I have an MFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University and teach college photography. I am available for artist talks and artist workshops exploring a variety of digital and analog processes such as digital photography, digital collage, darkroom photography, cyanotypes, and more! I am also offering the following pre-college summer 2025 workshops in Darkroom Photography, Digital Collage and College Portfolio Prep at SUNY Albany campus. For more information visit: https://www.albany.edu/summer-camps-2025#art-writing-camps

We offer programs by Joseph Bruchac, whose books for young readers have been adopted by the NYS curriculum and may be be found in virtually every school library nationwide. For the last 40 years he has been a popular visiting author at schools throughout New York State and the nation. Dr Bruchac’s visits may include traditional Native American music and storytelling and relate directly to themes of environmental awareness, respect for others, and conflict resolution. Programs can be individually tailored to the needs of the school, focus on one or more of his books, or be more general in nature. He also offers workshops in writing poetry and in storytelling. He may also be accompanied—at no extra cost other than food and lodging—by his son Jesse Bruchac, musician, storyteller, film writer and linguist, who is the founder and Director of the School of Abenaki at Middlebury College.

Discover the natural beauty of the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Up Yonda Farm offers 73 acres with a spectacular view overlooking Lake George. Natural history exhibits featuring a diorama with native wildlife are housed in the museum. Watch for wildlife outdoors as you hike along one of our woodland trails. There are perennial gardens, including a butterfly garden from June through August. Programs for schools and groups are available by reservation. Our science and nature programs can be a great supplement to the classroom education received by your students. The programs we offer compliment New York State core curricula, are NGSS aligned, and give the students an opportunity to learn in a very hands-on environment. Most of our programs are offered rain or shine and can be presented indoors and outdoors. Program topics include Adirondack Birds, Animal Adaptations, Changing Trees, Forest Food Webs, Maple Sugaring, Monarch Butterflies, Night Sky, Orienteering, Owl Pellet Dissection, Pollinators, Pond Life, Snowshoeing, Watersheds and Woodworking. Full program descriptions, pricing info, and program request forms are available on our website at https://upyondafarm.com/programs/

Professional cartoonist Duane presents an all student assembly that promotes GOAL SETTING, the power of LITERACY and importance of EDUCATION with the four words required for success that all students need to hear! HUNDREDS of schools nationwide have invited Duane into their gymnasiums, auditoriums, cafeterias, libraries and classrooms to motivate, encourage and inspire their students. From full student assemblies, award celebrations, a little motivation before state testing, literacy events and evening parent programs, all Duane needs is an easel and a flip-chart to captivate your students attention and deliver an inspiring and motivating message! Duane was able to begin his professional career while still in school utilizing the pillars of achievement found within DRAW YOUR DESTINY, and he can’t wait to share them with YOUR students!

We offer a one of a kind school mural program where the students are centered in the work and entire process from brainstorming to final painting. Our mural process involves a brainstorming session where we have the students drawing and coming up with ideas that touch on the theme that is chosen by their school. We then take those drawings and create a digital sketch using the actual drawings from the students. We involve every student from the school in the painting process so that they are able to have ownership and a hand in the creative process. Our unique approach creates a sense of joy and excitement for all participating students and staff as we are able to transform these hallways into large colorful pieces of public art that have an authentic student look and feel to them. We make sure that the final outcome looks professional and clean while still elevating student work from the paper to the wall. We have painted with over 7000 students in the past 2 years creating about 25 murals! We also offer a variety of arts based hands on workshops crafted for all age groups like mask making, printmaking, paper pulp sculptures, paper mache and much more!

You Inc provides engaging programming for K-12 to encourage students to develop good money habits and growth mindsets about money early on and continuously throughout their development. Topics related to money and personal finance should be introduced to students at each grade level. Just as math and reading have several different facets and sub topics for children to master from kindergarten to 12th grade and beyond, personal finance also has its own nuances and categories that can and should be mastered early in a child's development and continue to evolve into more complex topics and subtopics as children grow and develop into young adults. By doing so, we develop a generation of financially secure adults who experience better financial outcomes due to making better financial decisions. Our workshops help students understand the basics of earning, saving, budgeting, and giving back. For younger children, we use interactive activities and storytelling to introduce financial concepts in a fun and relatable way, laying the groundwork for good habits and smart decision-making. For older students, we dive deeper, covering topics such as goal-setting, smart spending, credit, and pathways to building wealth—all tailored to prepare them for the responsibilities of adulthood. We also emphasize the importance of financial independence and provide students with tools to break free from cycles of financial instability that they may see in their communities. Our culturally competent approach ensures that all students see themselves reflected in the material, and we prioritize empathy, understanding, and real-life application in a way that fosters financial inclusion for all. Our team is certified in financial education from the National Financial Educators Council with over a decade of experience teaching financial literacy across New York State. We are also a certified NYS Minority and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE). Our goal is to help K-12 students gain essential life skills and grow up feeling confident and capable in managing their financial lives. Let's inspire a generation of students who are not only financially aware but also equipped to pursue their dreams with a strong, sustainable financial foundation. In addition to k-12 programs, we offer Family Finance Programs for the entire family unit, including parents and caregivers. These one day programs can take place in the evening and students attend with their parents/guardians and two separate workshops take place simultaneously, equipping the family ecosystem to elevate their money conversations in the home, and providing tools and strategies to help parents optimize their family finances while nurturing a culture of healthy financial habits in the home.

Richard Celestin Consulting Group LLC offers skill development, social-emotional and law-based programming and services to K-12 school communities, including students, parents and teachers. This includes workshops, assemblies, trainings and consulting. The founder, Richard Celestin, Esq., is an experienced attorney, educator and author with extensive experience working with youth and adults within schools, CBO's and not-for-profits. Topics include college and career readiness, debate and advocacy, healthy relationships, social media use, critical and consequential thinking and much more.

As a read aloud advocate, I believe in the power of stories to nurture empathy, self-confidence, and imagination in young readers. My award winning books focus on social-emotional themes that support early childhood development, creating meaningful narratives that resonate with children, educators, and parents alike. *Fantastically Me!* (ages 0-8) touches on themes of self-belief and growth mindset. Whereas *Making Friends Together * (ages 0-5) is a board book that addresses kindness and friendship. In my author visits, I bring these stories to life for students up to 2nd grade through engaging, interactive read-aloud sessions, inviting children to explore their own feelings and ideas in a fun, safe environment. For older elementary students, I offer hands-on writing workshops that guide them in crafting their own stories, encouraging self-expression, creativity, and a love for writing. These sessions are designed to inspire confidence in young writers, from filling in imaginative story blanks to creating characters and worlds that spark their curiosity. With each visit, my goal is to leave students not only with a memorable experience but also with the tools and encouragement to tell their own stories.

Kelly de la Rocha is a poet, journalist and founder of poem RENOVATION, a fun, web-based word challenge that promotes literacy, creativity and social-emotional learning. The software was a prize-winner at the 2024 Yale Innovation Summit. Every day, poem RENOVATION presents users with a scrambled snippet of literature. They select words that resonate with them, then move them around on a digital canvas. The rules? There are none. The objective? To create. During her lively, interactive workshops, Kelly details how poem RENOVATION came to be and how it works. Students have an opportunity to create a poem, phrase and/or word art on the site, share their creations, and receive positive feedback. Along the way, constructs including perspective, voice and figurative language are discussed. Poem RENOVATION has been used by hundreds of students from New York to California and has become a favorite, ongoing activity in a number of classrooms. Workshops: *Are appropriate for middle and high school classes *Can be personalized to include literature of the teacher’s choice *Are offered in-person or via video call WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING: “The level of confidence that I saw grow in my students was amazing, from not being willing to share to being willing to share, from sitting quietly and not saying much, to offering a compliment or asking a question to better understand one of their peers.” ~Teacher Valerie Wadsworth, O’Rourke Middle School, Burnt Hills, NY They’re loving it! ~Teacher Renee Duran, Stone Valley Middle School, Alamo, CA It empowered them and it brought them to a place where they wanted to share what they made and they love that their creation was never wrong. I think that was what really made the students feel so special and so willing.” ~Teacher Dena Marie de la Rocha, Gowana Middle School, Clifton Park, NY “I immediately understood the impact it could have on public school children’s literacy and social-emotional development. ~Lauren B. Carpenter, Ed.M, Director of Education Programs, Albertus Magnus College, New Haven, CT

TEAM Adventure is a team of Central New York professionals from counseling, education, and public service who have joined together to provide high quality adventure programming to people of all ages. We have been providing our services for 19 years. WE OFFER A WIDE VARIETY OF PROGRAMS: Indoor/Outdoor Low Challenge Course: Join us at the New Adventure Center in Liverpool, NY. The AC is located conveniently on Wetzel Road. We have accommodations for up to 100 participants with a large indoor portable element space and a wooded outdoor low element site with plenty of parking. Team-building Events for Sports teams: Regardless of the sport, TEAM Adventure facilitators are experts at bringing out the best in your athletes. Through experiential learning we take a group of individuals and make them into a functioning, communicating, engaged team. We facilitate the building of relationships, trust and bonding. On site Workshops: TEAM Adventure facilitators will come to your site with our portable games & initiatives. We use Adventure as a tool for learning. We do community building programs, Ubuntu Leadership programs, character building workshops, Emotional Intelligence programs, etc. A customized program will be designed for your group based on the objectives and goals that you want to achieve. Adirondack Adventures: TEAM Adventure will arrange overnight accommodations at an Adirondack Great Camp for your group, including meals and a challenge course experience. We also provide guide service for wilderness camping, canoeing/kayaking, rock climbing, caving and ADK High Peak hiking. Educator Training: TEAM Adventure has worked with educators from many districts in the Central New York area in the use of Experiential Education & the Adventure Learning Model to help their students succeed both academically and socially. We will come to your building and do single or multiple day trainings, providing your teachers new tools and skills to enhance their curriculum and build community. Our workshops make a great staff development day that is energizing and useful. We can align our programs with the “common core” curriculum. Corporate Training: TEAM Adventure’s experienced trainers use adventure experiences as a tool to create organizational change. We design professional development workshops for small businesses and corporate groups focused on improving team performance, developing creative problem solving and resolving conflicts. Youth Programs: TEAM Adventure works with young people from kindergarten through college. We design programs that include engaging ground-level initiatives and cooperative games as well as low and high challenge course activities. Our experiential problem-solving activities empower students to develop creativity and insight and then apply these skills to real-life situations. Adventure in the Classroom: TEAM Adventure is a leader in bringing adventure to the classroom. We have been running in-service programs for local teachers in the Syracuse area for over 15 years. If you would like to set up a professional development class for your staff call us at (315)415-4323.

1st Amendment-1st Vote, Inc is a non-partisan civic engagement opportunity for high school teens who identify as girls to engage in the democratic procress and impagine themselves in elected office or professional government-relations positions. Our VISION: gender parity in US elected offices at local, state and national levels. In 2020, this pathway to government leadership program produced an award-winning short film series: "Virtual Video Visits to 11 Historic Sites Along the Central NY Women's Rights Corridor" highlighting the legacy and way-of-life of Haudenosaunee Clan Mothers.

Our educational programs allow learners of all ages to see live birds of prey up-close and to learn about the impressive adaptations and behaviors of these remarkable birds. We also discuss the conservation issues that impact them and how to make a difference. Several different Birds of Prey programs are available with discussion on the various species behaviors and habitats along with hands-on learning with real feathers, talons and bones, as well as information on local wildlife, wildlife rehabilitation and what to do if you find injured or orphaned wildlife. In addition, we offer owl pellet dissection programs, we bring one owl (who sits on his perch supervising during the presentation). We talk about the owl and the pellet process and then move on to dissecting. We provide the pellets, plates to dissect on, diagrams to help identify the bones and baggies to take home their discoveries. All programs are designed according to the audience. Special requests are always considered.