Kristin Nash, MPH
Oct 1, 2026
We're pleased to introduce a 2026 recipient of the William G. Nash Social Impact Grant, Taniya Noori, a student at Middlebury College, and the founder of the Afghan Tutoring Network (ATN).
Now in its fifth annual cycle, the William G. Nash Social Impact Grant continues to support college student-run businesses and initiatives that aim to positively impact society by providing grants, support, and mentorship to help them expand and grow.
We wanted to introduce you to a 2026 recipient, working to keep Afghan girls in education after they were banned from the classroom.
Taniya Noori studies International and Global Studies at Middlebury College, and founded the Afghan Tutoring Network in 2023. She describes why she started this:
"When the Taliban banned Afghan girls from attending school, I refused to accept a future where millions of young women would be silenced."
Since 2021, girls in Afghanistan above the sixth grade have been barred from attending school. Taniya founded the Afghan Tutoring Network to fill that gap. It pairs students in Afghanistan with volunteer educators around the world, who meet with them weekly over WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Meet to teach English, reading, and writing.
The network now supports 31 students and has more than 40 volunteer tutors across the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Most are retired teachers and Middlebury affiliates. Each student is paired with two or more tutors, which keeps the sessions personal and means a student is not left without support if one tutor is unavailable.
Access to the internet is often the biggest obstacle. Many of the students come from families who cannot afford a phone or reliable internet, and some rely on a shared family device with no privacy. ATN uses its funding to put a phone in each student's hands and to cover a monthly internet stipend, so that a lack of connectivity does not stop a student attending her lessons.
Taniya sought a grant to grow the network and make it more sustainable. The funds will go toward reaching more students, building the organization's first website, and expanding what ATN offers beyond tutoring into book clubs and writing workshops.
We have been impressed by how carefully Taniya has built the network. Tutors go through training led by an experienced educator before they start, and the network runs its own systems for matching students with tutors, tracking attendance, and recording progress each month. That structure is unusual in a volunteer initiative, and it has allowed ATN to grow while keeping the individual attention students receive.
Her work has not gone unnoticed on campus. Middlebury's Center for Community Engagement has backed the network with funding, and in 2025 Taniya received the college's Patrick J. Durkin '79 Public Service Leadership Award for her work advancing educational equity.
The tutors describe the experience as changing them as much as their students. WGNF is proud to support the Afghan Tutoring Network through the William G. Nash Social Impact Grant and we wish Taniya and her tutors every success in the year ahead.
About the William G. Nash Social Impact Grant Program
The William G. Nash Social Impact Grant program seeks to support college student run businesses with grants of between $2,500 - $7,500, support and mentorship to help them expand and grow.
Your business can be at any stage from idea, through to up and running and we particularly look to support those whose businesses have the potential to impact society in a positive way.
The main criteria for funding include: 1) you and/or others on your team is/are a student or recent graduate and 2) your business makes some type of social impact. Applications for the 2027 grant cycle will begin soon. Please feel free to reach out to info@williamgnash.org with any questions about the application process.
We are proud to honor Will's legacy by supporting young changemakers and their visions for impact. And we look forward to receiving your application!