2026 Schwab Alumni Grant recipients tackling four crucial youth projects
July 21, 2026 — Elizabeth Powley ’93, Kendra Hillman Chilcoat ’94, Kari Bassett ’98, and Kathryn Russell ’98 are the 2026 recipients of the Lori Ann Schwab ’95 Alumni Grants.
Schwab was committed to making the world a better place by helping others. Sadly, her life was cut short by a sudden illness while she was studying in London in 1994.
The grant provides stipends to support specific community service projects that recipients are significantly involved with. It is open to alumni from the classes of 1992 through 1998 – the years that overlapped with Schwab’s time at Grinnell College. The grant has been awarded to 48 alums over the last 19 years.
Powley, Chilcoat, Bassett, and Russell each received grants for their respective projects with amounts that were based on their proposals.
Elizabeth Powley ’93, fourth from left, is pictured with middle school students in the North Channel Community Rowing program.
Powley, who in her student days worked alongside Schwab at the Grinnell College Preschool, was awarded a $2,000 grant to support North Channel Community Rowing (NCCR), a nonprofit organization in Evanston, Illinois, that expands access to the sport of rowing by engaging underrepresented youth. Through high-quality coaching, mentorship, and competitive opportunities, NCCR fosters discipline, teamwork, and confidence.
“For much of its history, rowing has been perceived as an exclusive sport, accessible only to athletes from privileged backgrounds,” Powley says. “This has limited broader participation and reinforced barriers to entry for many communities.”
In response, a group of volunteer coaches established NCCR to expand participation. Now in its sixth year, the program has already served over 200 local middle school students. More than half of NCCR rowers identify as non-white and nearly a third are girls.
This summer NCCR is welcoming 50 middle school students to its summer camp. The Schwab grant is being used for water safety equipment, camper T-shirts, snacks, water bottles and drawstring bags, and to subsidize participant fees. After learning to row in the summer program, participants are then invited to join the year-round programming.
“The diverse, supportive community of rowers created by NCCR serves to counter some of the pressures and challenges of the middle school years with healthy development and camaraderie,” Powley says. “I believe deeply that this organization is changing young people’s lives – and changing the face of rowing.”
Kendra Hillman Chilcoat ’94
Chilcoat received a $1,000 grant to purchase horse-related books for students and their families at REINS Therapeutic Horsemanship in Fallbrook, California. She volunteers for the organization.
REINS began in 1984 when a small group of students with disabilities and their families saw the benefits of therapeutic riding. It has grown into a program offering 200+ weekly lessons with 184 students, supported by about 30 horses and over 100 volunteers each week.
This new physical library of horse books will give students another medium to engage with their love of horses. Students also could look at pictures to help them learn the body parts of a horse, a common part of lessons.
“I was a horse-crazy little girl but initially a reluctant reader,” Chilcoat says. “In first grade I was bored with the books in my classroom. My teacher realized I needed a book that would challenge and grab me, so she handed me a copy of Marguerite Henry’s King of the Wind, a middle grade historical fiction book about a beautiful Arabian horse. It took me many weeks to finish, but after that I read as much as I could.”
The library will be curated for all ages and abilities and include picture books, chapter books, nonfiction books, and coloring books. The books will be available for students and caregivers to borrow and take home, and they can also be read at REINS by students’ siblings who often come to watch lessons.
Kari Bassett ’98
Books are also front and center for Bassett’s project. The 1998 alumna was awarded a $2,000 grant to purchase diverse children’s books to be given away at Des Moines area community events.
Bassett is the founder and president of the Iowa Black History Research Collective, a nonprofit organization committed to keeping Black history accessible in central Iowa while centering the lived experience of Black people. One of the ways the collective does this is through book giveaways.
Changes to Iowa law that prohibited teaching divisive concepts in public schools had the unfortunate impact of denying Iowa citizens the opportunity to learn accurate history and denies Black Iowans opportunities to improve learning outcomes and increase exposure to a multitude of career and life paths, Bassett says. Increasing access to culturally appropriate books is a key component to mitigate the harm inflicted.
“In 2026 we know that having access to books with characters that look like you are so critical to a child’s reading journey,” she says. “I’m incredibly excited to put diverse and culturally affirming books in the hands of children and families who might not otherwise be able to access them.”
The grant was used to purchase a total of 265 copies of 11 different books that were curated by past Iowa Black History Research Collective interns, Juliana Gaddis ’25 and Hayley Carson ’25. The first wave of giveaways was for students at King Elementary School in Des Moines, where Bassett attended second grade.
Kathryn Russell ’98 (right)
Russell received a $1,930 grant to provide speech therapy communication materials for individuals with Down syndrome and their families in the Seattle region. Down syndrome is a chromosomal abnormality that can affect various physical and sensory systems.
As a speech-language pathologist working for the Down Syndrome Center of Puget Sound, Russell supports programs focused on communication skills across the lifespan. Individuals with Down syndrome often require additional time, individualized instruction, and specialized supports to develop these skills effectively. Treatment options need to be individualized to suit a person’s age, abilities, developmental stage, communication style, and cultural and personal preferences, Russell says.
As the center expands its educational and therapeutic programming into early intervention services for children birth to age 3, it will greatly benefit from materials designed to address each of the many communication needs individuals can experience.
The grant will be used to purchase augmentative communication devices, early language and literacy development materials and games, and later language and social communication tools, such as life skills practice materials.
“Supplementation of our current therapy materials will allow us to provide individualized, evidence-based services to a broader range of community members,” Russell says. “With the support of the Lori Ann Schwab ’95 Alumni Grant, we can continue to foster meaningful communication development at every stage of life, empowering individuals with Down syndrome to reach their fullest potential.”
— by Jeremy Shapiro