Building Bridges Workshops

Teach For America | Daniel Sellers: Teach For America works to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation’s most promising future leaders to teach in some of the most poverty-stricken communities in the U.S. These leaders commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools. Going beyond traditional expectations, these teachers lead their students to significant academic achievement.
Admission Possible | Abby Matthews: Admission Possible identifies promising low-income students from the Greater Twin Cities and Greater Milwaukee metro areas, and helps them prepare to earn admission into college. Started in 2000, the organization has expanded to partner with 17 high schools. More than 1,000 students have enrolled in the program, and to date, 99% have earned acceptance into college.
Operation Bootstrap Africa | Jim Cornell, ’83: Operation Bootstrap Africa helps people help themselves with educational programs and projects in Africa. For more than 40 years, the organization has participated in the successful completion of over 3,200 classrooms in self-help partnerships with the people and government of Tanzania. Other projects are underway in Madagascar and Zimbabwe.
Invisible Children | Zachary Barrows: Invisible Children works to empower high school and college students, transforming apathy into activism to create change in the lives of people in the African nation of Uganda. Schools for Schools, its newest initiative, partners schools in the U.S. with schools in Uganda to raise money to rebuild the Ugandan schools. In just three semesters, students across the nation have raised more than $3 million for the cause.
Action Piece | Interactive Literacy: Conference attendees will guide children through themed interactive stations with a “Gustie Guide.” The Scholastic Book Fair will provide parents and children with the opportunity to purchase books and become excited about reading. Conference attendees may also purchase a book for a child in the community.
Freedom Writers Foundation: Marcia Nelson: Marcia Nelson took part in a pilot teacher-training course within the Erin Gruwell Education Project, and has since been included in a collaboration of educators who wrote a curriculum guide to accompanying the 2007 film /Freedom Writers/. A 2007 finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year, she currently teaches English and leadership at Crossroads Alternative High School in Coon Rapids, Minn., and continues to use the Freedom Writers’ methods in her classroom