Message from our Executive Director
Expanding Opportunities, Impact, and Engagement!
As we move forward in 2025, we’re not just thinking bigger—we’re taking action to create new experiences, launching new programs, and providing more volunteer opportunities than ever before!
At Back 2 School America, our mission has always been about empowering students and teachers by providing essential school supplies. But our vision extends beyond the classroom—we’re building a movement that fosters educational success, community engagement, and lasting impact.
This year, we’re excited to introduce:
📚 New Build-A-Kit Experiences designed to support our corporate partners and students in innovative ways.
🙌 Expanded volunteer opportunities to engage even more supporters in hands-on, meaningful work.
🎉 More interactive experiences to connect communities and make an even greater difference.
We can’t do this without you! Whether you’ve been with us for years or are just joining our mission, your involvement fuels our growth and helps us reach more students in need. Stay tuned for exciting announcements in the coming months—we can’t wait to share this journey with you!
Thank you for being part of our Back 2 School America family. Together, we’re making a lasting impact!
Follow Our Impact
Are you following us online? Stay tuned for the official launch date and other exciting events we post on social media.
▶️ Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/back-2-school-america
▶️ Facebook: facebook.com/Back2SchoolAmerica
▶️ Instagram: instagram.com/back2schoolamerica
▶️ Tik Tok: tiktok.com/@back2schoolamerica
Focused on Community Impact
We are beyond excited to welcome Shelli Quintos as the newest member of the Back 2 School America family in the role of Community Impact Manager! 🎉
With a wealth of experience in community engagement and a deep passion for educational equity, Shelli will play a key role in expanding our outreach, strengthening partnerships, and ensuring our programs continue to create meaningful opportunities for students and families in need.
Please join us in giving Shelli a warm welcome—we can’t wait to see the impact she’ll make!
New Additions to the Board
We are excited to introduce our newest Board Members, who bring a wealth of experience, leadership, and passion for education to Back 2 School America. Their collective expertise will help us continue to expand our mission and impact.
Teresa Barajas – Executive Director of the Rauner Family YMCA. Teresa is a dedicated professional with deep experience in developing community engagement strategies that drive meaningful impact.
Collin Pullums – A seasoned leader in revenue operations and professional services delivery. Collin is a trusted advisor in the field of sales and revenue automation, bringing valuable insights to our team.
Thomas Schoen – An education leader, consultant, and business strategist dedicated to expanding access to high-quality learning opportunities for students and educators.
Shawn Scott (He/Him) – Director of Talent Acquisition at Vi Living, a luxury senior living company. Shawn manages a team of recruiters and plays a key role in driving recruitment strategies for the organization.
A Force for Good
At Back 2 School America, our mission is to equip students and teachers with the essential school supplies they need to succeed—both in the classroom and beyond. This month, we had the privilege of advancing that mission through an incredible partnership with Salesforce and Children First Fund at the Build-A-Kit event. The energy, dedication, and teamwork on display made it an unforgettable experience!
With boundless enthusiasm, the Salesforce team joined forces with us to assemble 1,000 school supply kits for local students in need. Thanks to our collaboration with Children First Fund, the philanthropic arm of Chicago Public Schools, these kits will reach students who need them most, reinforcing our shared commitment to educational equity.
We are deeply grateful to Salesforce and Children First Fund for their unwavering support in making a tangible impact on students’ lives. This event was a powerful reminder that when communities come together, we can break down barriers to learning and help pave the way for a brighter future.
Together, we’re building more than just school supply kits—we’re building opportunities, confidence, and success for the next generation!
Teacher Formation: The Uncomplicated and the Complex
Teacher preparation is both beautifully simple and incredibly complex. Universities like National Louis are embracing this duality, supporting PK-12 educators—especially diverse, multilingual paraprofessionals and career changers—through models that foster deep learning and collaboration. Learn how NLU is using technology to break down geographic barriers, to create professional growth opportunities that support the next generation of classroom leaders.
National Louis University’s Undergraduate College – Educator Preparation Program: Changing the American Educational Landscape One Student, One Teacher at a Time
By Dr. Douglas van Dyke, National Louis University
When we drop a phrase like “teacher preparation,” let’s pause for a moment to consider what’s compressed into those two words. Starting with the uncomplicated, many can likely agree we want teachers to be knowledgeable, thoughtful, skilled professionals—and compassionate, empathetic people who love both their subject matter and their students. Pretty uncomplicated. Now consider that every teacher, in every classroom, in every school, must have fluent knowledge in at least four domains: the art and science of teaching (pedagogy), the content they teach (discipline), how their students learn (psychology and human development), and, in the postdigital age, the ability to choose digital tools suited to both students’ developmental levels and teaching their disciplinary content (technology). Add to this their study of multiple educational philosophies while also incorporating their own personal experiences and worldviews. Teacher preparation is a dynamic, complicated course, indeed.
Project EDUCATE at National Louis University
At the National College of Education at National Louis University, we embrace both the complexity and simplicity of teacher education. As part of our grant-funded Project EDUCATE, our residency model seeks to increase the number and capacity of staff-to-teacher transition programs, specifically supporting diverse, multilingual candidates already working in schools as paraprofessionals or career changers.
Communities of Practice
A key feature of our residency program is the formation of communities of practice (CoPs) as collaborative, social learning spaces for our candidates. If you’re an educator, you’ve likely heard of professional learning communities (PLC’s)… or collaborative learning teams … or networked learning communities … or collaborative teacher teams… or – well, you get the idea. You may have even heard community of practice used to describe them. However, community of practice is not just another name for a PLC.
A CoP is a group of people engaged in collective learning within a shared domain. These communities are defined by three elements: (1) a shared domain that members care about and identify with; (2) a sense of community that develops among them; and (3) an understanding of their work as practice, along with a desire to learn not just with but from one another.2 Returning to our metaphor, CoPs help us navigate the complexities of teacher education by drawing from an uncomplicated source: recognizing our students as the experts in their own funds of knowledge and helping them leverage these as valid tools for learning and growth.
Virtual Community of Practice
A major complexity we face is that our candidates teach in seven different school districts across Chicagoland. So how do we create a CoP given the challenges of geography and scheduling? We put the “virtual” in the CoP—or “vCoP”. Our vCoP meets exclusively online, using two key digital platforms: Zoom for video conferencing and Miro as a digital whiteboard.
While video conferencing has become a routine part of post-COVID life, it remains a weirdly disembodied experience. We counter this by using the digital whiteboard to deepen and enrich the flattened video environment. Miro serves as our “third space,” where members collaborate synchronously and asynchronously. From setting community norms to prioritizing growth goals to posting learning artifacts for feedback, the digital whiteboard is a vital conduit through which domain, community, and practice flow. Over time, member contributions transform the canvas into a living archive—a repository of wonderings, decisions, experiences, and storytelling.
Centering People and Learning, Not Technology
That said, digital tools are just that: tools. They are means to an end, never more important than the people using them or the learning they need. What excites us is how members transcend the barriers of geography and scheduling, forging community and deep learning that would be otherwise impossible without such virtual spaces.
The Current and the Source
Teacher formation is challenging, rewarding work. We value the digital and dynamic course the vCoP takes. At the same time, our source remains simple: educators connecting, reflecting, and growing together. That’s the current we’re most proud to keep running—the current powered by what has always mattered in teacher education: community, curiosity, knowledge, and the advancement of strong teachers prepared to lead in a turbulent, 21st-century world.
Click here to learn more about the National College of Education at NLU and our teacher preparation programs, including residency and alternative certification.
References:
1: Deng, M.-D. (1996). Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony (1st ed). HarperCollins Publishers.
2: Wenger-Trayner, E., Wenger-Trayner, B., Reid, P., & Bruderlein, C. (2023). Communities of Practice Within and Across Organizations: A Guidebook (Second edition). Social Learning Lab. https://www.wenger-trayner.com/
Douglas van Dyke, EdD, is the internal program evaluator for Project EDUCATE and adjunct professor at National Louis University. In addition to the research goals of Project EDUCATE, his current research interests include exploring teachers’ curricular autobiographies as means for developing reflexive and empathetic practice; the impact of teacher digital literacy on digital instruction and student learning; and the informed, ethical, and practical applications of generative AI in education.
