Images from “Books Unleashed: Dialogues across Differences,” Jennifer Coreas’ literacy outreach project in El Salvador.

Goswami Action Grants for 2024-25 

BLTN awarded eight Dixie Goswami Action Grants to current and former fellows for work undertaken in the 2024-25 school year. Proposals for the 2025-26 year are being accepted until July 7, 2025.

Funded Goswami Action Grant projects:

• Fallon Abel (MA ‘19, Sharon, VT): funds for “Fostering Global Hope,” a year-long international collaboration between Vermont and Finnish high school students, empowering youth to take action to address global problems by developing and implementing community action projects (slides below);
• Derek Burtch (MA ‘19, Columbus, OH): support for Erase the Space’s work to connect students, teachers, and communities from 14 Ohio high schools in collaborative, non-competitive exchanges;
• Jennifer Coreas (MA ‘18, San Salvador, El Salvador): support for a professional development event with nearly 250 teachers from rural schools in and near Morazán, a city four hours from the capital;
• Hailey Elles (Sharon, VT): media kits for youth filmmakers’ participation in What’s the Story?: The Young Filmmakers’ Social Action Team;
• Bobby Harley (Gastonia, NC): collaboration with two students to develop and record a hip-hop musical based on the life of Frederick Douglass;
• Kayla Hostetler (MA ‘24, Aiken, SC): funds to host the Anne Frank Center’s traveling exhibit visit to Aiken and for students to create a similar exhibit featuring local oral histories;
• Marianela Rivera (MA ‘24, Lawrence, MA): funds to support a collection of nonfiction stories that highlight the work Lawrence educators and students do to impact social change; 
• Mohsin Tejani (MA ‘21, Karachi, Pakistan): support for six teams of teachers to learn to deliver “Family Literacy Nights” at their schools in Karachi.

Slides by Fallon Abel. View them in larger format, with links.

Change Action Grants for 2024-25

Also for the 2024-25 school year, BLSE and BLTN offered nine Change Action Grants for work supporting the goals of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation.

Funded Change Action Grant projects:

• Mackensi Crenshaw (Louisville, KY): A project cultivating oral histories in collaboration with Middlebury College’s Beyond the Page actors;
• Jennifer Coreas (San Salvador, El Salvador): “Tirando la biblio por la ventana: Diálogos por sobre las diferencias” (“Books Unleashed: Dialogues across Differences”), a week of literacy activities engaging stakeholders in 35 public schools;
• Hailey Elles (Sharon, VT): Food for a literacy night with Kenneth Caddow, author of Gather;
• Bobby Harley, (Gastonia, NC): Media kits for participation in What’s the Story: The Young Filmmakers’ Social Action Team;
• Rabiah Khalil (Singapore): “Re-futuring Dystopia,” a collaboration between school colleagues and Beyond the Page (BtP) to facilitate student story creation through embodiment, writing, and performance; 
• Mimi Marstaller (Lewiston, ME): A project welcoming newly arrived immigrant students to Maine;
• Susan Miera (Santa Fe, NM): Support for student-led, culturally focused writing workshops and Senior Honors projects;
• Marianela Rivera (Lowell, MA): Publication of an anthology of Andover Bread Loaf and BLTN educators’ writing; 
• Alex O’Brien (S. Burlington, VT): An advisory council to improve the school district’s support of multilingual student and family needs.

Mimi Marstaller’s newcomer students in Lewiston, ME get to know their community by documenting their field trips to helpful community organizations.