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Language school offers online learning
BY KRISTINE CANNON
Progress Staff Writer
The International School of Arizona, a private school in Scottsdale that offers French and Spanish language immersion programs will offer a flexible hybrid teaching model this school year. The model combines innovative technology for remote learners and a slew of new safety measures and protocols for students and staff returning to campus, including mask requirements.
The school offers programs to kids 18 months old through eighth grade.
“We reached out to our families and listened to their needs and realized that we had to offer both in-class and remote learning,” said ISA Headmaster has been nominated for a 2020 Author Academy Award for her book “Quitting to Win.”
Released July 7, “Quitting to Win” is nominated in the health category.
“It is a true honor and a surreal feeling,” Waltman said. “I don’t see myself as a literary genius, but after losing a best friend to mental illness, I realized there are so many people who are suffering quietly. Turning tragedy into triumph is a daily choice.”
Described by Waltman as a book about sports, spine surgery, and sobriety, “Quitting to Win” shows readers how to let go of the past and release the shame of guilt. It teaches how to feel physical and emotional pain while also maintaining spiritual fitness and how to love the person they are and are meant to be.
“’Quitting to Win’ stems from the simple phrase: ‘Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?’” Waltman said. “Success can sometimes come from what you don’t do.”
Waltman is a fourthgeneration Arizonan and a former first baseman for the 1997 Central Arizona College softball team that won the the NJCAA national championship.
In 2015, she broke her back in three places and now lives with a metal cage, two rods, eight screws and three spacers.
Waltman also battled alcoholism and described she entered that battled with a “competitive, sports-like mentality.”
“I couldn’t picture myself past the age of 40,” she said. “When I made it to 40 years old sober, I felt a calling to write it all out and release the shame and guilt and show compassion for others.”
Since the release of “Quitting to Win,” Waltman has received messages from readers daily – and it’s this reader feedback she said is the most rewarding part of writing the book.
“Hearing stories of how mothers and daughters became closer, because ‘Quitting to Win’ opened
Micheline Dutil-Hoffmann, headmaster of International School of Arizona stands in front of one of her Promethean ActivPanel Boards that allow for educational live-streams and online instruction.
(Pablo Robles/Progress Staff Photographer) Micheline Dutil-Hoffmann. This summer, ISA sent two surveys to families to gauge their comfort level with returning to campus and about half of the respondents said they prefer remote learning over in-person.
Scottsdale resident Lyrna Schoon was one of those parents.
Schoon’s two daughters attend ISA; one is enrolled in the French track, the other in the Spanish track.
“With the current COVID-19 caseload in Maricopa County, my husband and I feel safer having our children take classes online. Our family situation allows for our two daughters to stay home,” Schoon said. In response to the surveys, ISA invested
Scottsdale woman in running for author award
BY KRISTINE CANNON
Progress Staff Writer
Scottsdale resident Crystal Waltman
Scottsdale resident Crystal Waltman’s book “Quitting to Win” was published July 7 and is currently nominated for a 2020 Author Academy Award.
seeISA page 18 the dialogue of some uncomfortable life lessons,” she said, adding:
“How couples after reading the book together were able to share their stories with their partner which brought them closer. The process of being vulnerable opens me up to criticism, so faith has been my pillar of strength.”
Waltman’s goal is to get the book in recovery centers in all 50 states “to remove the shame and guilt of addiction, alcoholism and raise awareness to mental illness.”
“Quitting to Win is designed for small group study with discussion questions in the appendix,” she added.
And if the book wins the Author Academy Award, Waltman hopes it’ll help raise awareness of those suffering from emotional and physical pain. “Crystal’s proven path gives you the tools you need,” said Kary Oberbrunner, founder
in Promethean ActivPanel Boards – interactive displays and screens that feature integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and allow for educational live-streams and online instruction that maintain a high quality.
ISA equipped all 16 classrooms with a board, which range in cost from $3,000 to $13,000.
“With this technology, our students at home will be able to speak, ask questions and participate as if they were in the classroom,” Dutil-Hoffmann said. Installing the ActivPanels brought its own unique challenges.
Not only did the staff spend the week leading up to the start of classes learning how to use them, but because the ActivPanels live-stream lessons to remote students, ISA had to increase their Wi-Fi capacity. “Essentially, you’re streaming live for eight hours a day or six hours a day. So, we had to increase our capacity, which is a financial investment,” Dutil-Hoffmann said.
Schoon said she’s grateful for ISA’s hybrid-model approach and that she feels confident her daughters will receive the same level of instruction as their in-person peers.
“Due to ISA’s small class sizes, the school creates a personalized experience for students. This experience gives us the comfort that the level of our daughters’ education at ISA will remain high,” Schoon said. Because half of the students are staying home, ISA is able to distance the desks, maxing each classroom out at five or six students, Dutil-Hoffmann said. “It allows for airflow in the room. You’re not cramming a lot of bodies into that room, so you’ve got the physical space,” she added. Dutil-Hoffmann said she received zero pushback from staff regarding in-person schooling. Instead, the instructors were “very eager
WALTMAN ���� page 16
of Author Academy Elite and the Author Academy Awards. “She is a warrior of selfcare. Her raw stories of sports, sobriety and spine surgery give all those who suffer a message of hope.” “I have watched Crystal as she has developed into the person she is today, living her best life by setting boundaries,” Waltman’s sister, Jessica Zaragoza, added. “I admire her spiritual fitness and her willingness to carry the message to others.”
According to Oberbrunner, hundreds of genre-spanning books written by authors from around the world are up for an Author Academy Award this year.
The goal of the awards, he said, is to “further connect this global community of authors, maintain excellence and integrity of the book publishing industry, and raise awareness that the stories being told and the authors who write them are worth our attention.”
With 16 total categories, the Author Academy Awards’ entries are reviewed and evaluated on popular vote, social contribution, and overall presentation by the Academy’s voting membership comprised of best-selling authors, literary agents and industry leaders. Voting is now closed, but the top-10 finalists in each category will be announced Aug. 25. The top-10 finalists will then be invited to present their book synopsis at an Au
That’s where the morning wellness checks come into play. “The wellness check is you take the temperature and you ask if the person has any symptoms; you ask if they’ve had a good sleep and if they’ve traveled outside of the County for the last 14 days,” Dutil-Hoffmann explained. “The reason we do that is not to be punitive, but it’s for tracking purposes: If anyHeadmaster Micheline Dutil-Hoffmann put together a plan based on CDC guidelines and practices gleaned from recent discussions with other international schools. (International School of Arizona) one becomes still, we can go to come back to work and back to teaching.” rotate throughout the week to those difwas out of the county, out of “That’s what they love to do,” Dutil-Hoffferent areas. Maricopa within the last two weeks,” she mann said. “That’s why they come from “There were many, many countries that said. overseas, in order to share their language were able to return to school in May and On Aug. 6, the Arizona Department of and their culture. Their heart really is in the in beginning of June, and I was able to get Health Services released a set of health classroom.” information as to how they did it,” Dutilbenchmarks that schools may use to deter“I didn’t get any pushback because we’ve Hoffmann said. mine when it’s safe to return to in-person gone to extreme precautions in order to “I took best practices from France, from instruction during the pandemic. make this a safe return,” she added. Canada, from the East Coast here, where This followed Superintendent of Public
ISA implemented safety measures based schools had gone back.” Instruction Kathy Hoffman’s statement on on CDC guidelines and other practices Dutil-Hoffmann’s plan was put to the test Aug. 3 that the state is “not currently in a gleaned from Dutil-Hoffmann’s discussions last week when preschoolers returned to place” to resume in-person instruction or with other international schools. campus. hybrid learning models.
Safety measures include temperature “I have to say, it was a smooth,” she said. “I absolutely respect what the superchecks, health screening questions, and “Parents were extremely happy and exintendent of education has to say,” Dutildisinfecting students’ hands prior to entertremely appreciative because they could Hoffmann said. “This is a decision that was ing the building; installation of HEPA-grade see, we were all wearing masks. We were arrived at based on lengthy consultation air filters in all classrooms and community all following the protocol as I had laid out with our families, based on a consultation spaces, as well as hand sanitizer and water for them to see,” Dutil-Hoffmann added. with our board of directors because we are bottle filling stations; and placing sanitizaShould a student or staff member test a private school. tion mats at all entrances. positive, however, Dutil-Hoffmann has a “Our decision to reopen was based on the
All large surfaces will be disinfected two plan in place for that scenario, too. fact that 50 percent of our kids would be at to four times a day. “According to CDC guidelines, if there is home. If we had had 100 percent of the kids All first through eight graders must a child or a teacher who tests positive in wanting to come back, this would not have wear a mask, unless they have a medical the classroom, we need to shut down that been able to happen.” condition. class for 14 days. People have to go into a “So,” she continued, “the numbers are And the staff will receive face shields to quarantine, if you will, or self-isolation; and small and the precautions are huge.” wear over their masks. we have to respect that because if there is a ISA grades 1 through 8 start school Aug. Plus, the playground will be divided positive case, we have to do our part to stop 17. into separate areas, and the children will it in its tracks,” Dutil-Hoffmann said. Information: isaz.org
back and say, OK, this person thor Academy Awards Red Carpet Session on Oct 23 in Columbus, Ohio.
Winners will be announced later that evening at the Author Academy Awards Ceremony.
In the meantime, Waltman will soon release the audio book for “Quitting to Win.”
She’s also creating a digital course called “Eating to Win” and plans to, hopefully, write another book of the same name.
Information: crystalwaltman.com, authoracademyawards.com
SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | AUGUST 16, 2020 NEIGHBORS 19 Share the Road campaign pushes for vehicle safety
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
Progress Staff Writer
ennifer Canziani was riding her motorcycle north on Scottsdale Road and was nearly to Cave Creek when tragedy struck.
A woman who was playing with gadgets in her boss’ car swerved near Canziani, whose husband saw it all through a rear-view mirror.
“My husband was in front of me and I said, on the microphone, ‘I don’t think that girl is going to stop,’” said Canziani, a Red Mountain High School graduate who now lives in Maricopa. “I looked over and it was like our eyes clicked and everything went in slow motion. I went sliding and she sped off. I was out of my body and watched myself get attached to her car and drag me. I just closed my eyes.” When everything stopped, Canziani’s jacket was ripped apart and her shoe was off. She was afraid to look at her leg.
“The whole leg was shattered,” said Canziani. “I had pins and plates in there. I couldn’t walk for almost six months. When I started walking in rehab, my bone shifted in my knee, so I kept tearing my meniscus and ACL. In seven months, they had repaired it four times.”
Last year saw a record number of motorcycle fatalities – along with more than 3,000 motorcycle and 123,000 vehicle crashes in which people were hurt.
The Share the Road campaign is a statewide public awareness effort aimed at focusing Arizona motorists on the critical need to be undistracted when driving and to train motorcyclists how to ride more defensively. This multipronged movement, which is geared to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities on Arizona roads, is supported and promoted by the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Arizona Motorcycle Safety & Awareness Foundation, Dignity Health, Arizona Trauma Association, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Law Tigers, RideNow and Rosenbluth Family Charitable Foundation. Gov. Doug Ducey recently said the
Jennifer Canziani was an avid motorcycle rider until she lost her leg due to injury.
(Courtesy Jennifer Canziani)
time is now to focus drivers and riders on the critical importance of sharing the road with respect and being completely aware of their surroundings. The nonprofit Arizona Motorcycle Safety & Awareness Foundation and its partners – healthcare, insurance, legal, police departments, corporations, small business and the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety – also stress the need for Arizona motorists and motorcyclists to avoid distractions. According to foundation Executive Director Mick Degn, Share the Road leaders promote the need for drivers/ riders to share the road and to be more aware of their surroundings as they travel.
Efforts include public safety outreach and community grassroots efforts including billboards, police safety events and working with social media.
“Our program is the only one of its kind in the United States,” Degn said. “We need everyone’s support and involvement to continue to increase awareness. Just as importantly, we want to work with Arizona businesses to develop driver/rider safety awareness ideas and initiatives.
“After all, the people sharing our roadways are your family members, customers, friends and colleagues. Their lives matter as does their safety and the safety of others.”
One day, Canziani’s orthopedic surgeon told her he would stop repeatedly fixing her leg and encouraged her to stay in a wheelchair.
“I’m not the type to stay in a wheelchair,” she said. “I asked for my other options. One was a knee replacement, but he couldn’t do it because my leg had too much damage. He said I needed a better orthopedic surgeon.”
He referred Canziani to another doctor, who also said her leg was too damaged.
“I don’t know if there’s a doctor in town who can do it,” she recalls him saying. “I was giving up hope. I was thinking I was really going to have to stay in a wheelchair. My kids were in high school, about to graduate, and start their lives.”
The next orthopedic surgeon was confident, but Canziani had her doubts. In four years, she had 13 surgeries. This doctor told her everything was alright, but she had an undiagnosed yeast infection in her knee.
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” she said. “I was a guinea pig to him. I’m not trying to bash him or anything. I felt like he dropped the ball and didn’t want to pick it back up after a while.”
She went septic after her 13th surgery and, thankfully, there was an infectious disease doctor nearby. On April 22, 2016, Canziani was advised to go to the doctor because she was dying.
“I was trying to figure out why my doctor didn’t just sit me down and say, ‘Let’s take this leg,’” she recalled.
“I brought it up a couple times. I remember him saying it was a good leg. I was going to be fine. I ended up losing my leg.”
Canziani now has a prosthetic leg. Throughout her counseling, she was told to fight her fears and get back on a motorcycle. She tried trikes and conversions, but neither one worked until she found a Ryker.
“It’s this weird-looking bike,” she said with a laugh. “It’s all in the wrist. It has one wheel in the front and two in the back. It looks like the Batmobile.
“I get on it and I ride still – with a helmet. My husband doesn’t want to see another accident. He saw it from his rear-view mirror and heard it in his speaker in his helmet. By the time he was able to pull off and get to my rescue, I was already done sliding.”
Canziani admittedly has anxiety issues, especially about a certain North Scottsdale intersection, but that’s to be expected. As for the girl who hit her, she returned to the scene and was cited.
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Scottsdale photo studio expands space, services
BY KRISTINE CANNON
Progress Staff Writer
Scottsdale-based portrait and photography studio Captured Moments is expanding its studio space and its services.
The 1,600 square foot studio, located in the historic Stable Galleria on the northeast corner of Cattletrack Road and McDonald Drive, has been renovated.
And Captured Moments also launched a new division called CM Elite.
While Captured Moments has specialized in family, glamour and special occasion portrait photography since 1993, CM Elite will focus exclusively on providing modern head shots and corporate team portraits for small and large companies.
“I saw an opportunity to expand our corporate business and a need in the market for a luxury head shot studio, so we decided to undergo an expansion to make it happen,” said Rita Sherman,
BY KRISTINE CANNON
Progress Staff Writer workforce solutions provider headquartered in Scottsdale and St. George, Utah, is offering two free online certification courses to all unemployed Arizona and Utah residents.
The two courses include “Job Hunting in a Digital World” and “Communication Skills for Business,” both of which are aimed at jumpstarting one’s career and getting back into the workforce.
“These are unprecedented times we all find ourselves in and as the world
The women behind Captured Moments, which recently launched a new division, CM Elite, include, from left: Brionna Raum, Sydney Sherman, Rita Sherman, Heather Montasir and Allison Jourden are.
(Courtesy of Captured Moments)
founder of Captured Moments.
To accommodate CM Elite, Captured Moments added an addition 600 square feet to its studio. continues to live/work online we wanted to do our part in helping those left unemployed prepare themselves to get back into the workforce,” said Beth Ciaramello, Chief Employability Officer for LearnKey.
Taught by head hunting expert Sharon Bondurant with Tech Finders, Inc., Job Hunting in a Digital World teaches students how to build a resume that gets real results, how to create a personal brand that stands out, how to navigate online job searches successfully and how to use social media to land that job.
The communications course, on the
The additional space provides more room for larger groups and boasts a private sales and viewing area.
Captured Moments is a completely other hand, will help students learn to speak and write effectively.
The course teaches basic communication principles, how to plan for effective communication, how to discover best practices for business deliverables, message delivery, how to properly receive communications and how to analyze communication scenarios.
According to the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, more than 470,000 Arizona residents have filed for unemployment as a result of the pandemic’s impact.
“Our mission is ‘Improving Emwomen-owned and -operated portrait photography studio.
In 2004, Sherman hired her daughter Sydney Sherman as CEO and Heather Montasir as production director and lead photographer.
Within the last year, they continued to grow the company with the addition of Allison Jourden as associate photographer and Brionna Raum as social media coordinator and blogger.
“This company has completely taken off from its humble beginnings of small backyard shoots when I started it 27 years ago,” said Rita, an award-winning photographer. “Little did I know that this team of hard-working women would transform it into what it is today.”
To celebrate the launch of CM Elite, Captured Moments is offering head shots at a discounted price of $250 per session through Sept. 30.
Sessions typically start at $399.
Information: capturedmomentsaz.
Workforce �irm offering 2 job-related courses
LearnKey, an online education and
com
ployability Every Day’ and we are extremely grateful to offer free education to those whose employment has been affected by COVID-19 with two courses that will teach job seekers the ability to stand out from the competition and enhance their employability,” Ciaramello said.
Around for more than 30 years, LearnKey provides hundreds of videobased courses “with assessments and resources that map to globally recognized industry certifications,” the website states.
Information: employability.learnkey.com.
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Schools must not abandon at-risk students
BY JENNY CLARK
Progress Guest Writer
Schools are foundational to our future. They provide our kids with intellectual stimulation, social interaction, and educational instruction. But for some students, they are so much more.
They are a refuge, a source of stability, and maybe the only place they get a full meal throughout the day.
For these students, school isn’t just a
BY SHANNON CLANCY
Progress Guest Writer
Temporary grace and an extension of Arizona’s eviction moratorium to Oct. 31 means we have more time to do our literal “home” work, but there’s no free pass or less pressure on people experiencing a COVID-19 crisis and struggling to pay rent.
There’s money owed, a deadline to meet and thousands of families in homes on borrowed time.
Oct. 31 will be here before we know it. On that day, many of us will rise, work, move about our lives and when the sun sets, lay our heads down to rest in the comfort of our homes.
But that same day other families in our community will face the possibility of a knock on their door to enforce an eviction.
In the short time they’re given, they’ll place to learn. It is a lifeline.
The coronavirus upended all of our lives in countless ways – with school at the top of the list. It’s understandable that many parents, teachers, and districts are exploring virtual learning options until the pandemic passes.
This is an option that should be available, and our school district leaders should put forward the planning and resources to make it as successful as possible. But we must also remember for many students, “virtual learning” is not an option. How do you learn online if you don’t have access to the internet? Or a choose which belongings �it in their cars (if they have one) and which they’ll leave behind. They’ll scramble to call every shelter possible only to �ind waitlists weeks long.
And when the sun sets, they’ll look for a place to park where their family can sleep and hopefully not be ticketed or towed.
This unimaginable scenario is ahead for thousands of Arizonans.
Combine this sudden and drastic increase in need with the pre-existing epidemic of homelessness across the state and the new front line of the COVID-19 crisis will be on our Valley streets.
For families whose lives become unhinged overnight, how do they begin to rebuild? Who is on the front line – �irst to stop their fall and then to help lift them up again? Nonpro�it organizations like St. Vincent de Paul have been steadily supporting vulnerable families and people experiencing homelessness throughout the pandemic. Through modi�ied services, we concomputer? Or for that matter, a home? What if your parents work in essential industries, like health care or law enforcement?
This is a reality for thousands of students in our state. If education, especially public education, really is about kids – all kids – we must confront it with clear eyes and a commitment to truly serving all students.
Data shows nearly 25,000 Arizona students experienced homelessness at some point in the school year. Of these, 628 students were unsheltered, 5,362 were in shelters, 1,660 were in hotels/ motels, and 15,285 were doubled up tinue serving more than 4,000 to-go meals out of our dining rooms every day, delivering food boxes to doorsteps, offering telemedicine out of our clinic for the uninsured, giving out clean clothing and hygiene items to those experiencing homelessness and preventing homelessness through rent and utility assistance. None of this would be possible without the generosity of a caring community that gives much-needed donations along with the collaboration of local government to provide funding and resources.
But we foresee an impossible situation ahead — one where we don’t have a suf- �icient safety net even with recent extensions and funding to help all the families already turning to us for assistance. The moratorium’s end is inevitable and will cause more homelessness, putting lives at stake and placing families on a long-term trajectory and path of need.
The collective effort of our community to help one another is the shining light in these dark times.
Meanwhile, an estimated 335,000, or 29 percent, of Arizona students have no connection to online learning.
For children with learning disabilities, our Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) has allowed us to continue their customized education in a way that meets their unique needs.
But many services simply cannot be replicated in many homes, including some programs for children of special needs and those who are learning English as a second language. -Jenny Clark is executive director of the
An impossible situation looms in the Valley
Scottsdale nonpro�it Love Your School. As community-based nonpro�its and government partners answer the call for help from the increasing number of families facing homelessness, we hope this collective generosity continues.
The front line of need isn’t manned by service workers alone.
This front line belongs to all of us, and the best way to address the staggering homelessness that’s coming is for each of us to help within our power – whether that’s supporting a meal or helping a family with their rent through a trusted nonpro�it program.
In doing so, we have the opportunity to become the very best versions of ourselves for one another – to show compassion, live out kindness, share our abundance, and offer a bit of hope and humanity to our neighbors who need our help now before the sun sets. -Shannon Clancy is associate executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix, which continues to feed, clothe, house and heal Arizonans in need. #AllinThisTogether #MakeKindnessViral
