It wasn’t all bad
■ After The Last Repair Shop won the Oscar for best documentary short film this year, a flood of support has come in for Steve Bagmanyan, an instrument repairer for the Los Angeles schools featured in the film. The fund, called The Last Repair Shop Fund, aims to increase instrument repairs and school music programs in the city. The Los Angeles school district is one of the last in the country to offer free musical instruments to public school students. “I was planning to retire. But now, I’m going to build the shop back to the level it once was and keep on going,” Bagmanyan said.
■ Shania Muhammad, a 16-year-old Oklahoman third-grade teacher, became the youngest teacher in America after accepting a full-time position at Young Achievers Christian Academy, in Oklahoma City. Shania’s father homeschooled her during the pandemic, and she focused on learning college-level material. At 15, she graduated from Langston University, in Oklahoma, with a 4.0 grade-point average, and a day after graduation, she was offered a teaching position. She decided to wait until she could get her driver’s license; “I refuse to be in a pickup line with my students,” Shania said. Besides teaching, she’s pursuing an MBA and wants to study for a Ph.D. And she has already published a book about her experience as a 13-year-old college student.
■ Shannon Keith, the founder of an animal rescue nonprofit called Beagle Freedom Project, has saved approximately 3,400 animals, including pigs, alpacas, and beagles, since starting the organization in 2010. This year, Keith expanded with a piece of land in Oklahoma from an unlikely donor: the retiring owner of an animal-testing lab who wanted it to be transformed into a rehabilitation center. It’s now called Freedom Fields, and Keith plans to add a senior-dog space with orthopedic beds. So far, 16 animals in the onetime lab have been adopted, and 40 have been fostered. “We have a lot of work to do,” said Keith.