New Year, New Hopes for Our Dallas Children

By Mario Tarradell, Public Relations & Marketing Manager

A new year always brings fresh hope. It’s an opportunity to take a blank canvas and paint a dream.

For Dallas children, a new year ushers in a new semester at school, a chance to show off new clothes Santa delivered, and a possibility of looking at the gift of learning with rejuvenated eyes.

Here at Big Thought we also have hopes, goals and wishes for the children that we serve every day of every year. So with that in mind we’d like to offer a little bit of inspiration. A handful of our Big Thought visionaries, as well as our partners at Dallas ISD, reveal their hopes, goals and wishes for the children.

Here’s what they have to say:

“This year is filled with such promise for every child in Dallas.  We want to make summer a huge opportunity for kids to explore and learn in new and exciting ways.  That’s why we’ve partnered with Dallas ISD, the city of Dallas and hundreds of other partners to provide amazing hands-on and online DIY experiences to give all youth equal opportunity to learn. Summer is a time for kids to have fun, try things they’ve never done before and dream big. With the city as a classroom, who knows where their interests will take them!”

Gigi Antoni
President & CEO, Big Thought

“My hope for my Creative Solutions kids this year continues to be that they all feel important – valued, heard, worthy of happiness and success, because they are! I want to focus on helping my kids realize and claim their personal power because I know that once they do, they have the potential to make huge changes in the world.”

Allison Caldwell
Program Specialist, Creative Solutions Director

“I want our students to make something.  Whatever it is they listen to or read or wear or watch, I want them to try creating it themselves.”

Evan Cleveland
Creative Learning Specialist

“My hope for our students in this new year is for them to have tons of meaningful experiences, learn something new and feel successful in at least one thing each and every day. The students of Dallas should be able to not only see what they can do, but also who and what they can be.”

Kristina Dove
Program Manager, Partner Relations

“Our hope is to widen the opportunity of summer programming where students can participate in camps that are fun and relevant.”

Jaime Sandoval
Executive Director, Student Services, Dallas ISD

“I hope our students find opportunities to continue receiving quality programming during after-school and summer at locations where funding is expiring. My goals are to use this year to apply my attention towards developing pilot program models that are cheaper and more sustainable without a quality drop off. I wish more people understood how huge an asset creativity is, and that it is a skillset that can be taught.”

Sam Williamson
Senior Instructional Specialist