Acceptance letter : Harvey D. and Helen J. Cohen PFLAG Scholarship

Hello! My name is Cynthia Parkhill and I live and work in Santa Rosa, California. I want to thank donors for awarding me the Harvey D. and Helen J. Cohen PFLAG Scholarship for 2023-2024.

I am studying librarianship through the graduate program at UCM. Through my schooling, I wish to expand my abilities and knowledge to be a youth librarian, and this scholarship is helping me to finance that dream.

The information I am gaining through this program is immediately put to use through my work as a Library Technician and an Instructional Materials Technician at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts.

Whether in the library or out on the yard as a recess supervisor, I try to hold space for students to explore and discover who they are becoming. People can arrive at points of self-discovery at any point in their lives, and it can be both exhilarating and paradigm-shifting to learn something new about yourself.

I’ve been on this path myself, having learned in adulthood that I was on the autism spectrum and then later, discovering descriptive terms that addressed my queer identity.

This personal connection to neurodivergent and to LGBTQAI+ communities compounds my professional commitment toward building a library collection that is inclusive and diverse.

Children (and adults!) need “windows” and “mirrors” into lives both alike and unlike their own (to cite the metaphor of children’s literature scholar and advocate Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop).

I watch, with concern, the spreading political climate here in the U.S., of attempts to remove books from libraries that center LGBTQAI+ perspectives.

These challenging times make your support all the more invaluable. You are helping me, through financing my education, to be a steadfast defender of reading and free inquiry. Once again, thank you for awarding me the Harvey D. and Helen J. Cohen PFLAG Scholarship.