Three Fairfax County Public Schools teachers will now be able to pursue unique arts projects with their students, thanks to financial assistance from the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.
A nonprofit that supports and programs Wolf Trap National Park, the foundation announced on Feb. 20 that it has awarded 13 grants from an annual program for D.C. area educators who teach music, dance or theater at public schools.
This year’s FCPS recipients were Fairfax High School dance arts teacher Meredith Barnes, Groveton Elementary School music and orchestra teacher Karine Chapdelaine-Walker, and Robinson Secondary School’s middle school bands director, Tiffany Hitz.
In addition to getting funding for their projects, the grant winners get to bring their classes to Wolf Trap for a “celebratory day of learning” on April 25 that will include performances by the high school students at The Barns at Wolf Trap, according to a press release.
“Wolf Trap’s Grants for Performing Arts Teachers provides teachers with grants to fund innovative performing arts projects,” said Cate Bechtold, Wolf Trap Foundation’s director of internships and community programs. “Because of their grants, teachers can expand the scope of their projects, bring in professional artists, incorporate new technologies, or create additional resources, providing extra learning opportunities for their students.”
According to the release, Barnes requested a grant for a show called “Dance for a Change” that Fairfax High School students will develop with a dance historian and guest artists from the Bethesda-based theater organization Imagination Stage.
“Students will choreograph small group pieces by drawing inspiration from American dance icons who used their work to address injustices,” the release said. “This will allow students to leverage the power of the arts as a means of social commentary.”
Chapdelaine-Walker and Hitz are both among the recipients of the program’s first-ever middle school grants.
For her project, titled “Musicians for a Change,” Chapdelaine-Walker will work with Groveton Elementary’s sixth-grade orchestra students to create a “unique musical piece centered around student-identified social justice issues” to demonstrate music’s value “as a tool for advocacy and self-expression.”
Meanwhile, Hitz’s band students will learn the piece “All My Heart” — with its composer Michael Markowski as their mentor.
“Students will have the opportunity to connect with a professional composer and meaningfully engage with the composition process, allowing them to experience a new instrumental arrangement, and explore the composer’s experience in creating work,” the press release said.
Funded by contributions from the defense contractor General Dynamics, the Grants for Performing Arts Teachers program awards up to $5,000 to high school teachers and up to $2,500 to middle school teachers. The exact amount depends on each project’s scope and needs, but the majority “require the full amount,” according to the Wolf Trap Foundation.
Last year, the foundation awarded only eight grants, including ones to Annandale High School orchestra director Annie Ray and Mount Vernon High School music teacher Al Rodriguez. Ray more recently gained national recognition as the winner of the 2024 Grammy Music Educator Award.
In addition to the FCPS grantees, the 2024 grant recipients include teachers from D.C. and Loudoun, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
More than two decades after he graduated, astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren has been drawn back into Robinson Secondary School’s orbit.
The Fairfax school will welcome its Class of 1991 alum back this afternoon (Friday) for a student assembly, where Lindgren will be joined on stage by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
After helping secure $103 million in federal funding to replace the Wallops Island Bridge linking NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to mainland Virginia, Kaine has been tasked with delivering introductory remarks before participating in a question-and-answer session, according to his office.
“I’m really looking forward to heading to Robinson Secondary School…to connect with students there and hear more about Dr. Lindgren’s experience in space and learn about NASA’s recent work,” Kaine said in a statement to FFXnow. “It’s my hope that this event will help inspire a new generation of astronauts and researchers from Virginia, and I appreciate Dr. Lindgren taking the time to share his story at his alma mater.”
Since graduating from Robinson, Lindgren has notched some out-of-this-world accomplishments, per his NASA bio.
Selected as one of 14 members of NASA’s 20th astronaut class in 2009, he now has 311 days in space and two spacewalks under his belt. That experience came as a crew member on the agency’s 44th and 45th expeditions to the International Space Station in 2015, and as commander of its SpaceX Crew-4 mission.
Lindgren and three other crew members in that mission — NASA’s fourth commercial flight overall and first in the “Freedom” capsule manufactured by Elon Musk’s private company — splashed back down to Earth on Oct. 14, 2022 after 170 days in orbit.
During his time in space, Lindgren helped conduct hundreds of scientific experiments that dealt with subjects like growing crops in space and the impact of life in microgravity on hearing, according to NASA. As part of Expedition 44, he was among the first people to eat lettuce grown in space.
A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Lindgren grew up in the Midwest and England before moving to Virginia for his last three years of high school. His parents still live in Burke.
For his undergraduate education, he attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, serving as an instructor and jumpmaster for the school’s “Wings of Blue” parachuting team. He later went to medical school and got certified in emergency medicine, supporting NASA as a flight surgeon before becoming an astronaut.
Photo courtesy NASA/Flickr
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