Kristina Berdan has been a teacher in Baltimore City Schools for nine years. She graduated from Towson University's Master of Arts in Teaching Program after earning her B.S in Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Currently on a leave of absence from the city school system, she is devoting herself full time to the Stadium School Youth Dreamers, Inc., a non-profit organization created by some of her students in 2001. She bases most of her work on the Principles of Social Action as developed by the Centre for Social Action out of DuMontford University in England. She has attended numerous trainings with the Centre for Social Action, has done presentations about the Youth Dreamers at social action conferences, and was on an editorial team to produce a publication about teachers' experiences with social action in the classroom (Writing for a Change: Boosting Literacy and Learning through Social Action, Jossey-Bass, 2006). She has served on the board of Youth As Resources with three other teenage Youth Dreamers, earned her National Board Certification in 2000, and received the B-More Fund Award in November 2006. She teaches artists in the Teaching Artist Institute sponsored by the Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, Maryland State Arts Council, and Young Audiences of Maryland. She teaches teachers through the Towson University Arts Integration Institute, and she is a part-time faculty member in the MICA MA in Community Arts Program.