Altshul, Laura: - Laura Altshul is a Vassar graduate with a Master's degree in English Literature from New York University. She has taught in the Great Books program and at the college, high school and elementary levels. She was for many years a kindergarten teacher at the Foote School, and later became its Admissions Director. In 1996 she co-founded the outreach literacy program Footebridge, a public-private collaboration, now the enhanced Horizons at Foote program, of which she is the Board Chair. She also founded STARS, a public-private arts collaboration in 1994. Officially retired, she tutors and mediates. She also serves on non-profit boards dedicated to social justice and early childhood issues. In addition to writing stories and essays, she turned seriously to writing poetry four years ago, encouraged by her husband, Victor Altshul, also a poet. Her poem Last Visit won first prize in the Al Savard Memorial Contest, and she has given readings across the state. Her first collection of poetry, Searching for the Northern Lights, was published by Antrim House in 2015, following which she was a featured poet in the SCTV television series Speaking of Poetry. She and her husband live in New Haven; they have seven children between them, and eleven grandchildren.