We are proud to announce that in early December SPIRIT SERIES was awarded a prestigious $100,000 Access Challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Endowment — an independent federal agency created in 1965 to encourage and support innovation in the Humanities — awards grants to top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers. The Humanities Access Challenge grant is new at NEH, with 33 other organizations across America in this first cohort of recipients, including: Minnesota Public Radio, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, University of Michigan, Chicago History Museum, Queens Borough Public Library, and the only other grantee from the state of California — UCLA. Needless to say, we are truly honored to be in this august company and to receive national validation for the work that we do in K-12 education. The challenge grant, to be matched 1:1 by contributions from foundations and donors, will be used to launch a Northern California location for SPIRIT SERIES in 2018.