Features

In 2017, a deadly wave of wildfires hit northern California, leaving many students and families in Zenia Lemos Horning’s (EdS ‘98) community homeless. 

While her county had prior experience with allocating resources and support to a single school affected by a disaster, Lemos Horning said the 2017 wildfires affected multiple schools in different areas across Healdsburg Unified School District, where she serves as lead psychologist.

A recent award-winning study by University of Washington College of Education Assistant Professor Shaneé Washington explores the challenges and possibilities for Indigenous families, community members and district educators to engage with one another in culturally sustaining and revitalizing ways.

"Literacy is power and freedom" reads a poster hanging prominently on the wall of Harpreet Parhar's classroom at Ballard High School in Seattle.

"That's what guides my work," said Parhar, an English language arts teacher.

But that realization didn't come right away. As an undergraduate at the University of Washington, "I was one of those lost souls that bounced around everywhere," she remembers.

As members of the University of Washington community step forward to help serve those most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic, College of Education doctoral student Kaleb Germinaro created a Google map of places for families to access meals, learning resources or support around the Seattle area. The map is open for others to edit and add to it.