Success looks different for every Fellow
(and every Fellow is dang successful)
Fellows impact individuals during their fellowship, and after
Kiku Kimura 〰️
In their years as a Fellow, Kiku Kimura turned a passion for teaching and great instincts into being able to lead a group of 18 wiggly kids under 9 years old through a morphology game with patience and playfulness. One highlight of Kiku’s experience was receiving a parent’s note that their middle-schooler moved out of the “red” (below the benchmark in reading) for the first time in his school career. Kiku is now a teaching assistant and planning to pursue a credential.
Zainab Alrashid 〰️
“I feel lucky to be introduced to education through this organization, since it has shown me a valuable and unique perspective on teaching….I appreciate all the support, insight, and guidance that everyone at Words in the Wild have given me. Especially since it led me to understanding what I want to do with my career!”
In the first year of their Fellowship, Zainab Alrashid taught 55 students who were behind in reading and Title 1 eligible, made literacy a joyful experience to dozens of families at farmers market events, after-school classes, and family literacy events in Berkeley and Salinas. A highlight of the experience was forming trusting relationships with her students, creating connections that allowed the children to feel comfortable enough to work on the very thing that they found hard: reading!
(We love stories, but we also love numbers)
The data reflects that this deep commitment to building positive relationships with students and using research-based approaches to learning is paying off, dare we say, big time. For every additional hour of tutoring provided by our fellows, students make large, statistically significant* gains on decoding skills including letter-identification, letter-sound correspondence (aka phonics), and word reading skills. They also showed significant improvements in spelling skills, something too often overlooked when it comes to reading instruction.
*For those of you stats nerds out there, we looked at the impact of minutes of instruction on students’ scores across a range of high-quality measures used for assessing decoding and encoding ability. Over the 2024-2025 school year, for students who were identified as needing more support in reading and writing, every additional hour of instruction resulted in significant, positive impacts on decoding skills with an effect size 𝜷 = .71 (.5 and above is considered to be large effects), p < .001 (VERY significant). Meanwhile, spelling skills improved with an effect size of 𝜷 = .39 (moderate positive effects), p < .01. All of these effects were seen after controlling for school effects and student’s grade level.
Fellows conduct research studies related to their fellowship, and are sharing that work broadly in national conferences
Lindi Shepard led a research project on the impact of nature journaling and presented the findings at the Council for Exceptional Children in Baltimore, MD in March of 2025. She then turned her research into a repeatable lesson plan and rubric to help teachers implement her work. Lindi, Dr. Filippini, and naturalist Ryan Nepomuceno will present updates to this research at NAAEE conference presentation in October 2025. (If Lindi’s name looks familiar, it’s because not only is she a fellowship grad, but she is now applying her previous 16 years of experience and her fellowship experience to being the fellowship director, while completing her doctorate at Johns Hopkins University).
Fellows weave their fellowship experience and graduate work together
During her time as a Words in the Wild Teaching Fellow, Paige Harrington-Clark researched the common practice of using word walls in the classroom and learned about how instead building “phoneme walls” can benefit students as they learn to decode and encode. Check out the full report that she submitted for coursework at the University of San Francisco.
Leah Mills tested the Real Script handwriting method to build her student’s confidence and skill in writing by hand for her master’s thesis at Holy Names University (now Dominican University). Her research turned into key takeaways to help other educators find success in the method, and as a huge win: her students shifted from having negative feelings about writing to neutral and positive feelings.
Fellows share their fellowship expertise to the broader community
Lindi Shepard was invited to discuss her research on the impact of nature journaling with John Muir Laws.
In collaboration with Bmore art and The Peale’s exhibition The Future of Here: A Glimpse of a River Culture to Come, Lindi Shepard led a nature journaling workshop at Jones Falls.
Teacher in Residence and accelerated fellowship graduate Nathalie Hites presented an invited session at the Homeschool Association of California: Words in the Wild: Adventures in Word Science.
Over three years, fellowship graduate and Words in the Wild Learning Specialist Leah Mills gradually took on more and more responsibility in planning and facilitating a three-part professional development experience on The Building Blocks of Literacy for 50-100 educators each year, culminating in facilitating Real Readers, Real Data independently.
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Make a one time donation
All contributions matter, from $1 - $10,000 (and beyond!). A one-time donation supports a current Teaching Fellow.
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Sponsor a Teaching Fellow
Recurring donations let us know “we can count on this for a sustained period of time,” ensuring support beyond 2026.
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Spread the word
Sharing this campaign with your friends, colleagues, and neighbors helps more than we can say.
Meet our Teaching Fellow alumni
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Zainab Alrashid
TEACHING FELLOW 2024 - 2025
Zainab is a “teaching ecologist” who came to WitW to explore her passion for interdisciplinary approaches to the sciences after earning her BA in Biology from Mills College. Following her one-year fellowship, she joined a wildlife biology study as a research assistant — in South Africa! Zainab found that her training as an educator in our program gave her skills that apply to science communication. She looks forward to continuing to explore the intersection of her biology undergraduate degree, her expertise in reading, and her enthusiasm for making the outdoors accessible. Learn more about her in the May 2024 newsletter.
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Paige Harrington Clark
TEACHING FELLOW 2022 - 2023
Paige first joined Words in the Wild as a volunteer supporting remote WordLab in 2020, which influenced her decision to pursue a reading specialization through her graduate studies. After completing a 1-year teaching fellowship with Words in the Wild while completing her credential and a master’s degree in reading, Paige accepted a full-time position teaching kindergarten with SFUSD and continues to support both teachers and students by creating joyful, inclusive learning communities. She holds an MA in Teaching Reading from the University of San Francisco. Learn more about her in the Fall 2022 newsletter.
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Bethany Hilliard
TEACHING FELLOW 2022
Bethany came to Words in the Wild with over 15 years of teaching experience in general and special education classrooms (and was a student of Dr. Filippini’s at SF State!). She was looking to deepen her knowledge of Structured Word Inquiry and further knowledge specific to supporting students with dyslexia in the classroom. Bethany returned to a position as a Learning Specialist at a Bay Area school, where she continues to use her experience and knowledge gained as a Fellow. She holds a BA from Azusa Pacific University in Psychology with emphasis on Family and Child, and an MA from San Francisco State University in Special Education.
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Nathalie Hites
TEACHING FELLOW 2023 - 2025
Nathalie generously shared her 20 years of experience as a Montessori guide (teacher), administrator, and parent as an unofficial advisor to our team. Seeking more training in dyslexia and reading disabilities, she joined Words in the Wild as a Teaching Fellow specializing in neurodiversity and continued for a third year as a Teacher in Residence. Now, Nathalie has returned full-time to the Montessori classroom, equipped with new tools and insights, and mentoring incoming Teaching Fellows. She holds a BS in Biology and MS in Zoology from Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.
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Ella Holton-McCoy
TEACHING FELLOW 2019 - 2021
After completing a 2-year teaching fellowship with Words in the Wild in 2021, Ella helped lay the foundation for our cycle of educator and student support (the Waterfall Method of Mentoring) as a Words in the Wild Learning Specialist. She currently supports students and families as an Educational Therapist and Executive Function Coach, incorporating her knowledge of special education, neuroscience, strengths-based teaching practices, and mindfulness to create individualized learning pathways. She holds a BS in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Literacy and a focus in Special Education from San Diego State University, and an MA in Educational Therapy from Holy Names University. Learn more about her in the December 2024 newsletter.
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Kiku Kimura
TEACHING FELLOW 2023 - 2025
Kiku joined Words in the Wild with little classroom experience but a deep passion for learning and growth, holding a BA in Environmental Studies. Their belief that every student holds unique brilliance made them a beloved part of our learning community. As a 2-year fellowship graduate, Kiku was inspired to pursue a career in teaching and is now a full-time 5th grade teaching assistant! We could not be more proud and are so excited for the many lives Kiku will go on to change in their future. Learn more about them in the January 2024 newsletter.
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Leah Mills
TEACHING FELLOW 2021 - 2023
After completing her Fellowship, Leah joined Words in the Wild as a full-time learning specialist, supporting students through small-group and individual reading & writing intervention. She is passionate about making education accessible and engaging to all students and incorporating their strengths and interests into their learning. She holds a BA in Deaf Studies with a concentration in Education from CSU Northridge, and an MA in Education Therapy from Notre Dame de Namur University. She volunteered as a tutor and assistant teacher at the California School for the Deaf and is fluent in American Sign Language, which she frequently incorporates in her work with students.
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Lindi Shepard
TEACHING FELLOW 2020 - 2022
When Lindi joined Words in the Wild in 2020, the world was shutting down as she was transitioning from the classroom to graduate studies. After over a decade of teaching, she was eager to learn how to support teachers in bringing research-based practices to the classroom and was particularly drawn to Words in the Wild’s nature-based approach. She currently serves as Words in the Wild’s Fellowship Director (we’re so excited to share that info!) while pursuing her PhD in Education at Johns Hopkins University where she conducts research at the intersection of the learning sciences and environmental education. She holds a BS in Special Education from the University of Georgia, and an MA in Cognitive Science in Education from Columbia University. Learn more about her in the October 2024 newsletter.
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Make a one time donation
All contributions matter, from $1 - $10,000 (and beyond!). A one-time donation supports a current Teaching Fellow today.
-
Sponsor a Teaching Fellow
Recurring donations let us know “we can count on this for a sustained period of time,” ensuring support beyond 2026.
-
Spread the word
Sharing this campaign with your friends, colleagues, and neighbors helps more than we can say.
Keep curiosity alive.
