We'd like to thank and acknowledge the thirty-nine fellows who came to the three Bread Loaf campuses from 18 states and the District of Columbia this summer. Fellows at all three sites forged exciting collaboration plans for the year ahead, taking advantage of opportunities to teach across difference and apply summer learning. While each campus cohort had its unique focus, fellows connected across campuses to write online to one another about learning from students, teaching styles, key learnings from Bread Loaf classes, and the nature of successful collaborations.

Eight BLTN fellows were among this year's 44 students earning their Master of Arts degrees from Bread Loaf this summer. Fellows and senior class co-presidents, Brian Hotchkiss and Donté Tates ("the Brontës"), gave the student commencement address in a ceremony that included the awarding of an honorary doctorate to the late Rex Lee Jim (MA ’01, MLitt ’19). 

Congratulations to each of our newest graduates. 

 Read Middlebury's news story and watch the recording of the full Vermont ceremony.

Students in Dr. Kayla Hostetler's class play Canterbury Characters Bingo.

This year, BLTN invites current and former fellows to give virtual visits to one another's classroom in a sequence we call "Classroom Spotlights." The idea is that we’ll pass the "spotlight" (images, videos, invitations for dialogue) from place to place, school to school, and community to community throughout the school year in order to share ideas and build connections with one another. Think of this like a casual visit to your classroom and / or community from trusted friends who would love to know what your place is like. Read more and sign up to host a visit to your place. 

Whether you host or visit, you'll be welcome to join the dialogue on BreadWeb. Contact Tom McKenna with questions. 

Here is our last call for this year's round of BLSE/BLTN Change Action Grants, funded by Middlebury's Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation. Awards will range from $500-$3,500 for projects undertaken during the 2026-27 school year. Read more and apply here by the end of today, September 15.  

Filmmakers from nine of the twelve sites in What's the Story? The Young Filmmakers' Social Action Team convened in Vermont this July to present their films and share their stories of learning about critical issues in their schools and communities. (See the film lineup here.) Teams from Manizales, Colombia; Roseburg, Oregon; Gastonia, North Carolina; Aiken, South Carolina; Sharon, Vermont; Nicholasville, Kentucky; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Lac La Croix, Ontario; and New York City gathered at the Bead Loaf campus July 9-11 to share, as WTS Director Tim O'Leary put it, to share how they have been "using documentary storytelling not simply to make media, but to understand themselves and the world around them more deeply." (O'Leary's complete opening remarks provide important context for the program.)

The weekend was far more than the film showcase. Youth toured Middlebury College, bonded through shared meals and outings (including "creemies" and a dip in the East Middlebury River) and presented to one another about their communities. 

WTS now begins its 12th year, with 14 sites ranging from Northern Ontario to Bogotá and Manizales, Colombia, and from California to Martha's Vineyard. (See the 2026-27 Site List and Descriptions.)

"Your gift will make room for you," Aiken, SC advocate Christopher Emanuel explained to a room full of NextGen youth and mentors as he told his story of finding his voice as an advocate for others. At Camp Gravatt, near Aiken, South Carolina last weekend, Emanuel urged attendees from Aiken, Louisville, and Rock Point on the Navajo Nation to align their talents, principles, and actions to do good work for others. 

Emanuel's talk was part of a highly interactive retreat where participants learned about one another's homeplaces and cultures while discussing both unique and common issues for change-making. From supporting one another in ropes course challenges, to learning strategies for identifying personal strengths for advocacy work, to planning  specific events, participants engaged in a kind of learning that is characteristic of a network where young people develop empathy and understanding across difference. The Aiken group emerged with plans for an elementary school career fair; the Rock Point team created advocacy strategies for waste disposal; the Louisville trio created a plan for more unified civic engagement across school clubs. 

The weekend events were underwritten by Middlebury's Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation and Write to Change. and coordinated by Dr. Kayla Hostetler (MA '24), NextGen - SC Site Mentor. 

We are proud to report that nine BLTN educators have received Goswami Action Grant funding to support the following projects during the 2026-27 school year. 

Each month, Kurt Ostrow (MA '23) provides a teaching resource for readers. He's always looking for your contributions of ideas our readers might find useful. Contact Kurt to contribute. 

There's just not enough time to do everything I think I should during English class: reading, writing, discussion, grammar, vocab, current events, not to mention play. At my school, we have 48-minute periods, and we read for the first 10. It's a crunch! To address this in AP Lang, I'm relying more and more on biweekly letters. Used to be these letters were just about the books students were reading, but they've grown to include personal check-ins. Kids love the chance to journal (with a photo or two), and it helps me to connect more deeply with introverted students. This year, I've added a requirement: link to a news story you've been following and reflect on it briefly. I've also included two new tabs in my own letters document: one tab, "Vocab," that collects words that crop up in class/in our readings, which I'll use for quarterly quizzes; and one tab, "Sentences," that collects well-crafted student writing that I want to highlight. I can't use class time for everything, so this document allows me to follow through on other routines outside of class. This practice is time-consuming in a different way, and it does require students to do homework, but I find it's worth every minute. 

In September, we get to catch you up on news from the summer. (And please catch us up on your news with a quick email.)This summer we learned that Moira Donovan (MA '98) published her novel, Crazy String, which she says "would not have happened without the guidance of my Bread Loaf professors and fellow students." (Read about it here.) Dr. Kayla Hostetler (MA '24) sends news that she had two poems published in Untelling, the literary magazine of the Hindman Settlement School. We're smiling to learn that BLSE Professor Dr. Eric Darnell Pritchard's book Clothes to Make You Smile has made the National Book Foundation's Longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (YPL). And congratulations to Dr. Marianela Rivera ('24), who received the Massachusetts Teachers Association Louise Gaskins Lifetime Civil Rights Award "for her longtime activism, according to the Massachusetts Teachers Association." 

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