Across the United States, there are many elementary aged students whose parents or themselves are from Mexico, Guatemala, and Central America having Mayan heritage. In alignment with instructional concepts that build a positive classroom culture encouraging higher level learning for all students, the authors designed and implemented a curriculum…

This article examines the challenges faced and lessons learned while developing the SPEAK Young Women's Vocal Empowerment Curriculum and leading 30 educators through a Professional Development Training on the curriculum in Guatemala in 2019. The guiding question is, "What does it take to train non-teaching artists in the skills needed to lead…