Four Fulbrighters have each been awarded $10,000 to pioneer projects in their host communities in the UK, as part of the annual Barzun Prize for Youth Engagement.

The Barzun Prize for Youth Engagement, now in its third year, is an annual prize awarded to fund projects by Fulbright grantees. With generous funding by former US Ambassador Matthew Barzun and his wife Brooke, American Fulbrighters run projects in their local communities while they study in the UK. Grantees pitched their ideas using short videos to communicate their projects and their potential impact for local youth.

The four prize winners were:

1. Daisha Brabham’s project aims to spark cross-cultural understanding and foster student leadership through music and movement by bringing sixth form students from four schools in Brixton together to develop and perform the play “Homegoing”.
2. Emma Schlauder’s project will engage students in archeology and heritage by running workshops in excavation and survey techniques and then working alongside archaeologists in a local community dig in Sheffield.
3. Garrett Snedeker’s project, called “Intersections Between”, is a 10-year music programme for under-served teenagers in Southeast London where the students will learn to compose, play, and perform original pieces that reflect their identity and creativity.
4. Tazetta Yerkes is partnering up with Futureworks to launch a weekly self-portrait club for at risk teenagers in Scarborough. Using self-portraits, they can find values in themselves they can gain confidence and a new creative skill.

Commenting on receiving the prize, the grantees said:

"I'm beyond grateful to Matthew and Brooke Barzun for funding my project, Intersections. Thanks to their generosity, this ten-year program will serve the vision that music is for everyone, music can tell the story of our identities, and creating music ourselves can help us realize new possibilities for our lives." - Garrett Snedeker

“The Barzun Prize targets Sixth Formers, an age group that has the ability to impact our world and bring about change. By engaging a diverse group in the preservation of the past, they will learn about the importance and diversity of archaeological work, along with how exposure to the past can impact their thoughts on the world. It is my hope that this experience will leave them more aware of their shared histories and experiences as well as a greater understanding of why preservation is important to the future.” - Emma Schlauder

"I'm enormously grateful to [former] Ambassador Barzun for his support for this project. I can't think of a better community partner than Futureworks North Yorkshire in leveraging visual art and introspection as tools for greater equity." - Tazetta Yerkes 

The prizes were awarded on Friday 17 January at King’s College London by Matthew Barzun. See below for some of the project videos.