LitShop
LitShop provides after-school and summer programming that pairs engaging literacy opportunities with building and making. By intentionally creating a supportive space where girls** can take risks, explore creatively, build skills, and connect with other girls, LitShop fosters leadership and confidence our girls can use through adolescence and early adulthood.
Imagine a space that empowers adolescent girls to build solutions to community problems with real tools and their own ingenuity. Imagine a space where girls can engage in joyful literacy, sharing relevant and engaging books with peers while building lifelong reading habits. Imagine a space where girls can be the architects of their own stories and the crafters of their own messages. Imagine a space that encourages girls to work together and lift each other up in support of their goals and aspirations. Imagine a space that reflects the rich diversity of St Louis, where girls can learn from women of all walks of life and all voices are valued and honored. This is the vision for LitShop.
**LitShop is an inclusive space that has an expansive definition of “girl”. If you define yourself as a girl at any time: cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-confirming youth, genderqueer youth, then you are welcome at LitShop.
Program Leaders
Kelli Best-Oliver
Founder/Executive Director
Kelli Best-Oliver has worked in education in St Louis for the past seventeen years in a variety of public school settings and roles. Most recently, she spent six years working for St Louis Public Schools Central Office as a curriculum coordinator for ELA, literacy, and libraries. She founded LitShop in 2019 in order to help St Louis youth create their own means of production and direct their own hands-on learning. Kelli is passionate about literacy and equity in urban education and believes that all students are capable and deserving of rich, literate lives. She is an alumni of the Catalyst Fellowship and the Educational Equity Center of St Louis Fellowship, and provides coaching and support to current fellows in these programs. Kelli is also an alumni of the Truman State University women's soccer team, and her experiences there laid the groundwork for her belief in the collective power of women in pursuit of a common goal.
Dr. Michelle Arellano Haberberger
Development Manager
Dr. Michelle M. Haberberger is an educator, author, researcher, and mother. Her 14 years in St. Louis City education have been spent in middle school and high school language arts classrooms as well as in mid-level administration. She currently serves as the Director of Experiential Learning for MAP St. Louis. At Missouri Baptist University, she teaches courses in the Doctor of Education department, provides feedback on dissertations as an outside reader, and guides students through their doctoral journeys on multiple dissertation committees. She is also a published author of young adult fiction under her pen name Shelly X. Leonn. Dr. Haberberger enjoys reading and spending time outdoors with her two sons and husband.