Bush Faculty Awarded for Artistic Achievements

We are thrilled to announce that Lower School Music Teacher Juliana Cantarelli Vita has been named a 2026 Music Educator Award Quarterfinalist by the Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Museum!

Juliana is one of only 200 educators selected from over 2,000 nominations across the country. She is also one of just seven from the state of Washington. The Music Educator Award recognizes teachers who have made a lasting impact in music education and who are passionate about helping students find their voice through music.

At Bush, Juliana inspires students every day to create, collaborate, and express themselves through song and movement. She shared:

“I am feeling all the feels. An award for teachers, especially in the performing arts, feels like a light in the darkness. To be a Latina, an immigrant, and be considered for this—especially in chaotic times like these—feels already like an accomplishment. I might also be the first Brazilian to be nominated for this, so it feels extra special. Most importantly, the children remind me each and every day why I chose to be a musician and an educator in the first place.”

Juliana’s recognition reflects the heart of our mission—inviting perspectives, cultivating community, and experiencing education and connection in joyful, transformative ways.

“This wouldn't have happened if my fellow music teachers Matt Swanson and Skúli Gestsson hadn't submitted a recommendation for my nomination — these are friends who believe in me more than I believe in myself,” Juliana said.

Semifinalists for the award will be announced this fall, and the final recipient will be honored during GRAMMY Week 2026.

We are excited to celebrate Molly Olguín, Upper School English faculty member, who has been selected as one of only five nationwide recipients of the 2025 Jack Hazard Fellowship, awarded by the New Literary Project.

This prestigious fellowship recognizes high school educators who are also practicing creative writers. Fellows are awarded $5,000 in support of an ongoing fiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir project. In a highly competitive field of applicants from thirty-six states, Molly was chosen for her talent, dedication, and impact as both a writer and teacher.

"It's a tremendous gift to be allowed to exist as multiple versions of yourself,” Molly shared. “The Jack Hazard Fellowship—and the wonderful colleagues and students who have bought my book and come listen to me read and listened to me ramble about the literary world—are all giving me the gift of letting me be both writer and teacher. I am very, very grateful for it."

Molly’s work includes the short story collection “The Sea Gives Up the Dead”, selected by Carmen Maria Machado for the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, and her writing has appeared in Quarterly West, The Normal School, and other literary journals. She is also the co-creator of the audio drama, “The Pasithea Powder”.

Upper School Director Matt Lai shared, “What an honor for Molly, well-deserved. In addition to being a gifted writer, she is a fantastic teacher as well.”

At The Bush School, Molly exemplifies our values—blazing trails in the literary world, inviting perspectives through creative writing, and inspiring students with the power of story and voice.