Special thanks to Long Island Unitarian Universalist Fund in Long Island Community Foundation for the generous grant that supported our work on the Brave Journeys Study Guide project.
We thank Erika Duncan, our Founder and Executive Director, Dafny Irizarry, ENL teacher, founding director of Long Island Latino Teachers Association, and Helen Dorado Alessi, our Program Consultant, for bringing this project into being out of the realization that the stories of these young heroes needed to reach a wider audience.
We thank Susanne Marcus, Herstory Educational Consultant, Brave Journeys Study Guide Liaison and two-time president of NYS TESOL (New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) for all that she has contributed to our study guide project and the professional development workshops that accompany the initiative.
We thank Madison Yinger, our Media and Communications Consultant who has made this website come alive. Laurel Janssen Breen, Herstory’s board chair and long time educational researcher, and Amber Davis, Herstory’s Program Associate for the time and work they have put into creating this study guide platform. We thank our Herstory artist, Gwynne Duncan, for the paintings she has contributed to the book and this website.
We thank Helen Dorado Alessi, Elsa Sanchez and Erika Duncan for facilitating the workshops where these stories emerged, at Central Islip and Patchogue/Medford High Schools
We thank the following teachers and school counselors who made up our Brave Journeys Study Guide Team
- Dafny Irizarry and Patricia Christian, ENL teachers at Central Islip High School
- Jean-Lou Hogu and Danielle Golub, ENL teachers, and Carolina Perez, school counselor at Hempstead High School
- Herenia Padilla, ENL teacher (now program director) for Glen Cove Twilight Program
- Deadra Faulkner, director of counseling for the Westbury School District
- Denise Sullivan, ENL curriculum director, Michelle Marrone, Jessica Mills and Niccole Difrietus ENL teachers, and Yoeli Vargas, school counselor at Hampton Bays High School. (Denise Sullivan is now Superintendent at Remsenburg-Speonk School District and Michelle Marrone is now ENL director for the Patchogue/Medford School District.
We thank Dawn Attard, graduate intern at SUNY Old Westbury and long-time high school teacher for donating 120 hours to this project during the summer and fall of 2019.
We thank Herstory fellows, Belinda Castiblanco and Daniel Menzo for creating our Compendium of Clues for Teaching Brave Journeys as Literature and accompanying Vocabulary Videos.
We thank Herstory fellow Alijan Ozkiral for his video editing throughout.
We thank Bonnie Thivierge for helping us to link Herstory’s pedagogy to the core standards over the years.
We thank Herstory facilitators Helen Dorado Alessi and Milady Gonzalez for spearheading the teaching of Brave Journeys in classroom and zoom formats, to create a whole new cadre of newcomer writers.
We thank Herstory’s assistant facilitators Marcela Contreras Ortiz and Catalina Benavides for piloting the teaching of Brave Journeys in their workshops and sharing their impressions.
We thank our board members and partners in programming in the schools and the community, Devin Thornburg of Adelphi University, Jacqueline Thomas, transformation facilitator at Hempstead High School, and Ana Figueroa, policy council and volunteer coordinator for Long Island Head Start. We thank Suzy Sonenberg for her place at the helm in steering our movement for justice for 21 years.
We thank Susan Perretti for copy editing the articles that appear on this website.
We most especially thank the young people who wrote for Brave Journeys and the increasing group of young people who are writing out of inspiration by the book.