Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults alumnus René Colato Laínez is 
a winner of the 2010 Stepping Stones Honor Award. Each year Skipping Stones, an international multi-cultural magazine for youth, honors books that "promote an understanding of cultures, cultivate cooperation and encourage a deeper understanding of the world’s diversity, ecological richness, respect for multiple viewpoints and close relationships within human societies."
René won for his picture book René Has Two Last Names/René Tiene Dos Apellídos.
"This program awakened the activist spirit in me. I am more aware and involved in making work engaged in a discourse about social issues which affect the earth and its inhabitants.I am a new person. I can never go back to the old way of looking at art or the world again."