Connecting Creativity, Literacy, and STEM: Heidi W. Powell's Mission with An Open Book Foundation

Episode Summary: 

Unlock the power of books and creativity as we delve into the inspiring mission of An Open Book Foundation. Join Executive Director Heidi W. Powell as she shares how connecting young minds with authors and illustrators can spark a lifelong passion for reading.

In this episode, Dr. Diane sits down with Heidi W. Powell, the Executive Director of An Open Book Foundation, to explore her journey of fostering creativity and literacy among students in Title I schools around the DC area. Discover how the foundation's innovative programs, from STEM initiatives to artists in residence, have impacted over 112,000 students by providing opportunities to interact with renowned authors like Jason Reynolds and Meg Medina. Learn how the integration of arts and STEM through literacy initiatives offers students a platform to address real-world challenges creatively. 

Timestamps and Chapters:

1:20: Mission and Impact of An Open Book Foundation

6:19: Impact of Connecting Students in Title I Schools with Authors and Illustrators

10:13: Inspiring Literacy Through STEM and Artist in Residency Initiatives 

15:20: Getting to Know Heidi W. Powell and Her Surprising Adventures in Learning

18:42: Hints for Matching Books to Readers

22:32: Future Plans for Impact

25:22: Inspiring Future Book Creators 

Links:

An Open Book Foundation Website

Donate to An Open Book Foundation

Join us on this adventure to inspire a love for reading, creativity, and STEM in young learners.

Transcript

00:13 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I want you to think for a moment about your favorite book. Think about who put that book into your hands. Was it a teacher? Was it a librarian? Was it a teacher? Was it a librarian? Was it your parents or a grandparent? Why did that book matter to you and how has that book followed you through life? And now I want you to take a deep breath and I want you to get ready to welcome one of my new favorite humans to the show. 

00:46
Heidi Powell is the executive director of an open book foundation, and this organization is doing such amazing work in the DC area. Since 2011, they have served 112,000 students and they've given away 134,000 books and counting, and they do it through such amazing ways. They've got STEM programs, they've got artists in residence, they've got author visits, but it all comes down to sparking that curiosity and lighting a passion for reading and literacy. So welcome to the Adventures in Learning podcast and join me as we welcome Heidi Powell, the Executive Director of an Open Book Foundation. Hi, heidi, welcome. 

01:25 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Hi Diane, Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to this conversation. 

01:29 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I am so delighted you're here. So I gave sort of a little hint of what an Open Book Foundation is, but you are so much nearer and dearer to it than I am. Can you tell our listeners exactly what you do and why the need is so great? 

01:45 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Sure, in a nutshell, we take authors and illustrators to Title I schools where they make a presentation, and then we give every student a signed book to keep, and we also give a set of the authors and illustrators other titles to the school library and the classroom collection. So, um, yeah, that's. That's, in a nutshell, what we do. We've that's our flagship program. We've, such since, uh, 2010, expanded our programming um to include, as you mentioned, artists in residence, stem residences, a new and emerging artists of color program. We've got a number of partnerships and we've just recently started a cohort initiative. 

02:28
So we've got a lot going on, but the bottom line is just, uh, basically making sure that we connect students with authors, illustrators and their books, and everyone gets a signed book to keep 

02:40 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
that's incredible, and you and I were talking before the program and you got your start at Politics and Prose, which is one of those just it's one of those standout independent bookstores that does such deep work in terms of connecting authors and illustrators to the DC community. How did you decide to leap from there to doing the work that you're doing? Because your impact has only increased over the last 15 years. 

03:09 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Yeah, so Dara La Porte and I co-founded an open book. We had the idea prior to 2010. We thought about it a lot and it's basically it's based on author talks, which adults are familiar with too. I'm sure they go to their local bookstores for adult author talks. We had a lot of author talks for children in our department, and so we recognized, though, that probably we weren't reaching about 99% of the students in the DC metro area. Politics and Prose is located in Upper Northwest DC and most of the students attending the author events during school hours were coming with their school groups to the store and enjoying the events. But we really wanted to reach more students and our original idea was maybe we could bring students from all over to the bookstore, but we realized very quickly that that was not really realistic. Much easier to take one author or one illustrator to the schools and introduce them to the students that way. So really it was born of the author talk idea. That's how we came up with it. 

04:18 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And describe sort of who you reach and how you go about doing it. Give us an example of sort of a typical year in the life of an open book foundation

04:29 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Sure, so eligible schools are Title I schools or other schools where over 50% of students or families receive some sort of government assistance. There's so many different measures, since we work in DC, Maryland and Virginia, that we need to broaden it beyond just Title I for various reasons. So a typical year, I mean we have probably 150, 200 schools in our database. We can't possibly reach them all in a year. I think last year we hit 99 schools. 

05:10
We do go, we will visit a school more than once but we try not to visit the same grade more than once in a year because we just have there's so much interest in our program and basically we've gotten to know the educators at the schools and we know our authors, illustrators and books. So we really curate the selection and we try to tailor the author visit and the book to the student group or the school. I won't say we always perfectly align with the curriculum, but we often do, whether it's our education team knowing that that we will or just complete serendipity. But yeah, we've got our education director and our program director meet every week and they take a look at the upcoming authors and illustrators, I mean a couple months out. And then they look at our schools. We've got a database, an extensive database, so we're constantly looking to make sure that we're making a really good match and the appropriate grade level as well. 

06:08 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So who are some of your favorite authors and illustrators that you've been able to bring to students? Help us sort of see who's going out there and what that's like when the kids experience this. 

06:19 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
There's so many, and we're so, so lucky. We've got many, many award winning authors and illustrators to come in, so we've had everybody. We've had national ambassadors for literature Jason Reynolds, we've had Meg Medina. We've also had R. Gregory Christie, who's an amazing author, illustrator, and he's done some artists in residence programs with us as well, where he's taught students how to make their own books and and to illustrate. He's done a lot on perspective. We've also had Atinuke, who wrote the Anna Hibiscus series and also has done picture books. 

07:04
We have had Leuyen Pham, who is amazing at connecting with students from kindergarten all the way through high school. Her books run the whole range and she's done sort of all those levels with us and she does an amazing job of illustrating on the fly. She'll do portraits. She does a portrait of the student in every single one of each book that she signs. So that's just a really small sample. We've got some amazing, amazing talented folks who come in and I need to say that they do all donate their time. I mean, one of our goals for the next, maybe in five years, is to be able to pay them just a small stipend, but, um, but they donate their time. Um, we buy their books, obviously um, but uh, they're, they're so generous with their time. We, um, we are able to get. We do get, uh, restricted funding for our residence programs on our new and emerging artists of color program, but otherwise everyone's donating their time and their talent to this. 

08:06 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
What a gift. I mean that's incredibly generous, especially knowing how in demand so many of your authors and illustrators are, and it speaks to the passion that they bring to what you do. And you know we can talk about all of the places you go and all of that, but why is it important in the first place? You know, if somebody were asking why does it matter if we send an author and illustrator into a school, what would you tell them? 

08:26 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
We found that the impact is really significant when a student meets an author, illustrator, creator of a book and then is given that book to read and they recognize that they have met the creator. When, when Dara and I first started this organization, we thought you know, we're going to excite students about reading right by introducing them, and, and that connection is clear. But the other thing that we've learned is that students also get excited about the possibility of becoming an author or an illustrator themselves. So they see, and also it's important that they see someone who looks like them. The majority of students we see are our students of color and we bring in probably over 70% now of our book creators are our folks of color and there are lots of different identities. 

09:20
I know that it's more than just being a person of color. We do bring in like we've had neurodivergent authors, come in LGBTQ plus. So just the mirrors and windows that all of us are always talking about students can see themselves in the book characters and in the books creators and they can also get a window into another culture, another lived experience. All of those things are so valuable, um, but really connecting the books creators with the students. They have an opportunity to see that they're real humans. We've had students who especially the younger ones, who thought that only like books were written by someone who died or you know, they have a lot of ideas about how a book is made. So a lot of that is dispelled and they see that these are living, breathing people and maybe one day I could, you know, I could be an author, illustrator. And now I'm excited to read this book by the, by the creator. 

10:13 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I am so glad you brought up the point about windows and mirrors and sliding glass doors as well, because it was so clear to me that Dr Sims Bishop's work underwrites so much of what you all do and we talk about that on the show a lot. But I think that what you've done is you've taken it even beyond the books that the kids see, and I love the idea that you're giving them the possibility in seeing the creators behind the books and being able to see themselves in that role, in that possibility, and I think that that's super important and really segues, I think, into the new programs that you're doing in terms of your artist in residency program and your STEM program. Can you describe a little bit more about both of those and how they work? Sure? 

10:56 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
sure. So we wanted, we talked a lot about, but we sort of came to an inflection point and we were talking about whether to go broader because there are always more schools that we could visit and always more students that would be, you know, benefit from our programming or to go deeper. It really isn't either or um. And we decided we have so many schools and we can't even reach all of them in a year, which is unfair. So we decided we have so many schools and we can't even reach all of them in a year, which is unfair. So we decided we would like to try to go deeper with our programming, and that means more than the one day you know what we call a flagship program going multiple days to the same group of students and really sort of building an experience around art or STEM. And so we have, you know, the best professionals in the field. 

11:40
So it started with the artist in residence program and we invite an illustrator to come in for a multi-day lesson, four days. On the first day it looks like the flagship program the students get to meet the illustrator, they all get the book and then on the subsequent days they get all of the art supplies that they'll need to create the art in that book. So we've done everything from collage, watercolor, you know, paint, you know every day, so whatever they need, and then they work on an art project every day with the instruction from this professional artist, this illustrator. So that's what the artist in residence program looks like. The STEM residence program looks pretty much the same. 

12:28
Just substitute in scientist or a writer, who who writes about science, has written a book about something specific to science, and then they get their supplies, whatever they need to do the experiments or the exploration that they're going to do on the subsequent days. And that can look a variety of ways. It may be that they're going outside of the classroom and they've gotten little binoculars and they're taking notes in a journal as they observe, you know, phenomena in nature, um. Or they're in the classroom and they are. They've learned about, uh, wildlife, uh the danger to wildlife of crossing roads, and so they're building uh special crossings in ways to get animals safely from one side of a road to another. So they look a lot of different ways, but that's what that's. Both the artists and the STEM residencies really allow for a deeper dive into the book's content and what the and also making you know, using their hands and their minds to make their own creations. 

13:38 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That's so much of. When I'm working with students, we try to do that where we're bringing in the diverse picture books and using those as a springboard for trying to solve real world problems, and so I love the way that you've built that synergy of the literacy and the STEM in a way that it's engaging and you get the time to go back and play with it, because I think that's the other thing I often notice is, when you go into a classroom, that's sort of the icing, that's the stuff to the side, and when you can really spend time on that kind of creativity and collaboration and problem solving, you see really magical things that play with the kids. So kudos to you all for taking that on as part of going deeper with what you do. 

14:17 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun and you see the students really respond to these folks who are visiting their classroom. You know, it's somebody new, right, it's a new face and it's somebody who's created a book, and it also gives students an opportunity to explore in ways they may not always have an opportunity to explore in their classrooms and in their schools, like really taking a deeper dive into art or into science that they may not have the opportunity to do otherwise. 

14:44 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I think that's amazing. Now you guys are a nonprofit, so you get all of your money from fundraising and donations. I'm assuming, yep, that's right. If somebody wanted to donate, how could they engage with you to support your mission? 

15:01 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
We could. They can go to our website, which is wwwanopenbookfoundorg. There's a donate button there. You can click on the donate button. We would love that. That's probably the easiest way. You can also sign up to get our newsletter so that you can keep on top of what we're doing. 

15:20 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Excellent. I will drop those links in the program notes, thank you. So I'd like to shift gears just a little bit and I would love to be able to get to know Heidi a little bit better. Adventures in learning in terms of how you wound up making the journey from, you know, working at a bookstore to being the executive director of an open book foundation. You know what was that journey like. What did you do to get to where you are? 

15:51 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
So my professional and educational background don't have a whole lot to do with what I do now, which is probably true for a lot of people. I had my degrees in political science and city planning. I did planning for city planning for quite a while and then I was home taking care of my kids but I'd always either volunteered or worked in libraries and I always loved books and my mom was in publishing and editing and really instilled a love of reading, you know, in in me and my siblings. 

16:25
So when I was still home with the kids, I started working for politics and pros doing off-site events, so going into folks homes or into professional settings and selling books there for politics and prose. And then when I had a little bit more time, once this kids had started school, I applied to work in the children and teens department and I knew that would be the best fit for me. I already was really familiar with a lot of titles and authors from my childhood and those that I'd been reading to my children. So I didn't even think about going to the adult department. It was definitely the children's department and I started working there as a bookseller and just really enjoyed it and really helped, you know, loved picking, sort of finding the right book at the right time for the families and the children who came into the department. And then you know Politics and Prose does a lot and we did all these events and that's really sort of what sparked the Dara's and my idea to give this a try. The non-profit, take the non-profit angle. So Dara actually left before I did. She went to sort of start up an open book foundation. I stayed at the bookstore and managed the children and teens department and it worked really well because we had all these amazing authors coming through and at the beginning no one knew who an open book was. 

17:47
So it would just be asking some of these folks who were coming into town if they'd like to, after their morning event at Politics and Prose, maybe do an afternoon event at a Title I school. And you know we would take them there. And everybody said yes. Everybody said all the authors and illustrators were like we've been waiting for this opportunity. We didn't know how to connect with all the rest of the kids. You know like, yes, please take us there. And so that's what we did. And then, after several years, I left politics and prose to join Dara and work full time for an open book. At that point we were expanding and adding staff and we've got an amazing team of educators and folks who, and communications development folks, and I mean we've got a small staff. I don't want to make it sound like we've got a big corporation there are about seven of us but just an amazing team of folks who are all really dedicated to our mission and really passionate about what we do. 

18:42 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So it's been a great journey. That's wonderful. And if there were a teacher or a caregiver a family caregiver who had a reluctant reader and was trying to figure out, how do I coax this child into discovering a love of literature? Do you have sort of some ideas that you would offer to them based on your own experience? 

19:04 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
We never say they're reluctant readers, they just haven't found the right book yet, right? So I think it's a matter of finding the right book. I think it's a matter of letting children have an opportunity to take a look at their you know, their own interests and maybe explore on their own and see what their you know go with their interests sort of think. There's like a graduation from picture books to early readers, to graphic novels to like. The goal is to get to these big fat chapter book you know middle grade readers big novels and I. 

19:44
I always like to say that there's not a substitute, it's more of supplementing, like we should keep adding, right? So you've got picture books. Don't ever give those up, right. So many amazing picture books for older readers. They're fiction, nonfiction, all sorts of rich and beautiful illustrations. So I would never give up on picture books, just keep adding. But I would really go with what the child is interested in. Keep reading to them. If they're not interested, put it down and try something else. I think it shouldn't be a chore. I think we shouldn't force them to read a certain I know that a lot of teachers do this but if at all possible not to say now, you have to sit down and read for a certain amount of time. I feel like that's the sure way to say this is a chore. And then I get to go out to play, right. So that's. I think those are all. I've got three children. 

20:37 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
They're all different readers I mean, my two girls are as different as they could be and I totally get that but I think those are all really practical ideas for adults and I think that the idea of allowing the child to lead through their interests and letting them sample things and pick something up and put it down because we as grownups don't always finish things We'll try something and if we don't like it, it's okay to set it down and pick something else up. You know, we're trying to find what's appealing to us. I also am so glad you said that about picture books, because that's one of my things as a grown-up. I adore picture books. I never lost my love for them, but I think all the way from preschool through high school and beyond there's such a powerful short way to engage students, to engage conversation, and they often take on these really tricky topics that are more sophisticated than we tend to think of when we think of a picture book Exactly. 

21:38 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
And they're a great way to introduce a topic to absolutely start with that and then you can move on and sort of scaffold. But yeah, I would never, ever give up on picture books and the art. I think the illustrators are true artists. I think we can't underestimate the art. I think you know the. The illustrators are, you know, true artists. I think we can't underestimate, you know the, the art form of a picture book. 

22:00 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I 100% agree. So if you were to wave your magic wand or look into your crystal ball, what do you anticipate for an open book foundation over the next five to ten years? What are sort of some of your goals? What do you think are some of the challenges ahead? 

22:20 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Yeah, we've started what we call a cohort initiative, so I'd like to see that grow and that's basically selecting a starting in kindergarten and here can I. 

22:32
Yes, of course we'll start that a the cohort initiative wor, students in kindergarten, all the way through fifth of students will receive one of our programs. Every year it's flagship, the. The next year it may be flagship and extension activity, which I didn't even talk about. But those are basically activities that build on what the book's creator talked about or what's in the book and our education team creates a lesson around that. Or we may work with a partner. We've got many partners, including today we're at National Museum of Women in the Arts Wonderful, so working with and. So then each year it would be one of our programs and we have, I believe we're up to four or five schools now. 

23:31
So I would like to see that program continue. That's definitely a way that we're trying. We're deepening. Also, we started doing some writers workshops. So same idea as the Art and  STEM residency, but doing a writing residence four days. So I'd like to see us like work on that some more and build that out. Challenges I mean probably like any nonprofit, you know, funding and capacity. We've got a small team and we do a lot. I would love to be able to add staff. I'd love to be able to pay everyone a good wage. I'd love to be able to provide benefits. So like really practical things, I mean that's, those are the challenges, but we've got a passionate team and we're working. We work hard every day to, you know, bring great programming to students. 

24:22 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So and remember folks, if you want to support that, I'll drop the link in the show notes, because you can absolutely help to get more books and more programs into the hands of these students. So last question, Heidi, it's one. I love to finish with people and it feels more important than ever to hold this one. What currently brings you joy? What brings you hope? 

24:48 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Oh, that's a great question. I would say. Students' curiosity brings me joy and hope. Every one of our events is different. Every time you walk into a classroom you don't know what to expect, but students' curiosity and their engagement, seeing students really engaged in the work, you know, in the books that we brought, you know, opening their books right away to read them after they've met the author or the illustrator High school students who are can be sometimes the hardest ones to you know, figure out who might be. You know, head on the table with the hoodie, asking the most amazing question. 

25:26
You know, afterwards, going up to, for example, we had, we had a partnered event with Tony Keith Jr, who's a local author and poet. We had an event with him at Planet Word and high school students swarmed him afterwards to ask not only to sign their books but to sign their bodies, like sign my hand, sign my forehead, oh wow. And to talk to him about their work, and I think that's really oh wow. And to talk to him about their work, and I think that's really inspiring. Too Many, many times there are students who come up to the authors or illustrators and show the drawings they've been working on or their comic books that they've created share their poetry, and that brings me a lot of joy and hope to see that there are future authors and illustrators. Right, there are future book creators. Students are engaged and they're still curious, and that brings me a lot of joy and hope. 

26:19 - Dr Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, thank you so much for joining us on the Adventures in Learning podcast today. I can't wait for people to check out your work. So definitely folks be sure to visit an Open Book Foundation and look at all the wonderful things that they're providing. 

26:33 - Heidi W. Powell (Guest)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This is a lot of fun.