ASU SolarSPELL Initiative

We're proud to announce that out of nearly 800 submissions, SolarSPELL has been selected as one of the top 100 education innovations to watch out for in 2026! Check us out in the #HundrEDGlobalCollection from HundrED!
Download the report at: hundred.org/.../hundred-...

We've been hard at work this year developing our 1st library collection for #WestAfrica with our partners at Tostan! Our recent workshop + content curation training with them in Senegal was a huge success, and we're so excited to launch this pilot next year!
#CommunityEmpowerment #DigitalLibrary

😬How can we process health information if we're already freaked out?

🧠"Being aware in the time of stress to say, 'I’m not going to remember this, let me put it over there so I can come back to it,'" advises Dr. Heather Ross co-director of @asu-solarspell.bsky.social Health.

Arizona State University's SolarSPELL initiative recognized as one of TIME's best inventions of 2025 An Arizona State University initiative is receiving national honors as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of the year.

In an interview with ABC15, SolarSPELL co-founder Laura Hosman shared, "The people who are using our libraries are really the inspiration for why we continue to improve the content on the library all the time."

www.abc15.com/weather/impa...

Meet Nameera, an #ASU sophomore pursuing a BA in Global Studies & a BS in Economics. As a Cultural Content Curator, she is expanding access to locally relevant educational materials, helping learners see more of themselves in the library. 🌍 Thank you for your dedication, Nameera!

Missed our fall #newsletter last month? 📰 Catch up on our latest headlines, like new agricultural impact data, returning to Vanuatu, and our largest intern cohort to date: bit.ly/SPELLnews-FA25

Never miss an update by signing up for our newsletter at solarspell.org/newsletter

We’re excited to feature Sean, an #ASU alum who is helping us make our libraries more accessible and user-friendly! Learn about his experience interning with SolarSPELL: solarspell.org/designing-fo...

@asuengineering.bsky.social
#StudentSuccess #GlobalImpact #UserExperience #Accessibility

"We feel like we can do one better than the Internet because libraries are curated information," said SolarSPELL co-founder Laura Hosman in an interview with @kjzz.org. "It’s the right information for the right people at the right time."

#TIMEBestInventions #ASU #1innovation #SocialImpact

How stress affects our ability to understand health information An interview on how to make health information more accessible. Plus: Do you know how to read your medical bill?

Laura Hosman & co-director of SolarSPELL Health, Heather Ross, spoke to Doing Well News about the best ways to relay #HealthInformation to people in stressful or low-resource situations, describing our offline digital health library as an example. 🩺

doingwellnews.substack.com/p/health-inf...

Proud to be included in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025 list in the #SocialImpact category! This recognition will help open doors for us to reach more offline learners with the information & skills they need to create a better future.

time.com/collections/...

#TIMEBestInventions #ASU #1innovation

Thank you to the amazing volunteers who participated in this weekend's Curate-a-Thon, curating & tagging 82 new resources for our Pacific Islands education library! When we return to Vanuatu next month, we'll now be able to update libraries with new videos, national curricula & Bislama storybooks. 📚

2025 Shortlist of Finalists The annual Open Education Awards for Excellence recognizes outstanding contributions in the Open Education community, recognizing exemplary Individuals, distinctive Open Educational Resources, and inn...

Thrilled to share our very own Laura Hosman has been shortlisted for the 2025 Open Education Awards! awards.oeglobal.org/2025-finalis...
Congratulations, Laura, and all of the other incredible finalists on this well deserved honor!
#OEGlobal #OEAwards25 #OpenEducation #EdTech #1innovation

Thanks to B2R Farms Fellows & #SolarSPELL libraries, thousands of Rwandan farmers have increased their yields using #ConservationAgriculture (CA) — >56% on average! What's more, these farmers went on to teach CA to 2.5x more of the peers. Read more at solarspell.org/solarspell-l...

Abby, an #ASU Media Arts & Sciences major and Graphic Design Intern designs library banners and creates illustrations that celebrate the culture, community & landscapes of the communities where we work. Thank you, Abby for your dedication to supporting SolarSPELL's mission!

SolarSPELL has been shortlisted for the Access, Diversity & Inclusion Award at the #QSReimagine Education Awards! 🏅 Of >1,600 submissions, we're honored to be ranked in the top 20% among such an inspiring group of innovators! Thanks to all who have contributed to our mission to make this possible.

10 years ago we piloted the very first SolarSPELL libraries in Vanuatu & Micronesia. This week we returned to Vanuatu for the first time since 2020 to train the next generation of Peace Corps Volunteers on our new-and-improved libraries! 🎉 Stay tuned for more as we celebrate our 10-year anniversary!

So grateful to have participated in another inspiring #STEMtasticAdventures! It was a privilege to share the stage with fellow innovators & speak about both SolarSPELL's offline-first approach to empowering #STEMeducation & our pioneering work to create offline #AI learning tools for rural schools.

Happy #InternationalLiteracyDay! We're proud to support literacy champions like librarian Claudine by empowering them with locally relevant storybooks. You can empower more librarians by helping us bring SolarSPELL digital libraries to 5 rural Rwandan communities: www.gofundme.com/f/empower-rw...

YouTube video by B2R Farms B2R Farms Partners with SolarSPELL to Reach More Farmers

#ImpactResults: Training in conservation agriculture boosts farmers' maize yields by 47.5% over traditional practices; when paired with SolarSPELL, they gain an additional 9%! PLUS, SolarSPELL users went on to teach and additional 108 farmers on average!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDLD...

While in Rwanda, we also met with Appolo to talk more about the communities that will be receiving SolarSPELL #libraries. Thanks to your support, we now have 1 library funded, just 4 more to go! We hope you'll continue to help by sharing with friends & family: www.gofundme.com/f/empower-rw... 😊

🌱 Recently got to present to all 93 B2R Farms Fellows, who've been using SolarSPELL to help train farmers in #ConservationAgriculture. We shared both insights from farmer survey data & news from partners in South Sudan. Great to meet new fellows & see familiar faces!
#Training #DigitalLibrary #SDGs

If you missed our last #newsletter, head to bit.ly/SPELLnews-SU25 to get caught up: Meet our new digital librarian, learn about our fundraiser to bring more SolarSPELLs to Rwanda & hear from some of our stellar interns! Never miss an update by subscribing to our newsletter: solarspell.org/newsletter

Our partners at Empower Farmers South Sudan are using the SolarSPELL agriculture #library to help them create a demo farm & train farmers in conservation #agriculture. We just led a #training with their entire team to help them grow their research & training skills even more.
#SustainableDevelopment

Thanks to your generosity, we've raised enough to provide Kaseke Community Library with a SolarSPELL digital library, along with training on how to incorporate it into their programs. With your help, we can empower 4 more Rwandan libraries with SolarSPELLs: www.gofundme.com/f/empower-rw...

Co-founders Laura Hosman & Bruce Baikie recently returned from #STEMtasticAdventuresAfrica! Laura presented on how offline digital libraries can be used in #STEMeducation to keep students safe, focused & engaged. And Bruce gave a talk on our work with Next Lab to create #offlineAI.

For those of you playing at home, the answer is... 🥁🥁🥁🥁 68%! While 34 of our 50 students are Sun Devils, 16 of our summer interns have joined us from a diverse array of schools, including Addis Ababa University, Columbia University, Lake Forest College, Rwanda Polytechnic & University of Nottingham.

Today's #Trivia: What % of our interns this semester are #ASU students? Make your guesses in the comments, and come back Saturday for the answer!

Happy National #InternAppreciation Day to all of our incredible interns! Thank you for choosing to be a part of the SolarSPELL family. 🥰

Donate to Empower Rwandan Communities with Digital Libraries, organized by ASU SolarSPELL Initiative In rural Rwanda, books are scarce and the internet is out of … ASU SolarSPELL Initiative needs your support for Empower Rwandan Communities with Digital Libraries

“SolarSPELL is truly a tool for equity & opportunity," says Appolo Dukuzimana, lead librarian at Sunzu Yacu Community Library. He's trying to bring SolarSPELL libraries to more communities in Rwanda, and together we can make that happen: www.gofundme.com/f/empower-rw...
@ilovelibraries.bsky.social

Hear SolarSPELL co-founder Laura Hosman's stories from the field & lessons learned over a decade of harnessing the power of #libraries to improve access to information & build internet-ready skills on the What Could Go Right? podcast. Thank you, @progressntwrk.bsky.social for sharing our story!

#InternshipOpportunity: Put your #language skills to use empowering learners around the world! We're seeking interns to help curate educational content in #Arabic, #French, #Fula & #Spanish for our offline digital library collections. Apply by July 31: solarspell.org/student-oppo...

#SocialImpact