For special needs students in the RISE program at William James Middle School in Fort Worth, the Life Lab Learning Garden is a place to grow. Not just the potatoes, carrots, and cilantro teeming from the raised garden beds situated in a school courtyard, but also the sort of personal growth that comes from learning how to bring that food to life.

Students at Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Dallas could barely contain their excitement earlier this month as they entered a room filled with hundreds of books—with stories of adventure and new worlds to explore, knowing they could choose one of their very own to take home and read with their families.