Announcing The Cloud Room’s 2023 Social Innovation Scholarship Recipients
The Cloud Room is proud to announce the winners of our 2023 Social Innovation Scholarship!
The Cloud Room has always recognized that rising social inequality and displacement drive out the artists, creators, and independent non-profits whose energy and voices are necessary to combat the urgent challenges that Seattle faces. Rapid growth has created many opportunities for some but not for many others, so we are doubling down and expanding our reach in 2023 to include emerging leaders in community organizing, social justice, gender equity, and technology dedicated to bettering Seattle's present and future.
We understand that we can’t do this alone and so The Social Innovation Scholarship deepens our commitment to co-create a diverse and thriving membership community together with our city that will help to make Seattle a better place for all. In launching the Social Innovation Scholarship, The Cloud Room intends to provide a home and incubation for projects that we are inspired by because they have great potential to make an impact on Seattle in these critical areas.
Over the course of a year, recipients will have full access to our community, programming, and support from our incredible member networks. Scholarship recipients will be encouraged and empowered to grow their network at The Cloud Room to better amplify their work and impact the communities they serve.
Shin Yu Pai
Shin Yu Pai is a poet, essayist, and visual artist. She is the author of several books of poetry, including Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021), ENSŌ (Entre Ríos Books, 2020), Sightings: Selected Works [2000-2005] (1913 Press, 2007), Aux Arcs (La Alameda, 2013), Adamantine(White Pine, 2010), and Equivalence (La Alameda, 2003). Shin Yu's personal essays have appeared in Tricycle, Atlas Obscura, NY Times, Zocalo Public Square, Seattle Met, South Seattle Emerald, and YES! Magazine. Her poetry films have screened at the Zebra Poetry Festival and the Northwest Film Forum's Cadence video poetry festival. She served as the fourth poet laureate of the city of Redmond from 2015 to 2017 and has been a writer in residence for the Seattle Art Museum and Pacific Science Center. In 2014, she was nominated for a Stranger Genius Award in Literature. She is the recipient of awards from 4Culture, Artist Trust, The City of Seattle's Office of Arts & Culture, Satterberg Foundation, Awesome Foundation, and Puffin Foundation. Less Desolate, her book of haiku comics with artist Justin Rueff, will be published in 2023 from Blue Cactus Press. And No Neutral, a new collection of poems is forthcoming from Empty Bowl Press. She is the creator and host of The Blue Suit
Casta Guillaume
Casta is the proud child of two Haitian immigrants/community builders, l’union fait la force. As a lifelong youth worker, Casta's approach to research privileges intergenerational connections and she uses research methods to spark curiosity, conversation and every day action in the interest of social change. Her community-based research supports the integration of student and caregiver voices into the conceptualization, design, and evaluation of learning spaces–broadly defined.
Casta is the Director of Research, Learning, and Evaluation at the National Equity Project, and a Weissberg fellow with the collaborative for academic and social and emotional learning (CASEL). She earned her doctoral degree in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!).
Nebeu Shimeles
Nebeu Shimeles serves as the Co-Executive Director of Development & Finance at Pongo Poetry Project. In that role, he is responsible for Pongo’s development, finance, operations, and the implementation of our mission, and works closely with Pongo’s Co-Executive Director of Programs.
Pongo’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. The youth Pongo serves are dealing with compounding interpersonal and systemic inequities, the foundations of which are often unaddressed trauma. These systemic inequities – whether they be institutional racism or economic precarity – are sources of trauma in and of themselves.
As a result, his time at Pongo has deepened his personal commitment to social justice; creating a more just world requires eradicating those inequities. By offering an effective, empathetic, and healing intervention, Pongo plays a crucial role in advancing social justice.
Nebeu is the son of Ethiopian immigrants and was raised in Seattle’s Central District. In his free time he enjoys cooking, running, attending concerts, and discovering new music.
Stephanie Nam
Stephanie Nam is a full-time artist, entrepreneur, and the face behind NAM NAM PRODUCTIONS—which creates spaces for people of marginalized identities to creatively express themselves. She also teaches a standup comedy class that helps guide others through unlocking their comedic voices. Stephanie's comedy has been described as “unexpectedly funny,” "awkwardly charming," and “something I'll remember for the rest of my life.”
She has also been described by her psychiatrist as “very ADHD,” and her biggest accomplishment this year was attending every scheduled appointment with both of her therapists.
Stephanie enjoys creating art through many different mediums, including photography, videography, drawing, painting, dancing, pottery, singing, and writing. She recently fulfilled one of her life-long dreams of making tiny cats out of clay.
We accept submissions year round to our next SIS tenure. If you are interested in applying please fill out the form below and submit a resume and cover letter identifying your project, the Seattle area issue your project addresses, and how you feel the Cloud Room can help you better your projects success. We look forward to hearing from you!