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Today, the Bezos Scholars Program (BSP) is proud to announce School for Advanced Studies North student Flavia Nunez and educator Michele Mar as part of the 2021 Scholars cohort. The Bezos Scholars Program inspires and challenges young people to address issues they are passionate about in their communities.
Flavia is dedicated to improving literacy and wants other immigrant and underserved children to fall in love with reading just like she did.
In the past year, Flavia has dedicated her free time to working on writing her first book of fiction which is about a girl who builds her confidence while journeying into the Greek Underworld. In 2021, it won an Honorable Mention Award for Novel Writing from Scholastic Art & Writing. Flavia also makes bracelets for her literacy project, Bracelets for Books. She is an Advanced Placement National Scholar, recipient of her school’s Harvard Book Award, and the Poetry Out Loud champion for Florida.
The applicant pool is competitive; students selected are one in twelve representing eight states this year. Scholars are selected based on commitment to their education, demonstrated leadership abilities, willingness to embrace challenges, and the desire to create positive change in their communities.
Flavia will be supported by her educator scholar Michele Mar, a teacher at School for Advanced Studies.
Michele’s dream has always been to connect her students with professional learning communities, both globally and locally, to bring attention and awareness to abuse prevention for all students. She earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Language and Literacy from Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. She was named the Gilder Lehrman Teacher of the Year for Florida in 2018 and completed a total 45 credits in American History at Ashland and Pace Universities.
The Bezos Family Foundation launched the Scholars program in 2005 to provide young people a platform to design solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing their communities. The program usually begins with an all-expenses paid trip to the Aspen Ideas Festival. The week is filled with leadership training, panel discussions, and exclusive conversations with many of the world’s most acclaimed scientists, journalists, artists, and global thought leaders. This experience sets the stage for the challenge ahead: launching sustainable projects, known as Local Ideas Festivals (LIFs), to transform their communities.
Due to ongoing pandemic safety concerns, the Scholar trip to Aspen slated for late June 2021 was cancelled. The program is still excited to host engaging virtual programming during the time they would have been in Aspen and the 2021 cohort will participate in the virtual Aspen Ideas Festival slated for June 27-30.
The topics and themes of LIFs are as diverse as the Scholars themselves and are designed to align Scholars’ passions with an existing community need. Many address inequities in education, advocating for the rights of minorities and underrepresented communities, and the need to create space for civil discourse. Since the program’s inception, more than 50,000 attendees have participated in these change projects.
