Attending NCTE 2024: Reflections from the Recipients of the Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Student Conference Grant

By Amber Moore and Joshua Palange

EDITORIAL NOTE

Children's literature scholarship and teaching praxis are at the heart of the Children's Literature Assembly. Undergraduate and graduate students who engage with children's literature are vital contributors to conversations in the field and to our future as a disciplinary community. To facilitate student participation in the assembly, CLA offers discounted memberships to students and has established the CLA Student Committee. The committee is exclusively composed of CLA student members and contributes substantively to CLA programming and other work. Each year, the CLA student committee organizes webinars whose recordings are available in the members-only section of the CLA website, recommends student representatives to standing CLA committees, and contributes volunteers to CLA's activities at the annual NCTE Conference.

Recognizing the significance of attending and presenting at national conferences for our student members' careers and aware of the financial burden conference attendance can pose, CLA has created the Vivian Yenika Agbaw Student Conference Grant. Named after the late Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, notable children's literature scholar and editor of the Journal of Children's Literature, the grants help defray registration and travel costs for the NCTE conference. They are managed by the CLA student committee and are awarded yearly dependent on available funding.

This year's grant recipients are Amber Moore, Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University, and Josh Palange, Master's in Library Science student at the University of Southern Mississippi. Below you will find their reflective notes on their upcoming travel to Boston for the 2024 NCTE Conference.

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At the Intersection of Gratitude and Hope

Boston, Massachusetts, "The Walking City." When NCTE announced their conference location this year, my heart leaped. Walking has always been my meditation, my way of processing the world one step at a time. That was until October 17th, when a car struck me in a crosswalk while walking my dog. While he emerged unscathed , I found myself navigating an unexpected landscape of fear and, surprisingly, profound gratitude.
 
There's a particular kind of fear that settles into your bones after an accident – the kind that makes you flinch at passing headlights and hold your breath at every intersection or car honking. But there's also a particular kind of healing that happens when you're surrounded by a community of literature teachers, those who understand that every human story carries both shadow and light.
 
This isn't a story about toxic positivity or rushing past the hard parts. Instead, it's about the way words and people can hold us when we're broken, how literacy becomes a bridge back to ourselves and each other. It feels fitting that NCTE's theme this year is "Heart, Hope, and Humanity" – three things I've found in abundance in my academic family. And so, I’d like to use this word-count to express my thanks to those who have had a pivotal role in reigniting my excitement to attend the conference this year.
 
To Dr. Angela Wiseman: You've taught me that vulnerability isn't just about being seen – it's about creating spaces where others feel brave enough to be seen too. Your brilliance is matched only by your compassion, and you've shown me how to wear both with grace.
 
To Dr. Crystal Chen Lee: You embody what it means to create belonging. Your heart-centered approach to scholarship reminds me daily that academic work is, at its core, human work.
 
To Samantha Duke: In letting me step back, you've helped me step forward. You've shown me that control isn't always about holding on – sometimes it's about trusting enough to let go.
 
To Callie Hammond: In your understanding, I've found reflection. In your friendship, I've found refuge.
 
As I prepare to walk the streets of Boston (more cautiously now, but still determined), I'm reminded of why we teach literature in the first place. We teach it because stories help us make sense of our wounds and our wonders. We teach it because every student carries within them a universe of potential, waiting to be recognized and realized.

When we dream about change, we're really dreaming about connection – the kind I've found in this community of literacy teachers and readers of the world who rallied around me. They remind me that education at its best is an act of hope, a belief that through words and understanding, we can build something better than what we inherited.

So thank you to these women, these scholars, these keepers of stories and hope. Through you, I've learned that our strongest moments often come not in our independence, but in the gentle acceptance of our interconnectedness. I cannot wait to walk the streets of Boston with you!

Amber Moore

NCTE Scheduled Sessions:

• Current Conversations about Young Adult Literature in the Classroom- "Turning Pages, Nurturing Hearts: YA Literature as Shepherds through Grief, Loss and Mourning." with Dr. Angela Wiseman | Nov. 22, 9:30-10:45
  
• "Preserving Dignity through Memory and Critical Literacy with Honor to the Japanese American Experience during WWII-Era Incarceration" with Dr. Crystal Chen Lee, Dr. Cathlin Goulding of the Yuri Education Project, and author, Emily Inouye Huey | Nov. 24 10:30-11:45
  

A Note of Thanks

Going to NCTE this year is really special. I've just recently transitioned careers toward librarianship, (I graduate with my MLIS in December!) after working as a children's writer and an English educator for several years, so I'm excited to look at the conference from a different perspective and lens. It's also special to have the opportunity to hear Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speak at the conference, among other social justice activists. We live in a trying time, and staying organized and always striving for equity in our stewardship is important.

I'm thankful for The Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Student Conference Grant which is giving me the opportunity to attend, I can't wait to explore the conference and the great city of Boston.

Josh Palange

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