Derek Akal, 22, grew up in the famed coalfields of Harlan County, Kentucky. He’s a bit over six feet tall, he’s black, and he has an athlete’s build. Like many young people in central Appalachia, he is torn between a desire to find work at home where he can be close to family and the […]
Three years ago, the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative won a $30 million federal grant to support innovation and personalized learning in classrooms throughout eastern Kentucky. “One of the groups that may not have benefited right away was the vocational school students,” KVEC Associate Director Dessie Bowling explained. To remedy that, in 2016 the cooperative funded […]
Many people would be surprised to hear that Bill and Melinda Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg visited eastern Kentucky schools in 2017, but they came to learn about the innovative and wholistic educational approaches implemented at 22 school districts that are members of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. KVEC schools emphasize personalized learning, team projects, […]
Hope Hart is part of the new cohort of Appalachian Transition Fellows, a group of emerging leaders working with organizations and agencies in Appalachia to accelerate the transition to a diversified and resilient economy. For Valentine’s Day, Hope asked Fellows to describe what love in the context of working in a community means to them. […]
