in the city and their community-based partners to receive the first installment of a nearly $50 million grant designed to improve the learning process for students and teachers in inner-city schools.