Malden Public Schools educator awarded scholarship for emerging Latinx Leaders

  Malden Public Schools educator Leanne DeRosa has been awarded Hale Education’s Carmen M. Torres Scholarship for Emerging Latinx Leaders. DeRosa teaches Play Production and English classes at Malden High School. She also helped create a new Community Theatre Program which this past weekend put on another successful two-night production at Malden High’s Jenkins Auditorium.

  The scholarship awarded DeRosa will support her participation in the 2022–2023 cohort of the Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership (PSi) at Hale Education, a professional certificate program that immerses and develops leaders in school settings and community-based organizations. The scholarship continues the legacy of the late Torres, who cofounded PSi and mentored administrators, teachers and other education professionals in Boston Public Schools and beyond.

  “I am grateful to be in this program because of the generous donations of those who were touched by Carmen Torres,” said DeRosa. “I feel so motivated to prove her mission in my own leadership and will forever carry her with me, even though I did not know her. She will never know how she is changing my life.”

  Hale’s staff, Torres’ family and PSi’s faculty, participants and alums celebrated DeRosa during a recent ceremony at Hale Education’s Andrew Cucchiara Learning Center. “Leanne’s commitment to equity and the arts is impressive, and we’re thrilled to have her join the Hale community through PSi,” said Hale Education Executive Director Eric Arnold.

  The Hale Foundation noted DeRosa’s “commitment to restorative justice and arts equity” and her wish to “[create] access to theatre in spaces where the arts have historically been diluted.”

  Her most recent efforts earned her an opportunity to establish statewide Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) affinity spaces with the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and to create and build a community theatre program funded through the City of Malden.

  “Leanne [DeRosa] continues to pursue educational equity through the arts as an educator, a company member of The Open Door Theatre in Henniker, NH, and as a member of a team that will build restorative justice practices into the infrastructure of Malden Public Schools,” Hale Foundation officials stated.

  An education pioneer who spent much of her career in Boston Public Schools, Carmen M. Torres was a mentor to many and a tireless advocate of support services for English Language Learners. She launched the Health Careers Pathway at Brighton High School and the Pharmacy Program at Fenway High School, was a co-headmaster at the Boston Arts Academy and directed student and family services at the Conservatory Lab Charter School.

  The Carmen M. Torres Scholarship for Emerging Latinx Leaders continues her legacy. Those who wish to contribute to the fund are invited to do so at https://hale1918.org/remembering-carmen.

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About Hale Education, Inc.

  Hale Education, Inc. is a private nonprofit widely recognized for its flagship camps, youth programs, family and community activities, school partnerships, and professional development opportunities. It serves several thousand children and families from 70 Greater Boston communities annually, and it invites visitors to enjoy its 1,100+ acres of forests, ponds and meadows in Westwood and Dover, Mass.

  Hale’s programs and land management practices are the legacy of its founder, Robert Sever Hale, who encouraged people to use his property in ways that were “charitable and benevolent in nature…to provide education which will develop intelligent, capable, and responsible citizens.”