Tate, Castellano and Lancaster receive YALSA’s Conference Scholarship Grants

For Immediate Release
Fri, 02/06/2015

Contact:

Nichole O’Connor

Program Officer

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

noconnor@ala.org

CHICAGO — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), awarded the 2015 Baker & Taylor/YALSA Conference Grants to Alicia Tate and Lisa Castellano. The Dorothy Broderick Student Scholarship was awarded to Lauren Lancaster. Each will receive up to $1,000 to attend the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco this summer.

The Baker & Taylor Conference Grant is awarded to first-time attendees at an Annual Conference. Recipients must be YALSA members and have between one and 10 years of experience working with teenagers. The Dorothy Broderick Student Scholarship is funded by YALSA's Leadership Endowment and is given to a graduate student attending the conference for the first time. 

Alicia Tate serves as the teen librarian at the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon. Since 2013, she has been providing programming, outreach and information services, along with training teen volunteers.

“Attending the ALA conference will be instrumental in providing me with professional development and networking opportunities that will help me gain a better understanding of the best practices in regards to serving teens and training library staff who interact with teens,” Tate said. “Attending the ALA conference will also give me the opportunity to learn more about getting involved with YALSA.”

Lisa Castellano has been the library media specialist at Larkspur Middle School in Virginia Beach, Virginia since September 2011. She teaches a diverse community of students and hopes to impart in them a love of leisure reading. Castellano believes that “students need as much unlimited access to ideas and information as possible, but they need guidance and encouragement on how to best use the ideas and information that they have.”

Lauren Lancaster is an MLIS student at the University of Pittsburgh. She will graduate in 2015 with several great library experiences on her resume including working with AmeriCorps at the Providence Public Library. Lauren currently works at the Allegheny County Library Association as a youth services intern. She is also the current president of the student chapter of the American Library Association-University of Pittsburgh and hopes to “bring the knowledge I gain at the annual conference back to my position at ACLA and with me into the future of my career.” Her philosophy for working with teens is “grounded in a respect of young adults as thoughtful, developing adults” and she works hard to advocate for teens.

The YALSA Travel Scholarships Jury, who selected these winners are: Chair Sarah Wethern, Douglas County Library, Alexandria, Minnesota; Jenna Goodall, Deerfield Public Library, Deerfield, Ill. ; Katherine Tekakwitha McCabe, Briarcliff Middle School & Briarcliff High School, Hartsdale, New York; Dr. Chantell L. McDowell, Worcester, Massachusetts; and Elizabeth Schneider, Monrovia Public Library, Pasadena, California.

Applications for the 2016 Baker and Taylor grant can be found on the Awards and Grants for Members page of the YALSA web site. Applications are due Dec. 1.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and library staff to engage, serve and empower teens.  For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390; or e-mail: yalsa@ala.org.