The Book Love Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit foundation, recently awarded 60 classroom library grants totaling $120,000 to teachers in the United States and Canada. eSTEM Academy English Teacher Ms. Viglione was one of the recipients and received $2,000 to help build her classroom library.

 

In her grant application, Ms. Viglione said, "Not only does my school not have a library, the closest one is five miles from school and inaccessible to many of my students. Last year, we took a field trip to the Columbus Metropolitan Library and a quarter of my class had never seen a library before. I would like to use this grant to diversify my classroom library and ensure there is a wide range of books written by people of color. We need to diversify literature my students have access to and I've seen the engagement firsthand when students encounter worlds that are both like and unlike their own. Books have been a refuge in my life. Sharing that refuge with my students sometimes leaves me without words."

 

Ms. Viglione currently has about 600 books in her classroom library and she cannot wait to select books using the grant money to evolve her collection. She has a field trip to the Reynoldsburg Public Library scheduled for October.

 

"My goal is for every student to read a book that they see themselves in, and also a book that allows them to experience someone else's perspective," she said.

 

Ms. Viglione is in her third year of teaching for Reynoldsburg.