GIANT Spotlight: Meet Dawn La Valle
Dawn La Valle, Director of the Connecticut State Library Division of Library Development
Dawn LaValle named a Young Futures Innovator (and GIANT Remix is about to pop up in even more libraries)
What happens when a state library leader says, “Yes, our public libraries can be creative AI studios,” and then backs it up with real investment?
We are celebrating our partner Dawn La Valle, Director of the Connecticut State Library Division of Library Development, for being named a Young Futures Innovator through the Oops!… AI Did It Again Challenge, Young Futures’ first dedicated funding initiative for nonprofits at the intersection of youth and AI.
We are especially grateful because this new funding will support and expand the Connecticut State Library’s partnership with The GIANT Room. It will help more public libraries across the state and country become places where young people do not just use technology. They shape it. Dawn has been the ideal partner in building the conditions for youth imagination to become real, shareable, and seen.
Why This Matters in Developing Youth Agency
Young Futures created this challenge to invest in real agency for young people in a world rapidly being shaped by AI. The initiative supports solutions that build confidence, critical thinking, and youth voice.
That is a part of what GIANT Remix was built to do.
As Dawn put it, “GIANT Remix Stations are popping in our libraries where teens and pre-teens bring their ideas to life using a blend of hands-on creativity, AI literacy, and real-world publishing in these community-based creative storytelling experiences co-designed by youth, for youth.”
Dawn’s Superpower: Making libraries the place where youth ideas get louder
Dawn has been a steady, joyful force behind a big belief we share:
Libraries aren’t just where young people find stories. Libraries are where young people make stories and shape the world around them.
With Dawn’s leadership, GIANT Remix Stations have been able to pop up in libraries as creative studios, inviting youth of all ages and their families a place to experiment, collaborate, and turn their imagination into real community artifacts.
Here’s what we mean by “real.”
In one of our Remix missions, young people create Dear Mayor… postcards: they name what they love about their town, what needs to change, and what they want adults and leaders to do next. Their words aren’t treated like a one-time activity, those ideas become published, shareable pieces that can be read aloud, traded, displayed, and used to spark conversation. Because when young people can create, publish, and share what they think the world should be… they start to believe something BIG: My ideas belong in the world.
What’s next: This grant award will support and expand DLD’s partnership with The GIANT Room, helping more libraries across Connecticut and beyond become creative AI studios and work to specifically promote Pre-teens and teens development through GIANT Remix Stations.
With this new funding and Dawn’s continued leadership, we’re excited to expand GIANT Remix across more libraries that will create more opportunities for young people, specifically teens and pre-teens to:
design playful solutions to real community problems
practice critical thinking and AI literacy with guidance and care
publish work that reflects who they are and what they notice about the world
build confidence as creators, not just consumers
In other words, more opportunities for kids to feel the spark of “I made this and it matters.”