Miry Whitehill and Jennifer Jackson sharing Our World is Family with KIPP students in April 2022.

Ty Allan Jackson sharing Make Your Own Money: How Kids Can Earn It, Save It, Spend It, and Dream Big, with Danny Dollar, the King of Cha-Ching with KIPP students in November 2021.

In collaboration with KIPP SoCal Public Schools (KIPP SoCal), we have created the A to K: SoCal program in order to further KIPP SoCal’s mission of providing excellent educational opportunities to their students. A to K: SoCal is a partnership between supporters of KIPP SoCal, KIPP SoCal teachers, and Creating Conversations. This program provides KIPP SoCal’s 23 schools with rich learning opportunities by exposing their students to professional authors that will ultimately extend their learning beyond the four walls of the classroom while allowing them to draw inspiration that they will carry with them on their paths to and through college. Through this partnership, we have raised the funds that enable us to host up to six authors per year. This is how the program works:

• Creating Conversations reviews lists of authors traveling to Los Angeles or available for virtual visits to determine if they are a fit with the goals of the KIPP SoCal middle schools (Grades K – 8);

• If there is a fit with the schools, Creating Conversations coordinates a visit with two schools incorporating four classrooms;

• Each student who attends the program will receive a book by the author (a minimum of 120 books);

• Up to 15 copies of the author’s book are donated to each school’s library; and all books are purchased by A to K: SoCal and their supporters from Creating Conversations at discounted prices.

KIPP SoCal Public Schools (KIPP SoCal) is a non-profit organization that operates 23 tuition-free, open-enrollment charter public schools, within 19 Local Education Agencies, educating more than 9,500 students and supporting 5,100 alumni to and through college. For more information about KIPP SoCal, please visit their website.

Since 2011, KIPP SoCal Public Schools and Creating Conversations have been partnering to increase students’ access to high-quality reading materials and unique experiences focused on literacy. A to K: SoCal continues to expand that partnership, bringing authors, books, and rich literacy experiences to KIPP SoCal school students.