We are excited to welcome Mary Wesley and Mike Leonard to the Vermont Folklife Center as media instructors and education outreach coordinators.

In December, the Discovering Community education program worked with Enosburg Falls High School humanities teacher Marianne Hunkin and 80 9th grade students on a project to learn about Enosburg through interviews with community members. 

We are excited to announce a new Vermont Folklife Center Initiative! “New American Voices” is a community-based, youth-focused storytelling initiative beginning this year. The goal of New American Voices is to provide more opportunities for New American youth in Vermont to feel heard, visible, and valued. The project will address needs of refugee youth in Vermont (ages 12-24) by providing resources, training, and support for exploring their experiences through digital media.

Kate Toland and her People's Academy Geography class completed a documentary exploring their community of Morrisville, Vermont, and they shared it with the public on March 22.

In the 2016-2017 school year to date, the Vermont Folklife Center’s Discovering Community program has worked with 600 students in 13 schools around the state. The projects we’ve been part of have ranged from spoken-word performance about Hurricane Irene, to the documentation of a mock election, to stop-motion videos and community documentaries.