UNI Awards Fellowship for Reuben’s Writing Curriculum

Reuben received University of Northern Iowa’s 2025 Veridian Community Engagement Fellowship for the Creative Youth Empowerment Writing Program, a writing curriculum he developed for the Waterloo Community School District to address the diverse needs of its students. 

From Reuben’s Instagram: 

June brought a delightful surprise🏆👨🏻‍🏫✍️ I discovered I won an award! I received the 2025 Veridian Community Engagement Fellowship for a creative writing curriculum I developed. This is part of a fantastic ongoing partnership with Arts Ignite, University of Northern Iowa Gallagher Bluedorn center, and Waterloo Community School District.

✨The program is designed to engage students of all skill levels in the writing process, including those that can find it the hardest. English Language Learners, students with learning differences, and reluctant writers get to have fun tapping their creativity while acquiring essential academic and SEL skills.

✨And each spring I get to lead residencies at Waterloo schools (shout out Becker and Kingsley Elementary!). I also had the privilege of training Waterloo’s English Language Development teachers on the curriculum.

The grant from this award helped make that possible 🙏📝✨

✨I’m honored to be named alongside a team of difference-making educators & administrators: Abby Norgren, Simona Boroianu and Jennifer Onuigbo. Together with Arts Ignite and UNI’s Kelli McCarthy, we’ve been able to deliver arts integration-driven writing instruction to hundreds of kids during the last two school years.

✨The grant was awarded during a moment of administrative transition, and we just learned about it. I was back in Iowa for Arts Ignite’s annual summer program, so I swung by UNI to meet the trophy in person.

👋🏆