Ladd fund supports independent studies tied to Kate Furbish 
March 2021
Mo Kilani ’21 and Norrell Sherman ’21 are awarded the Richard ’62 and Sabra Ladd Fund for Community-Engaged Learning to support independent studies on Multilingual Mainers with Prof. Margaret Boyle, including in-person instruction in select PreK-1 classrooms at Kate Furbish and theories in language acquisition and anti-bias education.
Diverse Book Finder partners with Multilingual Mainers
February 2021
Rosemary Nguyen ’21, Sam Kingsbury ’21, Roshaun Christopher ’22 and Norell Sherman ’21 write about language representation and cultural identity in US picture books, spotlighting titles with Japanese, Spanish and French.
Virtual Instruction at Kate Furbish Elementary
November 2020
“It isn’t only about language proficiency and early access to languages, it’s also about culture and identity in Brunswick, Maine, and why it matters that students are exposed to a variety of languages and cultures.”
Launch of Classroom Partnerships
September 2020 – Sixteen Bowdoin College students partner with Kate Furbish Elementary classroom teachers to reach over 180 students, teaching Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese and Arabic. “The Bowdoin students are bringing world language instruction to a public school that cannot provide it due to budget and staffing constraints. At the same time, they’re introducing children in grades pre-K to second grade to different cultures in the US and around the world.”
Virtual Summer Workshop
August 2020– Professors Kim Faber (Oberlin College, director of Spanish In the Elementary Schools) and Margaret Boyle (Bowdoin College, director of Multilingual Mainers) facilitate workshop on language acquisition and anti-bias education for Brunswick School teachers.
Professional Development for K-2 Teachers
October 2019 – Margaret Boyle offers Professional Development workshop for all Brunswick K-2 teachers on multilingualism and diversity in the classroom at Coffin Elementary School.
Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Seed Grants
Spring 2019 – “Margaret Boyle is partnering with Coffin Elementary School in Brunswick, Maine, to pilot an early-elementary school humanities curriculum that will build intercultural understanding of literature, history, and art through sustained engagement with world languages and cultures.”
Bowdoin College students help Brunswick elementary school kids
April 2018 – “In February, reading teacher Annie Young launched a lunchtime program in collaboration with Margaret Boyle, associate professor of romance languages and literature at Bowdoin College.”
Coffin Elementary School
April 2018 – “Erika Kiem, a Bowdoin College student, reads “Where the Wild Things Are” in German to a group of Coffin Elementary School first-graders in Brunswick on March 28.”
Grants in Action 2018
March 2018 – “Many of our students have never heard any languages besides English, so it’s really exciting for them to hear words in different languages. They also learn a little bit about the country and the culture from the readers, so it’s kind of an exciting adventure.”
2018 BCEF Grant Awards
March 2018 – “Funds to purchase picture books in multiple languages to compliment a program that has foreign language fluent Bowdoin students expose first and second graders to stories, rhymes, conversation, and songs in non-English languages.”
