First, I would like to thank my family members who are my hope roots. You all are my whole heart—my mother, Madelyn; my sister, Joanna and her family; my husband, Dave, and our sons, Nicholas and Matthew; and my deeply missed and cherished father, Marc and grandmother, Maria, whose love and legacy are with me every step of the way. I love you all infinitely. I am everything I am and everything I can and will be because of you and your eternal love and support.
I thank my extended families too—both personal and professional—for their companionship during these “unprecedented” times of uncertainty and for the collective hope they have shared, and helped me to find, create, remember, and celebrate.
I enthusiastically thank the authors of this book for their willingness to share these “hope moments” from their classrooms during times when hope may have seemed harder to find. Your words and your work to build hope anew is inspirational and aspirational. It has been a hope-filled journey to work with you on this project and to build a community of collaboration and hope in ELA education together along the way.
With thanks to the administration at SUNY Old Westbury for their support of my research sabbatical year to develop this book project. This time helped me to carve out critical moments of development to capture and cultivate, on the pages, hope moments found during these times. With gratitude to Dean Diana Sukhram at SUNY Old Westbury, who created a thoughtful foreword to this work and has encouraged and supported this project through its many stages. With appreciation to my SUNY Old Westbury colleagues who have shared stories of hope from their college classrooms, which has encouraged the growth of hope across our campus. It is an honor to be in community with you.
Finally, I would like to thank the students—at SUNY Old Westbury and in our K-12 partner schools across New York—who are the reason hope happens. None of this work is possible without your willingness to try, to believe, to trust, and to hope alongside your peers, your teachers, and your families. You are the hope heartbeats of our schools and our communities.