FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #208 Turning Schoolwork Into Community Change
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Schoolwork shouldn’t disappear into a folder. It should matter to real people. That’s the idea behind my conversation with Louis Bon-Ami, executive director of Hope Spring International, an education nonprofit using community-engaged research and applied learning to strengthen education systems in Fredericksburg and beyond.
Louis shares how 23 years in the military and a lifetime of academic work pushed him to build a consortium model that connects universities with K-12 school districts. We talk about why community-engaged scholarship is gaining traction, what it looks like when research and service are designed with practitioners, and how these partnerships can support workforce development by giving students experiential learning that prepares them for real-world work.
We also dig into a project close to home: a literacy fundraiser Gala on October 10 that supports a “one book, one school” initiative at Hugh Mercer Elementary School in Fredericksburg City Public Schools. Think books, celebration, and creativity, including student-made movie trailers premiering at Hooky Entertainment at Spotsy Mall during the first week of March around Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Louis explains how the whole-school collaboration works across grades and why the bigger goal is simple: helping kids fall in love with learning.
If you care about literacy, education innovation, and community partnerships that actually deliver, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a quick review to help more neighbors find the show.
Louis Bon-Ami
Hope Spring International
info@HopespringIntl.org
1229 Garrisonville Rd Ste 204, Stafford, VA
Welcome To FXBG Neighbors
Speaker 1This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
SpeakerWelcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We've got Lou Bonami. He is the executive director of Hope Spring International. Lou, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2Thank you so much for having me, Dori. I'm excited to be here.
SpeakerI'm really excited to learn all about you and more about your organization.
What Hope Spring International Does
SpeakerSo let's start there. Share with us what is Hope Spring International?
Speaker 1Cool.
Speaker 2Hope Spring International is an education and applied research organization that focuses on strengthening education systems. We do that through consulting and also education support services. Now you hear the word international in our name. While we're focused there, we do believe that all things start local. And so, yes, we do have a presence here and are working with organizations here in Fredericksburg City, which I'd love to tell you about or will like to tell you about during this interview and also some of the things that we're doing internationally.
SpeakerAmazing. Amazing. So tell me a little bit about you. I want to learn your story and how this organization came to be.
Louis’ Military To Education Path
Speaker 2Sure. Okay. So I served 23 years in the military. And uh during my tenure in the Marine Corps, um, I racked up some academic degrees. Um I've, you know, done the bachelor's, uh, you know, master's, PhD, then now I'm back in school, graduate school to get another master's degree. Who does that? Right. And I always get looks from folks with doctorates to go, man, why would you do that? I mean, are you glutton for punishment? But um, no, it's it's it's the thing where I I learned, I'm a professional student. I really I'm a nerd that way. I and I just love learning. And so, but what really got me was this experience of having arbitrary work in school, work that went nowhere. I mean, all these, I mean, I've got drawers filled with CDs and thumb drives, if you remember what those things are. I mean, you know, of work and essays that I've written since undergrad uh school. And so I thought to myself, what if there was an organization that actually did community-engaged work and that and that provided opportunities for faculty and students to engage in things that are meaningful for the community and work that's actually going somewhere. And that's what Hope Spring is. We we I built something that is built on a consortium model where we have partnerships with universities in the US and internationally, um, and like also the Fredericksburg City Public School District, where this work is, you know, is something that our our faculty, students, and their staff can really get engaged in, volunteers and community can get engaged in and work that goal somewhere, not just for a letter grade, but something that really changes communities.
SpeakerI love this so much. And you know, I'm a former uh public school teacher, and so this speaks to me, and I just love the mission so much. And I I wonder, um it's quite revolutionary, yet seems so um common sense. What kind of um response are you receiving from the community?
Why Community-Engaged Research Works
Speaker 2I'll I'll tell you. Um, so um when I knock on the doors of these deans of School of Education, um researchers, they're blown away. They're like, this is exactly what we're looking for, exactly what we need. And what I find is happening is more universities are moving to this community-engaged sort of approach when it comes to scholarship and research that is well received. But now the thing is getting okay, those universities connected with P through 12, K through 12 districts to go, hey, we really want to work together and solve problems or look at ways to innovate in this space. Can we do that under the umbrella of community-engaged research, community-engaged work, practitioner sort of uh focused work? And the answer is yes. Um, so folks are really excited about this. Um, they're excited about this for their students as well, because it's an answer to like the workforce development space as well, where there's a pathway to go, wait, we can actually get our kids to do applied learning, experiential learning, and practice the crap before we actually send them out. Yes, we're on board. And so I'm seeing positive um reaction and it's and it's very and and the community at large is very receptive.
SpeakerThat's amazing. I'm really excited to to watch this grow and and to see what comes comes
Gala Fundraiser For Local Literacy
Speakerfrom it. And I understand that you have a gala coming up to help raise some funds. So tell us all about that.
Speaker 2Okay. I'm I'm super excited about this because it's an opportunity for us to highlight one of our elementary schools, um, the administrator there, um, and the teachers, the entire community that's really come together behind a one book, one school program. Now, I met with the amazing Dr. Marcy Catlett, um our superintendent of Fredericksburg City Public Schools here uh last fall. And she says, Lou, here's the situation that we're in. And so she really wants, you know, the student population to thrive when it comes to their achievement in math and reading, just all around. And so since that meeting, I said, you know what, I'm gonna dedicate my time to learning more about the school district. And I partnered with an organization out of Michigan. Um, they are tell folk tellers, sorry, folk tellers literacy um um program. And they did something to where they took a one book, one school program and enhanced it with creative sort of activities. And so what we've done is we've replicated that program here for Fredericksburg. And so the Gala that we have um um on October 10th um this fall, it is in partnership with the Fredericksburg City Public Schools, where we're raising money for literacy and and and the love of learning, um, to where the funds will go to um really support this initiative for developing a love for learning for those students at Hugh Mercer Elementary School, where we're starting
Bringing Books To Life On Screen
Speaker 2this program. And what does that look like? For folk tellers, what they did with their program was they actually created this box, right, where there's books in it, and then there's these little Oscar trophies or red carpet, right? To where the kids get done reading the book and the teacher rolls out the red carpet and then gives out these little Oscar trophies. But then the the the founders of this this this program, they they are former Disney uh film producers, right? And so what they did was they partnered with the local theater, and so the books came to life where now the kids are making original trailer movies from these books and then being shown at the movie theater. So we've replicated that when we partnered with Hooky Entertainment right here at Spotsy Mall, right? Um and uh March in March, the first week of March is Dr. Seuss's birthday. So, in partnership with Hugh Mercer Elementary School, led by the amazing Dr. Brenda Russ, we have partnered with Hugh Mercer to not only um read these books, but to create original movie trailers that will be shown during the first week of March, Dr. Seuss's birthday at Hooky Entertainment, right at Spotsy Mall, where we will invite the community to come see uh the premiere of these uh movies. Um, and then we will also get to award a bigger Oscar trophy to the winning class. Um, so look forward to that. So that is what that will support. The gala will support that work.
SpeakerThat's the coolest thing, and such a cool thing to have here in our community because we haven't had anything like that. So, congratulations to you for bringing this to us and what a gift, these kids. It sounds so exciting.
Whole-School Collaboration Across Grades
Speaker 2We're so excited about it. I mean, we're gonna see so much creativity come out of this. I mean, when I spoke to Dr. Russ, um, she said, well, we can make this even bigger, right? So where the second graders will be the ones that we're focused on because they take the SOLs, their third and fifth grade year, but it'll give us some time to see how they're improving. But not only that, we're gonna align a third, fourth, and fifth grade class to every second grade class. Now imagine this. The third graders they get to do the artwork based on the book. The fourth graders get to partner with the art teacher, let's say, to create the backgrounds for this original trailer movie. The fifth graders partner with this music teacher to create an original scores. Now you have second, third, fourth, and fifth graders all collaborating, right, to make this original piece. And we've not forgotten the lower student, the the low the lower classes. That's the set, that's the first graders, kinder, and pre-K's. They're all gonna have their own activities, but it's an all-school affair to where everyone comes together and and we're teasing out different elements of the book, history, I mean, literature, all the different areas that kids are gonna see in the SOL test. Um, I mean, we're pulling all those out, right? So they get like a sort of an all-encompassing um sort of learning experience from this. So we're really excited about it.
SpeakerThat's amazing. I mean, and and the skills that they're learning go far beyond the subjects, you know. Uh just the for them to be able to see what can come from a collaboration that big is probably gonna stay with them their whole life.
Speaker 2That's it, you know, and and the question I want them to ask is wait, and all this came from a book? Yes, this imagination came from a book now. Let's dive into more books to figure out what we can create, right?
SpeakerYeah, cool, so cool. I love it.
Sponsorships And How To Help
SpeakerSo, how can the community rally around this project? What what can what can the community or businesses do to support you?
Speaker 2Sure. So we're looking for sponsorships um for the gala itself that will help to fund for the different um aspects or elements of this project. And so we do have a link that is available on our website, um, Hope Spring International. That's Hope Spring uh spelled out international is abbreviated, intl.org, um, where there's a banner there where you can click on that um that will take you straight to the RSVP for the gala and an opportunity to sponsor um as well. Um so be on the lookout for that. Um, there's also information on our socials. So we have Instagram and Facebook as well. You can go there for information.
SpeakerAmazing.
A Young Nonprofit With Global Reach
SpeakerIs there anything that you would like the listeners to know that we haven't already talked about?
Speaker 2You know what? I'll tell you, um we are a nonprofit 501c3. And when you look at our organization, our website, it looks like we've been around for at least 10 years, right? And that's due to due to the amazing work of our team. Like we we really believe in the vision um and and our mission at Hope Spring. But you know, we we've only been around really for a year. I mean, we're working on two years, but I mean, it really is a testament to to just how much we believe in what we're doing. So, yes, we're still looking to grow financially, um, while operationally, I mean, we're we're we're moving at a very good pace with um signed uh MOUs or um MoUs our memorandums of understanding, sorry, uh with organizations in Africa. Uh, we have some in the Caribbean and the Pacific as well. So we're moving in terms of the the vision, um, but financially, I mean, there's always room for that. So we're always looking for folks who would support us um and come alongside our vision and mission. Um, because our website can sometimes say, man, these these guys are are are well established. No, we're still growing. We still need your support.
SpeakerAmazing.
Thanks And Local Business Nominations
SpeakerLou, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing Hope Spring International with us.
Speaker 2Thank you so much, Dori, for having me.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.