Carroll Academy for International Studies wins Sara Jaffarian Award
Contact: Angela Thullen
Program Officer, Communications
ALA Public Programs Office
312-280-5286
NEWS
For Immediate Release
May 12, 2009
CHICAGO - The library of the Carroll Academy for International Studies in Houston is the winner of the 2009 Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award for Exemplary Humanities Programming, the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office (PPO) announced. The award will be presented in July at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. The Carroll Academy library will receive a plaque recognizing the achievement, a cash award of $4,000 and inclusion of the winning program as a model in a national training session on library humanities programs.
Sally Rasch, librarian at Carroll Academy, developed and submitted the winning program, entitled “Learning about the World with a Global Perspective.” Working with the Carroll Academy’s curriculum requirements on International Studies, the library’s “Learning about the World” program gave students an expanded global knowledge through the creative, hands-on study of world regions, languages, governments and the immigration experience. Throughout the school year, students participated in geography lessons, storytelling and music activities, mock world council meetings, book-themed school parades and an immigration simulation.
“Carroll Academy’s project integrated many different facets of cultures around the world, including activities about people, ecology, immigration, literature, opera and world organizations,” said Lisa Hathcock, chairperson of the Jaffarian Award selection committee. “The humanities activities were designed so that there was strong student participation with an emphasis on right brain thinking and were differentiated so many different learning styles were addressed.”
The Sara Jaffarian Award was established in 2006 to recognize and promote excellence in humanities programming in elementary and middle school (K-8) libraries. It is presented annually by the Public Programs Office, in cooperation with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and named for Sara Jaffarian, whose donation to ALA’s Cultural Communities Fund established the award. Jaffarian, a retired school librarian and long-time ALA member, spent her career passionately advocating for school libraries in every school. The Sara Jaffarian Award is selected annually by a committee comprising members of the ALA Public and Cultural Programs Advisory Committee (PCPAC) and AASL.
Established in 1992, the ALA Public Programs Office provides leadership, resources, training and networking opportunities that help all types of libraries develop and host cultural programs for adults, young adults, children and families. For more information about the Public Programs Office, the ALA Cultural Communities Fund and the Sara Jaffarian Award, please visit the Public Programs Office Web site at
www.ala.org/publicprograms.
