As the work of the Carlston Foundation has continued to expand, so too have the costs associated with the growth of the numbers of teachers we have honored over the years, the Annual Educational Symposia we offer each year, the on-going work we are doing with Colleges and Universities to help recruit potential teachers and the development of the Teacher Leadership Academy. Since the time the Carlston FamilyFoundation was no longer associated with Broderbund Software and the Board changed the mission of the Foundation to focus on awarding California High School Teachers, the Foundation has not made any attempts to raise funds or seek sponsorships to cover the growing expenses of the Foundation's activities.

As the scope of our work grows, we have made the decision to begin to find small ways to cover some of the costs associated with the additional activities . In 2917 and 2018 we received two grants from the Stuart Foundation to cover expenses related to our Teacher Leadership Academy.

​Lindsey is a seasoned educator and advocate for her students. In this talk she sets the stage for the hardships that immigrant and refugee high school students are currently facing. She suggests what we can do as a society to support and help them achieve success, starting with extending more time for them to become proficient English speakers.    

Since 2009 Lindsey Bird has been the Social Science instructor and coordinator of the Language Institute, a specialized program serving immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeking high school students in Modesto, California. All newcomers to Modesto City Schools are consolidated to Grace M. Davis High School, where a "school within a school" approach provides targeted language acquisition, acculturation support, and access to mainstream content as rapidly as possible. 

​Everyone seems to have a voice in the immigration debate—except immigrants, themselves. Hear immigrants tell their stories in their own words, on their own terms—and for the first time.