Institute Information - Chords of Esperanza Learning Collective

The Chords Collective Learning Series will begin with a virtual kickoff gathering on July 15, where participants will meet one another, learn more about the year ahead, and begin building our learning community. Beginning September 9, we will convene for eight monthly professional learning sessions throughout the academic year.

Each 90-minute session will feature multiple presentation options, opportunities for small- and whole-group dialogue, and collaborative sense-making. Centered on intersectionality and the creation of safe and affirming spaces for LGBTQ+, immigrant, multilingual youth, and youth of color, these gatherings will offer educators practical ideas and strategies that can be immediately applied in their work. Participants will have opportunities to experiment with new approaches, reflect on challenges and successes, and engage in ongoing communities of practice throughout the year.

Virtual Series Schedule

Kickoff Session: Wednesday, July 15th, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Session 1: Wednesday, September 9, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 2: Monday, October 5, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 3: Monday, November 9, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 4: Wednesday, January 13, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 5: Monday, February 8, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 6: Wednesday, March 10, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 7: Monday, April 5, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 8: May—Watch a recorded session of your choice.

Learn more about the learning series at https://sites.google.com/colorado.edu/chordsofesperanza.

Already registered?

When: July 15, 2026 - April 5, 2027
Where: Virtually on Zoom (will receive link once you are registered)
Sessions we will offer:
- Hands-on workshops on biliteracy, translanguaging, and culturally sustaining teaching
- Interactive sessions on queer justice, identity, and community in education
- Creative spaces for storytelling, healing, and artistic expression
- Youth-led panels and conversations centering student voice and leadership
- Practical tools for advocacy, policy navigation, and educator agency
- Community-rooted sessions uplifting immigrant, multilingual, and intersectional experiences

What we believe and why we’ve come together

The partnership between AQE and BUENO was forged because we know that when different movements and traditions come together, we are able to create stronger, more resonant, and more durable change. This is especially important given the enduring attacks on bilingual education and inclusive curriculum, restrictions on queer and trans visibility, and policies that criminalize trans, genderqueer, immigrant and newcomer students and families. Yet we believe that schools remain powerful sites where, everyday, educators cultivate esperanza, build solidarities, center cariño, craft futures, and honor all students for who they are. We know these efforts are currently under threat, but we don’t have to endure them alone. Together, we can rally to orchestrate melodies for solidarity, strength, and perseverance. For us, standing in solidarity means that we invest in understanding how schooling impacts all youth and specifically youth whose identities have been historically marginalized by education as a system: LGBTQ+, immigrant, multilingual, BIPOC, and undocumented communities. Further, it means that we commit to ensuring that every educator is equipped to challenge oppression and advocate for a future of esperanza.

Our presenters have answered the questions: “How can we orchestrate sinfonías nuevas of solidarity in education? What new chords can we create by coming together?”

They have thought about some critical questions such as:

How might queering biliteracy help us challenge rigid binaries (of language, identity, belonging, or family) that marginalize our students and ourselves?
In what ways can schools become spaces that honor the fluidity of language, culture, and gender/sexuality, resisting pressures to conform to monolingual, cisnormative, and heteronormative norms?
How can immigrant, newcomer, and queer students’ and educators’ stories, literacies, and leadership inform coalition-building practices that sustain intersectional movements for justice in education?
What possibilities open up when educators connect transformative pedagogies and critical, queer, bilingual, and/or immigrant-affirming practices to create spaces where our identities and full selves are celebrated as sources of collective strength?
How can educators, families, and communities collectively resist policies that attempt to silence languages, restrict queer/trans visibility, or criminalize immigrant students?
How can we remix existing ideas and strengths to find more powerful melodies together? What might that remixing look like in the curriculum?
What does coming together across communities, identities, and issues require of you, me, and us?

Why Sponsor?

Community impact. Your organization can make a concrete impact in the lives of educators, youth-serving adults–and the young people who are in their care– in a moment of uncertainty and difficulty in the US and beyond.

Visibility and engagement. Chords will bring together a wide range of educators across different contexts, offering an opportunity to showcase your organization. Our past Institutes have brought more than 500 educators together, and this inaugural collaboration offers new possibilities and connections.

Communicating values and commitments. Sponsoring this Institute is a way to show educators and marginalized youth that you have their backs and to live out values of belonging and community.

Be part of the coalition and solidarity building. We want to be in partnership with organizations that have similar values. If your organization is serious about supporting LGBTQ+, multilingual, and immigrant communities, we would love to highlight your advocacy.

Sponsorship tiers are listed above. If you have any questions about sponsorship opportunities, please don’t hesitate to contact us at chordsofesperanza@gmail.com.

The BUENO Center is a national leader in advancing equity and excellence in education for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. For over 40 years, we have been a driving force in reimagining educational access through research, community-rooted training, and transformative service initiatives.

Guided by principles of cultural pluralism, multilingualism, and educational justice, the center supports students, educators, and families across Colorado and beyond. Our work centers the experiences of multilingual learners and students with disabilities, while building capacity among the educators who serve them.

From GED programs and dual-endorsement teacher preparation to biliteracy research and family engagement institutes, the BUENO Center cultivates pathways that honor heritage, expand opportunity, and fuel systemic change.

We believe education is a right, not a privilege, and we work every day to ensure that right is accessible, inclusive, and empowering for all.

Learn more about our current programs, partnerships, and research at colorado.edu/center/bueno.

A Queer Endeavor is a nationally recognized center for gender and sexual diversity in education. We build partnerships with districts and school communities to create safer, more humanizing spaces in which LGBTQ+ youth, families, and staff can thrive. The work of A Queer Endeavor is made possible through our school and district partnerships, grants and gifts, and the generous support of our community.

As A Queer Endeavor:

We believe that schools and classrooms are places of possibility, where as bell hooks says, “ we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress.” This, hooks says, and we believe, is “education as the practice of freedom.”
We believe that centering the lived experiences, knowledge, & identities of students is essential for creating safe and humanizing classrooms.
We believe in honoring teachers as professionals who want to do right by their students. To support teachers’ processes of becoming, we create access to professional learning that invites vulnerability, un/learning, accountability, and action.
We believe that learning about identity, power, privilege, and oppression is tender work and we create “soft spaces of accountability” to support that deep learning.
We believe that transformative justice in education relies on intersectional movement building and a commitment to collective liberation. This means recognizing that systems of oppression are intertwined. It means acknowledging that we all have issues of equity and justice that take us “out of [our] depth,” as Charlene Carruthers says, and that we all have learning to do.

Learn more about A Queer Endeavor at colorado.edu/center/a-queer-endeavor.