Last summer with a Fund for Teaches grant, Dr. Shelina Warren and four peers from Dunbar High School in Washington DC embarked on a journey across five states in the Deep South to more effectively teach complex and accurate historical narratives about race, civil rights, and the African American experience. In advance of Martin Luther King Day, we reached out to Shelina to learn more about their experiences and how students are learning differently as a result… 

You saw/experienced/internalized so much history on your fellowship. Is there one moment that stands out above the others? 

One of the most profound moments of the fellowship was standing inside the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, at the exact site where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life. The emotional weight of being in that space was unexpectedly similar to what I felt days later in Mississippi—standing in the courthouse where Emmett Till’s killers were acquitted and near the river where his body was found. 

In both places, I felt the same question pressing in on me: 
How do we teach students not only what happened, but how people responded—and what those responses demand of us today? 

That question is at the heart of what I was trying to solve through writing and receiving this fellowship. 

And what were you trying to solve? 

Before the fellowship, my students could name incidents of racial violence—Martin Luther King, Jr., George Floyd, Breonna Taylor—but they struggled to articulate: 

• How people responded in those moments; 

• Why those responses mattered; and, 

• What choices they themselves are inheriting today 

A pre-survey I administered at the start of my Emmett Till unit confirmed this gap: 

• While students expressed strong emotional reactions to racial violence, many lacked confidence in explaining historical responses beyond protests or anger. 

• More than 80% of students indicated that primary sources, real locations, and personal narratives helped them understand people’s choices more than textbooks alone. 

• Nearly all students said they believe their responsibility today is to speak up when we see injustice, but many were unsure how to do so meaningfully. 

The fellowship helped me realize that place-based learning—standing where history happened—is essential to bridging that gap. 

How is your fellowship’s place-based learning informing students in the various classes you teach? 

I am currently teaching a mini-unit on Emmett Till grounded directly in the fellowship experience, which specifically features high school curriculum activities and resources I received from the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and Facing History & Ourselves. Students are engaging with: 

• Photos and videos I captured at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, courthouse, barn, and river as primary sources; 

• Documentary clips and insights shared by scholar Ben Saulsberry; 

• Comparative inquiry connecting Emmett Till’s murder to Dr. King’s assassination and contemporary racial violence; and, 

• Structured discussions centered on the essential question: 
  As we pursue racial justice today, what can be learned from the choices people have made in response to racial violence in the past? 

“Seeing the real places where Emmett Till’s story happened made it feel real in a way textbooks never did. It made me think about what I would have done then—and what I should do now.” — Dunbar High School Law & Public Policy student 

Alongside this unit, I am developing: 

• A student-created video project modeled after the National Civil Rights Museum introductory film, highlighting the legacy of our Law & Public Policy Academy 

• Podcast episodes that weave together fellowship sites, including an on-location sound bite recorded outside Dooky Chase’s Restaurant—a historic civil rights strategy space 

• A classroom Matter of Law panel series inspired by the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, where students examine court cases and consider legal vs. moral justice 

With two decades of teaching and a Ph.D. in Urban Leadership, is there anything new that you learned on this fellowship? 

Visiting Dr. King’s childhood home, final resting place, and the King Center in Atlanta helped me more fully understand the arc of his life—not just his death. Seeing where he was raised, where his ideas were nurtured, and where his legacy is preserved allowed me to teach him not only as a martyr, but as a strategist, organizer, and human being. 

At the National Civil Rights Museum, I also learned the origins of the phrase Speaking Truth to Power through Bayard Rustin’s work. That learning reshaped how I frame activism for students—helping them see that justice requires both legal change and personal transformation. 

One quote from Studio BE in New Orleans captured this tension perfectly: 
“How do you look terror in the face and still muster the courage to love?” 

That question now anchors my classroom. Love, I tell my students, is not passive—it is a deliberate act of resistance, one Dr. King embodied fully. 

I’m extending our fellowship’s beyond my students and me through: 

• Podcast episodes shared with families and the community 

• Ongoing conversations with colleagues about replicating place-based learning locally 

• An upcoming Humanities Circle presentation where I will share my Emmett Till unit and fellowship-based strategies 

The recent CBS Sunday Morning update about preserving the Emmett Till barn—and Shonda Rhimes’ continued support—only reaffirmed why access to these sites matters. Memory is fragile. Place helps protect it. 

At the heart of this fellowship is the belief that guides my work: So that others may learn. This experience strengthened my commitment to teaching truthfully, lovingly, and courageously, and to helping students understand that their responses to injustice matter. 

Four Native American tribes once inhabited the territory that now comprises Tulsa, OK, where students of Rachel Langley and Jesse Wren attend school. Additionally, one-third of their students are descendants of Tribal Peoples. But how does one teach elementary students about complex topics such as land rights and Tribal sovereignty? Jesse and Rachel chose to learn from a community (and state) that’s made great strides to reclaim their own indigenous heritage – Hawaii. 

The Fellow team wrote in their 2025 grant proposal: “Late in the 20th Century, Hawaii began a ‘Cultural Renaissance’ with a focus on preserving what had been lost. This Hawaiian story parallels the history of Oklahoma…By using the stories of others, students will be able to make connections and draw comparisons that will allow them to make decisions that will impact their own community. As Tulsa tries to reconnect to its roots in Native culture, students can use the examples from Hawaii to deepen their understanding of what it means to preserve culture without losing its authenticity.” 

What that meant for Rachel and Jesse was researching Hawaiian traditions and history while experiencing that unique ecosystem to create interdisciplinary projects exploring cultural preservation of Oklahoma’s Native American communities. 

“Convincing our selection committee of a teacher’s need to learn in tropical sites like Hawaii is a tough sell,” said Karen Eckhoff, Fund for Teachers executive director. “These teachers made it clear that, for them, Hawaii wasn’t a vacation, but a necessary destination to deepen students’ cultural competency, awareness and appreciation.” 

Rachel felt this, both in the writing and pursuit of their fellowship. 

“Planning an educational experience to a tourist destination is difficult,” she said. “Even with the research we did prior to our adventure, we found that many itinerary spots had been westernized. (One person used the term “Disney-d.”) I soon discovered that my best experiences came from the people I met along the way. Once we explained that we were teachers looking at what it means to reclaim indigenous culture, people were more than willing to share their history, struggles, and stories.” 

Instead of staying at a resort, Jesse and Rachel stayed in private residences. They avoided tourist sites in favor of learning led by Indigenous Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people. Exploring Hawaii’s Plantation Village offered insight into the lives of diverse Indigenous groups who contributed to Hawaii’s sugar industry from 1850–1950 and provided a lens for discussing themes like cultural adaptation, labor history, and social equity. Service learning came in the form of volunteering at the He’eia Fishpond, a cultural site lost to large corporate farming practices for sugar and pineapple and now being reclaimed as a touchstone of Hawaiian heritage.  

“Volunteering with Paepae o He’eia to restore the ancient He’eia Fishpond was transformative,” said Jesse. “The hands-on work tied to cultural preservation deepened my understanding of ecological and Indigenous restoration. Another powerful moment came from sailing with a Native Hawaiian family, where we prepared food, heard oral legends, and joined a sunset ceremony. Both experiences showed that true learning begins with respect, relationships, and community-rooted knowledge.”

Rachel and Jesse are now intent on translating their experiential learning to students in multiple ways, starting with their 120-acre school campus. Collaborating with an Ohio classroom through the National Air and Space Museum’s Teacher Innovator Institute, students are applying the design cycle to reimagine their own school grounds as spaces for inquiry, collaboration, and cultural storytelling. The school in Ohio is contributing ecological expertise, and our school is sharing Indigenous perspectives on honoring the land. “Through data collection, podcasting, and cross-campus consulting, students are becoming both designers and stewards while discovering that outdoor learning is not just about science. It’s about identity, belonging, and respect for the places we inhabit,” said Jesse. 

“This exchange continues the spirit of our Hawaiian fellowship,” continued Jesse, “connecting young people to the land and to one another through creativity, cultural understanding, and hands-on environmental learning. It also demonstrates how lessons rooted in Indigenous wisdom can shape not just classrooms, but the way future generations imagine and care for their world.” 

Students of Washington D.C.’s Dunbar High School walk in the footsteps of trailblazers such as the first Black graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the first Black U.S. Senator elected by a popular vote, and the head academic researcher on Brown v. The Board of Education. Established in 1870 as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth and eponymously named in 1916 for the celebrated poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, the school remains the first and oldest public high school for Black students.

Considering this distinctive history, school officials chose to center student learning around Sankofa, a principle derived from the Akan people of Ghana signifying the primacy of remembering the past to make positive progress in the future. And these students’ future is informed by four teachers who joined together to craft a Fund for Teachers fellowship researching the African American experience across five states in the Deep South.

“Collectively, based on student townhalls, class discussions, and private conversations with students, our students seem disconnected from society in that they feel that, as teenagers, they can’t make a difference in society or that their voice doesn’t matter, which directly connects to our school’s values of activism and pride,” wrote team leader Dr. Shelina Warren in her grant proposal. “More importantly, our students’ lack of historical context helps play a considerable role in this disconnect, as they see the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s as a study of long-ago history, distancing the powerful movement from contemporary struggles. Sadly, many of our African American students, as well as our ELL students, do not know much about African American history.”

The team’s itinerary included stops at historically-relevant sites, such as the home of Medgar Evers, the National Center for Civil & Human Rights in Atlanta, and 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Less prominent locations holding equal significance were the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in the Mississippi Delta, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery and TEP Center in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward where they met Dr. Leona Tate, who – with two other six-year-old girls – integrated their elementary school an hour before Ruby Bridges did the same across town.

Their fellowship ran the gamut of emotions, from experiencing the story of slavery at the Whitney Plantation outside of New Orleans to later that day taking a walking tour of Tremé within the city. “Teachers from the first Black high school in the Unites States exploring the first Black neighborhood in the United States – so powerful!” said Dr. Warren.

“Experiential learning opportunities such as those provided by the Fund for Teachers fellowship are so beneficial for students,” said DCPS Chancellor, Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee. “We’re proud of how Dr. Warren and her social studies team at Dunbar make connections for students with a real-life history lesson—imparting knowledge through tours of renowned civil rights landmarks across the South.”

Two quotes seemed to epitomize this fellowship for the team: One explained in a museum and another found in a contemporary painting hanging in a gallery.

“I’ve always used the phrase ‘Speaking Truth to Power.’ but I never knew where it came from until visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis,” said Dr. Warren. “They had an exhibit there on the originator of this phrase, Bayard Rustin, who used these words to explain that justice requires both legal change and personal transformation.”

The second quote, painted on the side of an art studio in New Orleans, captured how Dr. Warren plans to use new insights and experiences going forward in the classroom.

“’How do you look terror in the face and still muster the courage to love’ was a quote featured on a piece of art in a New Orleans’ gallery. It resonated with me because it shows that resistance is a form of power, and love is a tool used by activists before me to fight terror. In my way, I responded to this quote by writing this grant, exposing my students to educational opportunities, and being a lifelong learner. My motto is ‘so that others may learn,’ which shows my passion for education & love for my people.”

The town of Roseburg, Oregon has a few notable distinctions – the subject of the Johnny Cash song “Lumberjack” and home to a pack of feral angora goats that predicted weather in the 1980s – but a diverse demographic is not among them. The county seat is 91% white and the students at Roseburg High School mirror that statistic. In this homogeneous milieu, social studies teacher (and Roseburg native) Ashley Painter was tasked with crafting Music History and Native American Studies courses, she used Fund for Teachers to orchestrate it. 

“My $5,000 grant funded a road-trip focusing on historic sites in America’s South and Midwest that highlight Civil Rights, Native American, and musical history,” said Ashley. “While my motivation for this fellowship came from a passionate and emotional appreciation for these cultures and historical content areas, there are also several new standards in Oregon that this project helped several courses meet.” 

On the road, she toured the Greenwood Rising Museum & Black Wall Street History Center in Tulsa when documenting country music. She walked around Whitney Plantation and Congo Square while seeking out jazz history in New Orleans.

She crossed the Alabama River on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and toured the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. She stopped at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Medgar Evers’ home while following the Mississippi Blues Trail and visited the Delta Blues Museum and the legendary Crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

In Georgia, she sat at a lunch counter sit-in simulator at Atlanta’s Museum for Civil and Human Rights when researching the roots of rock and roll. And in Tennessee, she stood reverently outside the Lorraine Hotel after touring the Blues Hall of Fame and Sun Records (recording studio of such icons as BB King and Elvis Presley) in Memphis before taking the stage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and making a pilgrimage to the Woolworth’s on 5th.  

Ashley rounded out the odyssey with visits to The Museum at Bethel Woods and Max Yasgur’s Farm, the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; Detroit, the Home of Motown; and Chicago’s DuSable Black History Museum, Ida B. Wells House, Monument to the Great Northern Migration, and Chess Records. 

Artifacts and experiences gathered on her 10,000 mile/six-week journey now inform the majority of her Music History course, which focuses on US history from the mid-1800s through the 1990s and how music reflected and influenced current events of the day. So far this semester, students have been decoding spirituals. Ashley learned about Underground Railroad codes embedded in quilts and spirituals at Slave Haven in Memphis, where she sang “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” with the other visitors, and was led to a small compartment under the house where people seeking their freedom hid more than 150 years ago. 

“I aim for my emotion and experience to be funneled through my teaching to inspire my students to move beyond being knowledgeable, and to work for change in how they treat others and inspire other people to do the same, to travel and move beyond our state that so few of them have left, to find interest in other cultures and histories, and to yearn for knowledge throughout their lives,” said Ashley. “I believe my example of being a life-long learner, an empathetic change-seeker, and a risk-taker through this fellowship encourages my students to do the same throughout their lives, as well.” 

Three years ago, Ariana Sanders (Cincinnati) used a $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant to participate in the Witness Tree Institute’s immersive educator experience in Ghana, where she explored the impact of colonization, as well as how Africans protect their natural resources. Her goal was to inform the development of learning objectives and course modules for Ethnic Studies to be offered not just at her school, Wyoming High School, but to ALL of Ohio’s high school teachers. 

“I cannot count the ways in which this fellowship was an influential time for me,” said Ariana. “It felt like an inspired experience literally from the second the plane landed — I felt more connected to my roots as a biracial person. The Witness Tree Program really allowed me to go into areas where it is NOT touristy, talk to many professors, participate in cultural activities (food, dancing, games, etc.) It is hard to put into words what that means or how much I see that impacting my soft skills — understanding others, appreciating differences…we all clearly need more of that!” 

_{Caption: Standing in Slave River, where captured men, women and children slaves bathed for the last time before they went to the auction; Ariana’s conference nametag and presentation session.}

That connection and cultural immersion informed learning standards and curriculum for a new official course offering in the Ohio Social Studies program called Religion, Gender, and Ethnic Studies, which Ariana presented at the National Council of Social Studies’ national conference. 

Additionally, Ariana sits on the advisory board for Boston University’s Teaching Africa Teacher (TAT) Certificate Program, which supports pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers and higher education instructors interested in engaging with Africa in their classrooms. As part of this opportunity, Ariana crafted an additional curriculum titled W.E.B. DuBois & Ghana: As told through 3 primary sources – which you can access here. 

“I’ve kept up with colleagues from my fellowship in Ghana, so those relationships, as well as peers through the TAT board, give me a space to advance higher education African studies and be in touch with people who are also working to ensure Africa is represented in more social studies classes. I feel like I am the biggest cheerleader for Fund for Teachers.” 

W.E.B. DuBois said, “It is the trained, living human soul, cultivated and strengthened by long study and thought, that breathes the real breath of life into boys and girls and makes them human, whether they be black or white, Greek, Russian or American.” He would be proud of the impact Ariana is making, as are we. 

Today the world remembers the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which took place 79 years ago and resulted in the formal surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. When Ariel Warshaw remembered this pivotal moment in history, she also realized that her viewpoint lacked global perspective, as well as the peace that was catalyzed post-mortem.

“The reality of living in the US is that my understanding of histories, perspectives, and cultures beyond a Eurocentric lens is not as authentic as I want it to be. I aspire to have a more multidimensional mastery of my content area by exploring non-Western history in a deep way,” wrote Ariel in her Fund for Teachers grant proposal. “Most importantly, I’m committed to turning my students’ knowledge into action. I want us all to consider the lessons in these survivors’ testimonies and use them to drive change in our communities. I prioritize this philosophy at this stage in my career.”

Her overarching goals of the fellowship were to:

• -Witness and learn about what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 79 years ago, placing value on the power of place;
• -Document conversations with hibakusha, peace activists, and local educators (via transcribed interview, digital recording, photos, etc.) for my students; and,
• -Explore the ways Japanese culture has reconciled with the legacy of the atomic bombs and WWII.
  
  

Upon hearing that she was selected as a 2024 FFT Fellow, Ariel promptly created the Instagram feed @whereswarshaw and posted this: “I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been named a Fund for Teachers Fellow! This grant will allow me to explore the experiences of the hibakusha (survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings), and examine how culture has influenced reconstruction, reconciliation, and peace studies in both traditional and modern Japanese society. I’ll be visiting Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto, and Osaka in July! My goal is to develop a unit focusing on the atomic bombings, utilizing oral history, primary sources, and personal testimonies. Follow along on my adventure!”

Ariel’s students and their families were also thrilled, and immediately got to work folding 1,000 paper cranes to create a “senbazuru” for her to hang at The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park while on her fellowship.

We encourage you to visit Ariel’s Instagram feed where she thoughtfully shared images and reflections from her 16-day fellowship. Below, we share her reflections specifically related to the bombing and the hibakusha with whom she met…

Day 1

Day 1 in Tokyo! I landed at 2:30pm, wound my way through customs and immigration, and finally made it to my hotel. By the time I checked in, it was 4:30 – I grabbed a quick bite at the conbini on the corner (egg salad sandos totally live up to the hype!) and decided to give the metro system a spin! I found myself at Tokyo Skytree – the world’s tallest tower at 634 meters! It was a perfect way to get a bird’s eye view of this massive and marvelous city. At the top, there was a place to select a ribbon and write a wish for humanity – people then tied these ribbons on the viewing platform. It was a beautiful way to ground my thinking around this adventure – how does the desire for peace take hold in societies, and what lessons did the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular have on Japanese society’s pursuit of peace.

Day 4

Hiroshima: Wow. What a day! I took an early morning Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Hiroshima. The nearly 4-hour ride passes lots of small towns, which were beautiful to see, and I was able to see Mt. Fuji, too! As soon as I arrived in Hiroshima, I fell in love with it. Such a casual and caring atmosphere, stunning bridges, and quirky details. After a quick bite, I made my way to the Children’s Peace Memorial so that I could finally hang the incredible senbazuru – 1000 origami cranes – that our school community created. It was a really meaningful moment. I then explored the Peace Museum itself – the permanent exhibit is remarkable and heartbreaking. It contained a plethora of artifacts from victims and survivors – clothes, toys, journals, postcards, audio and video testimonies, and so on. There was also an entire section devoted to Sadako Sasaki, replete with cranes she herself had folded. After the museum, I met with Yoko Mimura-san, from the World Friendship Center, who guided me through the Peace Memorial Park – she taught me about a variety of structures found in the park, the significance of each, the history of the area, why Hiroshima was chosen to be bombed, and how the city has reconciled itself with their tragic past and inspired future.

Day 5

Hiroshima: Today was remarkable. In the morning, I went to the World Friendship Center @wfchiroshima to meet with Mr. Tamiyuki Okahara-san – or Mr. Tami – a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor). He shared his story with me, and also relayed his father’s incredible story of survival. I saw family photographs, newspaper articles, and maps that helped illustrate what Mr. Tami and his family endured. Many in his family, himself included, have suffered from unknown illnesses and cancer. Despite these hardships, he was such a positive and inspiring man…

My next appointment was at Hachidori-sha Social Book Café. The owner, Erika Akibo, wanted a space to serve as a meeting place for locals and visitors alike to talk about global issues and social justice. On days that end in “6”, the café hosts hibakusha meetings (the bomb was dropped on August 6, so on the 6/16/26th of each month, these meetings occur). Mayu Seto, an employee but also a peace activist who works with Peace Culture Village  and Kakuwaka Hiroshima, arranged for me to meet with Mr. Okamoto Tadashi-san, another hibakusha, with a small group of other interested visitors. A young woman named Mitsuki served as our translator. Mr. Tadashi was only 1.5 years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; he has scars on his arm, head, and back from that terrible day. He shared his testimony with us, explaining that after the bomb fell, everything went dark. He started to cry, and his pregnant mother was able to find him and get out of the house and away from the hypocenter. After he spoke, our group had the chance to ask questions – it was nice to learn together as a group, and people asked questions that I hadn’t considered which led to even deeper conversation and reflection.

Following this conversation, I met with Ms. Miho Tanaka, a co-founder and representative from Kakuwaka Hiroshima – this group lobbies parliamentarians to push the Japanese government to sign the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In addition, they host events focused on world peace and global activism. I was so grateful for her time – I learned a lot about the ways the peace community is pressing for change. After my meeting with Miho, I walked over to see Hiroshima Castle and Gokoku Shrine, and then visited the surviving Great Torii of Hiroshima – a torii gate that survived the bombing. Finally, I met with Ms. Miho Ikeda-san, also affiliated with World Friendship Center. She took me on a walking tour to visit A-bomb survivor trees. Miho explained that only 160 trees survived within a 2km radius of the hypocenter – and 1 was mistakenly cut down last year. She showed me how, on 80% of these surviving trees, their trunk leans towards the hypocenter. This is because that side of the tree grows more slowly than the other, causing a slight bend in the trunk. It was a unique way to learn about the environmental impact of this atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and nice to end the day appreciating nature!

Day 7

Hiroshima + Nagasaki: I started the morning at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) in Hiroshima, where I met with Jeffrey Hart, from the Public Relations and Publications Office, and an intern from Smith College, Claire, who had started just this morning! RERF is a joint US-Japanese research organization that studies the health effects of A-bomb radiation. At their facility, they meet with hibakusha (survivors) who are part of one of their studies every other year for health exams, house thousands upon thousands of bio samples in state of the art freezers (I got to see their newest freezer, which is completely robotic and can store hundreds of thousands of bio samples at -80°C), and research the impact that A-bomb exposure has had on survivors and their children. It was a truly eye-opening experience, and I was so grateful for Jeff’s time and openness!

From there, I headed to Hiroshima Station to catch the first of 3 trains to Nagasaki. 3 hours later, I had made it! I quickly checked into my hotel, and then went to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. While it was much smaller than the Peace Museum in Hiroshima, I really appreciated the artifacts they displayed and the straight-forward and brutally honest exhibits they presented to visitors. After the museum, I made my way to the Memorial Hall, and then from there, the Hypocenter and Peace Park. I even saw air raid shelters from WWII that were dug into the foot of a hill that now surrounds the park. All of these places were really moving and contemplative – spending time outside as I ended my day was a great way to reflect on what I’ve learned in the last week, and consider ways to bring it all back to the Humanities South classroom.

Day 13

Osaka + Kyoto: This morning I jumped on a train to Osaka! After an hour ride, I got off at Kyobashi Station and made my way to the Osaka International Peace Center. This museum, also known as Peace Osaka, focuses on the destruction of the city during World War II, but also the tragedy of war more generally and the importance of peace. According to some cursory research, Japan has about 50 museums dedicated to peace – the United States has… 1. How can this be? What does it say about our culture? Japanese culture? What lessons can we learn?

Gratitude

Now that I’m back home, I wanted to take a moment to express how grateful I am to Fund for Teachers for believing in my proposal, trusting me to know what I needed as an educator, and allowing me to grow in immeasurable ways. What an epic experience and empowering process with an amazing organization! Along this journey, I have met so many wonderful survivors, peace educators, disarmament activists, radiation researchers, historians, and artisans.

Thank you to the entire Unquowa School community for embracing my senbazuru project, cheering me on each day of this trip, and awarding me the Birdsall Grant to further deepen this project. I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with you all!

Japan was pure magic: modern in so many ways, deeply rooted in ancient customs and beliefs, patient, honest, and gracious in the telling of its history, and resilient beyond words. I will hold this sacred time in my heart and mind for a lifetime. またね – definitely not goodbye but see you later!