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from Falls Church News-Press 5-28-2020

Publish the news that is public property without fear or favor of friend or foe

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Home Alliance of Woodbridge is the nonprofit partner for this annual event and it is managed by Laura Nickle, president of Leesburg-based Communi-k, Inc. The event is free thanks to funding from platinum sponsors Prince William Department of Housing and Community Development and the Virginia Housing Development Authority, with additional sponsorships from: the Dulles Area Association of Realtors; Northern Virginia Association of Realtors; Alexandria Office of Housing; Arlington County Housing Division; Burke & Herbert Bank; Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development; and George Mason Mortgage. Past expos have been recognized with a prestigious award from the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND) for “best government initiative.”

ArtsFairfax Starts Emergency Relief Grant Program

ArtsFairfax announced that $100,000 in funding is now available through a newly created Emergency Relief and Recovery Grant Program. Funding will provide critical support to Fairfax County and the Cities of Fairfax and Falls Church arts organizations and Fairfax County individual artists most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The online grant application opens May 28 and closes on June 29. Awardees will be announced in August.

Grants to organizations will range from $1,000 – $5,000 depending upon the organizations’ budget size, and individual artists may apply for $500 – $1,000.

Those eligible include: • Nonprofit arts organizations based in Fairfax County, City of Fairfax and City of Falls Church, including umbrella organizations with arts divisions and departments. • Organizations receiving line item funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as schools or departments of state universities, Fairfax County Government departments, divisions, and agencies, and their affiliated foundations and fundraising entities, are not eligible for this grant. • Individual artists residing in Fairfax County with an active record of professional activity who derive income from their work.

All eligible applications for the Emergency Relief and Recovery Grant Program will be evaluated by panel review.

Justice High Student Wins College Scholarship

Katherine Fernandez

Villalba of Justice High School is one of seven Fairfax County Public Schools students enrolled in the Early Identification Program (EIP) named as a winner for a scholarship to George Mason University (GMU).

EIP is one of four College Success programs offered to FCPS students that help prepare middle and high school students for college.

Each year, a limited number of students — who are nominated by a teacher, school counselor, or caring adult — join the program. One hundred percent of EIP students will be the first in their family to attend college, and some receive free or reduced-price meals.

The five-year program guarantees admission to GMU as long as the student follows a pre-college curriculum, successfully completes the program in good academic standing and meets GMU admission requirements.

LOCAL

EIP students apply and interview for various GMU scholarships.

Nicole Tong Awarded as Fairfax’s 1st Poet Laureate

MAY 28 – JUNE 3, 2020 | PAGE 11

Arts Fairfax announced the first Fairfax Poet Laureate, Nicole Tong.

The Fairfax Poet Laureate is the county’s highest honor awarded to a local poet. In Tong’s twoyear term she will engage with the community through education and community service activities. Tong’s service project will amplify living poets and poetry communicated via her Twitter name @ PoetryLivesHere.

Tong, a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, has been honored with fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and George Mason University where she received a Master of Fine Arts. In 2016, Tong served as an inaugural Writerin-Residence at Pope-Leighey House, a Frank Lloyd Wright Property. Her writing has appeared in American Book Review, CALY, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, Cortland Review, Yalobusha Review and others. The Washington Writers’ Publishing House selected Tong’s first collection of poems “How to Prove a Theory” for its 2017 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize winner.

The Fairfax Poet Laureate was selected through a competitive process by a distinguished panel, which included Grace Cavalieri (Maryland Poet Laureate), Anya Creightney (Poet and Program Manager Poetry and Literature Center, Library of Congress), Kim Roberts (poet and editor at Beltway Poetry) and Gregg Wilhelm (Director, GMU Creative Writing Program).