May 2002

Nina Zolt and Miles Gilburne have been fortunate enough to live their convictions and invest in their ideas. For Nina, a former entertainment attorney, Miles, a former senior vice president at AOL, and their teenage daughters, supporting the causes they care about is important work. Nina and Miles share a passion for the performing and visual arts and serve on several boards, including (for Miles) the Shakespeare Theater and (for Nina) the Hirshhorn, the Corcoran, and the National Gallery of Art. They also support civil rights work and health-related causes. Miles says he and his wife are deliberate in demonstrating to their daughters that “it takes both capital and sweat to make things happen in the world.”

Their most ambitious undertaking is a five-year-old nonprofit, In2Books, which provides great books and adult pen pals to elementary school children in Washington, DC, courses and classroom tools for teachers, and resources and activities for students’ families.

The program grew out of Nina’s desire to be a good parent and teacher to her children. After devouring books about literacy, learning, and child development, she was surprised to find that little of what she had learned was being used in classrooms. She believed that one way to stimulate learning was to give children books and initiate a written conversation by asking thoughtful questions about the books. She tried her idea with a third-grade class in Arlington, Virginia, in 1997. Encouraged by the response, she took her idea to District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), approaching one principal at a time and purchasing books for each participating child to own.

So far, In2Books has recruited about 450 adult pen pals to read books and correspond with students. Nina and her staff of 30 plan to increase their adult pen pals to 1,000 next year, and they have developed an impressive list of more than 300 titles for young readers, including fiction, science, social studies, and biography.

In 2002-2003, In2Books will be in 150 second-, third-, and fourth-grade classes, or 25 percent of DCPS elementary schools. Grades two and three are critical, Nina says. “This is when children are taught to read, write, and think. They are expected to apply those skills in fourth grade, and if they can’t, a cycle of failure begins."

Nina and her staff know that it is essential to nurture and support classroom teachers. To this end, In2Books provides books and other classroom training materials demonstrating exemplary literacy practices as well as in-class support as part of the graduate-level professional courses In2Books has designed for participating teachers. A third component of the program, outreach to families, provides at-home literacy training and resources for families, such as the weekend “family adventure” trip to attend the musical Harlem at the Kennedy Center this year.

Nina and Miles, who have contributed millions of their own dollars to support In2Books, are now hoping to expand the program in several ways. In addition to recruiting more pen pals, they are looking for ways to extend the literacy and learning opportunities to more students and older students. They also plan to bring in other stakeholders and to expand their board of directors. “I’m not an expert on pedagogy, but I recognize a good idea and know how to put strategies together to scale,” says Miles, who is president of the organization. Together Nina and Miles are working to create and nurture a cadre of independent, lifelong learners and to support the revitalization of DCPS.

To become a pen pal, go to in2books:
with the username "vpp0203" and the password "books."