Author: Lee V. Gaines
Jamilah McBryde works up a sweat to cut weight in preparation for the 2025 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Women’s Wrestling National Championship, hosted in Wichita, Kan., in March. Geoff Stellfox for NPR hide caption toggle caption Geoff Stellfox for NPR Jamilah, Zaynah and Latifah McBryde never expected to become college athletes, much less change the rules of American women’s wrestling. The sisters are devout Muslims who were homeschooled and grew up wrestling one another in Buffalo, N.Y. “We always said we would never be able to wrestle in college,” said Jamilah, 22. Coaches recognized their talent when they…
Megan Mainzer, the McKinney-Vento liaison for Middletown Public Schools in Rhode Island, speaks with a young girl at a school food and clothing pantry that’s managed, in part, with federal grant money. /Josephine Sittenfeld for NPR hide caption toggle caption /Josephine Sittenfeld for NPR Megan Mainzer works with children and families experiencing homelessness at Middletown Public Schools in Rhode Island. Last year, the federal government sent $65,000 to her district to help support those students – funding that was made possible by the decades-old McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law that includes legal protections and a grant program to…