At our February Board meeting, BEF leaders were thrilled to hear from 2024 grant recipient Joslyn Vendola. Joslyn teaches math in the EXCEL program at Brookline High School (and is the 2022 winner of the BEF’s Caverly Award for Excellence in Teaching!) and she received a 2024 grant along with several colleagues to design a drivers’ education program at BHS, specifically seeking to break down existing barriers to getting a driver’s license that are related to cost and to accessibility that exist for students with financial or learning challenges. Joslyn and her colleagues have taken the drivers’ education course and become licensed to teach students as well as to train other educators, and they’ve modified the curriculum and the structure of the program so as to make it more accommodating to students with special needs. The next step will be to open the classroom portion of the course to students, ideally this Spring. They are in the process of determining time slots that work both for students and educators to participate in the course, and they’re exploring options for procuring a vehicle that they can eventually use to provide the behind-the-wheel portions of the program. We were so proud and excited to hear of all the progress Joslyn and her colleagues have made – this will be an important new development for BHS which will make a real difference in the lives of many students!