Tara (pictured at right on the Amsterdam leg of her fellowship) teaches 
Nolan Hanson (pictured with Picasso) is a pre-K through 8th grade Spanish teacher at Oscar Mayer Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois. For the past 5 years he has built his classroom around the idea that every child has a unique background and learning style that should be fostered to embrace diversity and global citizenship. When he is not teaching in his classroom, he is committed to completing service learning projects with his middle school students, who have been honored at 
Our project centers around our new school building, and our students will be creating new green-design features to be incorporated into the building. This may take a few years, but it could then include several grades that as part of this long-term, collaborative project. Most importantly, this project will help give any student who works on it more ownership of the new building and their community.
Carly Connor is a 10th grade English teacher and soccer coach who believes deeply in creating a safe, educational space for students to learn how to struggle with content, develop a global perspective, listen to opposing ideas, find a unique voice, and correctly use commas. Jill Padfield is a high school math teacher who previously taught at an International School in the Dominican Republic. In her free time, Jill enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, scuba diving, hiking and playing with her class-pet guinea pigs, Fib and Nocci. 
As part of Sara Damon’s AP Geography curriculum, students at Stillwater Junior High School in Stillwater, MN, read They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan. Sara arranged for one of the authors to visit her class, which led to a fundraising project that raised $5,000 for an initiative of “Lost Boy” Salva Dut called Water for South Sudan. Students’ thirst for more service inspired Sara to then design a Fund for Teachers fellowship that took her to Kenya with the nonprofit H2O for Life, where she analyzed the impact of water wells.
“I met with administrators, teachers and students personally impacted by the fact that they now have clean water and toilets at school. “I saw and heard about the health, economic and educational effects of access or lack of access to improved water and sanitation in the school setting as well as in urban and rural home settings,” said Sara. “I shared stories and pictures with my students, staff and school community as testament to how water changes everything.”
Sara started the following school year with a new curriculum she created called “Ripple Effects: The Impact of Water and Sanitation on Standard of Living.” She also created a Story Map that summarized her experiences and demonstrated the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) needs of Kenyan students. Then her students took over.
They hosted a school-wide Walk for Water and raised money through sponsorships and pledges for each lap around the track carrying two gallons of water, simulating the journey many in the world make on a daily basis. A student leadership team established awareness and fundraising goals and brainstormed activities, which included presentations to the Lion’s and Kiwanis clubs, Penny Wars, Chipotle fundraisers and film screenings.
Students’ determination to help meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal #6 (ensuring water and sanitation for all by 2030) resulted $80,000 raised to drill nine safe water wells in partnership with H2O for Life and Water for South Sudan.
“What I was able to see, hear and reflect upon as a result of the Fund for Teachers fellowship in Kenya allowed me to create new teaching content and to share in a compelling way the real life impact of WASH projects,” said Sara. “I reinvigorated my desire to continue the hard work of motivating my geography students and the school community to translate geographic awareness into geographic action.”
