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Community DC Lynsey Wood Jeffries Higher Achievement · Community D.C.

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the program for the first time Lindsey Wood Jeffries. She
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  Speaker 1: is the CEO for a Higher Achievement, a nonprofit based
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  Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. That bridges the opportunity gap for
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  Speaker 1: middle school students in under resource communities. They pair fifth
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  Speaker 1: through eighth graders with volunteer mentors to provide rigorous academic enrichment,
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  Speaker 1: social emotional skill building, and high school placement services. Here's
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  Speaker 1: my conversation with Lindsay. I hope you enjoy it as
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  Speaker 1: much as I did.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Lindsay, Good morning Dennis.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's great to have you on Community DC.
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  Speaker 1: This is your first time on the program, so welcome,
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  Speaker 1: and we have a lot to talk about when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to Higher Achievement.
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  Speaker 3: When I was.
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  Speaker 1: Looking at what you your team do your fiftieth anniversary, you've
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  Speaker 1: been there for a couple decades. It's really truly incredible
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  Speaker 1: what you do for middle schoolers. And we're going to
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  Speaker 1: learn in a lot over the next thirty minutes. But
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  Speaker 1: if you could please, I think a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: are probably being introduced to Higher Achievement for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: and I'd love for you to see give the history
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  Speaker 1: about it and where it started. I know it's all
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  Speaker 1: the way back to nineteen seventy five, but could you
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about it?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So Higher Achievement was founded in nineteen seventy five out
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  Speaker 4: of the vision of an extraordinary man named Greg Gannon.
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  Speaker 4: He was a teacher at Gonzaga College High School in DC,
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  Speaker 4: and right across the street from Gonzaga back then was
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  Speaker 4: Surf some Quorda, which is a public housing development and
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  Speaker 4: particularly in the seventies, was a tough place to be
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  Speaker 4: growing up. And he saw that the boys in Surf
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  Speaker 4: and Quarda would literally never be able to cross the
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  Speaker 4: street to get into Gonzaga without support, and he saw injustice.
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  Speaker 2: In that and wanted to do something about it.
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  Speaker 4: So he started by rallying his friends and colleagues at
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  Speaker 4: Gonzaga to do tutoring.
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  Speaker 2: And help boys get scholarships to Good Zacha.
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  Speaker 4: Back in the seventies, it quickly grew to be for
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  Speaker 4: boys and girls. For a long time was focused on
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  Speaker 4: students getting into private and parochial schools for high school,
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  Speaker 4: and about twenty five years ago, we sort of broadened
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  Speaker 4: our lens to also focus on placing our middle schoolers
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  Speaker 4: in the awesome college preparatory, public schools and charter schools,
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  Speaker 4: given how the city's landscape has changed.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thanks for sharing that, and you kind of led
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  Speaker 1: me into my next question because I wanted to talk
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  Speaker 1: about mission vision and I know more importantly than anything,
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  Speaker 1: those are really big deals for you and what you're
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  Speaker 1: trying to achieve every day with your team. Talk a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about your mission and vision with everybody.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love our vision statement.
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  Speaker 4: It is so clear talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not.
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  Speaker 4: Talent is in every zip code, in every family, but
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  Speaker 4: the opportunity is not equally spread, and so we really
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  Speaker 4: work to close that gap and we shower young people
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  Speaker 4: with opportunities. Volunteer mentors, an amazing supportive group of peers,
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  Speaker 4: exposure to colleges and careers, our scholars through career shadowing days,
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  Speaker 4: we take them on college visits, we introduce them to
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  Speaker 4: all of the best high school programs in the region,
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  Speaker 4: and then we help them and their families be really
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  Speaker 4: intentional about that transition from eighth to ninth grade, which
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  Speaker 4: is a.
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  Speaker 2: Really pivotal one for young people.
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  Speaker 4: We were just talking about ninth grade is this make
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  Speaker 4: or break here, And there's a lot to celebrate in
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  Speaker 4: DC education right now.
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  Speaker 2: And we should be proud of that across the city.
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  Speaker 4: And at the same time, ninth grade chronic absenteeism is
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  Speaker 4: some of the worst in the country. Fifty seven percent
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  Speaker 4: of students in Washington d C Are chronically absent right now.
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  Speaker 4: Eighth grade fifty seven percent, so almost six and ten
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  Speaker 4: and higher achievement scholars only six percent are chronically absent.
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  Speaker 2: So when you can engage.
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  Speaker 4: A young person after school with a great mentor you
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  Speaker 4: work with their family to really make them feel like
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  Speaker 4: they belong at school and belong in this culture of learning,
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  Speaker 4: students stay engaged and stay on track for long term success.
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  Speaker 4: And we are big on data. At Higher Achievement, we
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  Speaker 4: know that ninety five percent of our scholars have graduated
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  Speaker 4: from high school on time, and our scholars are three
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  Speaker 4: times more likely than their peers to graduate from a
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  Speaker 4: four year.
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  Speaker 2: College, So it pays off in space.
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  Speaker 4: We've also been the subject of two randomized control trust studies,
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  Speaker 4: which I can talk about later. They are much nerdier,
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  Speaker 4: but are also like highly validated studies.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you're leading me into my next question, and I
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  Speaker 1: think you're kind of talking about this already, but for
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  Speaker 1: our listeners are being it's again introduced to Higher Achievement
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  Speaker 1: for the first time. If you could give kind of
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  Speaker 1: a thirty thousand foot view about what you exactly do,
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  Speaker 1: what would you tell them?
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  Speaker 2: Yep, absolutely so.
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  Speaker 4: Higher Achievement operates an after school academic enrichment and mentoring program.
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  Speaker 4: We operate from Baltimore through Richmond, so we're in thirteen
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  Speaker 4: schools Baltimore, Prince George's County, DC where we were founded
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  Speaker 4: in Richmond, Virginia. We serve about six hundred middle schoolers
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  Speaker 4: across those thirteen schools and we help them through the
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  Speaker 4: critical transition of middle school with academic enrichment, with electives,
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  Speaker 4: we do arts and sports, everybody gets dinner. We have
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  Speaker 4: the mentors that come in that are helping volunteers be
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  Speaker 4: engaged in this work. And then we work hand in
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  Speaker 4: hand with the scholars and their families on that high
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  Speaker 4: school application process. And then as you go into high school,
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  Speaker 4: we touch base and make sure you're well supported in
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  Speaker 4: ninth grade, and then we plug you into other supports
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  Speaker 4: that really support high school and college students, and then
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  Speaker 4: we have a college scholarship program once you're in college
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  Speaker 4: at for sort of last dollar needs outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: So, with all the cities and all the schools that
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  Speaker 1: you work with, how does somebody actually partner up with you?
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  Speaker 1: And is somebody to singularly on the own the family
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  Speaker 1: wants to work with you, Can they do that as well?
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  Speaker 1: Or does it have to be through a school system?
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  Speaker 4: So we operate out of the school, So the programs
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  Speaker 4: literally happen in school buildings, and some of our schools
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  Speaker 4: are magnet centers, so a student can go to any
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  Speaker 4: school and come to Higher Government after school and some
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  Speaker 4: of the schools are only serving.
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  Speaker 2: Students from that particular schools.
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  Speaker 4: On our website, Higher Achievement dot org, we have the
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  Speaker 4: list of all of those thirteen schools where we operate.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk a little bit about the programs and
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  Speaker 1: that you offer, because I know there are kind of
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  Speaker 1: several different buckets that you work with when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to everybody.
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  Speaker 3: Can you kind of go over some of them for us?
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  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
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  Speaker 4: The program is it's mostly sort of the after school
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  Speaker 4: program is after school Academy where we do the homework help.
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  Speaker 4: We have learning blocks where that's it's project based learning
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  Speaker 4: to help students really engage in the material. And then
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  Speaker 4: there's the mentoring sessions, the electives, sports, arts and so forth,
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  Speaker 4: stem robotics, and then it's the placement in those college
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  Speaker 4: preparatory high schools. I will say, the reason we operate
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  Speaker 4: in middle school is really important, and it's something that
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  Speaker 4: most people don't know anything about. But although you have
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  Speaker 4: a visceral experience, most folks that they remember think back
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  Speaker 4: to your middle school dance like usually people have like
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  Speaker 4: a cringe moment.
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  Speaker 2: Half time you're.
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  Speaker 4: Trying to figure out who it is are you know.
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  Speaker 2: Your body isanging, your mind is changing.
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  Speaker 4: It's actually second only to infancy and the amount of
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  Speaker 4: brain development that happens during middle school, during early adolescent development.
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  Speaker 4: And unfortunately, it's the time in US public schools where
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  Speaker 4: you're most likely to have high teacher turnover. You're least
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  Speaker 4: likely to have a teacher who is certified in that
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  Speaker 4: particular phase of adolescent development. It's the least amount of
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  Speaker 4: uh like government investment goes to the middle grades. And
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  Speaker 4: so that's when students the like their experimental behavior begins
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  Speaker 4: in middle school and sometimes that's like negative risky behavior
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  Speaker 4: that particular for students of color, they don't usually get
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  Speaker 4: a second chance if they have, you know, if they
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  Speaker 4: are experimenting in risky behavior and at higher achievement. We
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  Speaker 4: create this environment that is supportive and nurturing for students
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  Speaker 4: to take positive risks and to have a support network
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  Speaker 4: around them, and we actually measure that too. A sense
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  Speaker 4: of belonging is so important for any human being, but
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  Speaker 4: particularly for middle schoolers as you're trying to figure out
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  Speaker 4: who you are as a person. To know that you
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  Speaker 4: belong somewhere, it matters deeply. And right now public schools
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  Speaker 4: are beginning to actually measure and report on those measures,
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  Speaker 4: which is great. That was an outgrowth of COVID that
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  Speaker 4: didn't used to be publicly reported. This was a couple
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  Speaker 4: of years ago, but six through twelfth graders in DC
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  Speaker 4: public schools something like forty three percent of them reported
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  Speaker 4: a strong sense of belonging in their school. Okay, forty
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  Speaker 4: three percent of students feeling like they belong at school.
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  Speaker 2: And then we wonder why kids are are.
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  Speaker 4: Dis engaged in school and are engaged in negative risky
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  Speaker 4: behavior outside of school, Like we've got to make sure
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  Speaker 4: that school is a nurturing place of belonging and learning
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  Speaker 4: at higher achievement. Ninety three percent of our scholars report
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  Speaker 4: a strong sense of belonging. It needs to be one
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  Speaker 4: hundred percent, but it is a very high percentage, and
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  Speaker 4: we work really carefully to build that because it's so
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  Speaker 4: important during middle school.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, when I saw that data, I said, that's actually
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  Speaker 1: very impressive. Even though I know you want to be perfect,
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  Speaker 1: it's just incredible numbers. You know, when you were talking
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  Speaker 1: about middle school, you know, I think we can all relate,
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  Speaker 1: you can. I can, well what a tough time it is.
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  Speaker 1: And I've got a twenty four year old daughter, and
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  Speaker 1: I remember middle school and also the start of high school.
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  Speaker 1: There really are formidable years and I remember with my daughter.
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  Speaker 1: And something that you're well aware of too, is they
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  Speaker 1: are looking for mentors at that age, somebody that will
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  Speaker 1: get them excited about whatever excites them so they can
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  Speaker 1: take that to the next level.
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  Speaker 3: Can you kind of expound on that a little bit, Oh, one.
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  Speaker 4: Hundred percent, your daughter's experience is whatever everyone is experiencing. Really,
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  Speaker 4: you're as because middle schoolers are building their identity separate
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  Speaker 4: and apart from their family, and so it's this time
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  Speaker 4: of experimentation and trying different things on.
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  Speaker 2: And they need people outside of their parents to help
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  Speaker 2: guide them.
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  Speaker 4: And they can ask different questions than to these outside
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  Speaker 4: mentors than they can usually with their family.
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  Speaker 2: And that Higher achievement provides that.
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  Speaker 4: And that's actually something we're always looking for is more
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  Speaker 4: volunteer mentors to be that trusted.
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  Speaker 2: Adult in a young person's life.
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  Speaker 4: And with us, we really make it easy for people
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  Speaker 4: to volunteer and you work with the same kids like
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  Speaker 4: week after week and often year after year. That's actually
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  Speaker 4: how I got involved with this program.
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  Speaker 2: Initially.
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  Speaker 4: I started twenty six years ago as a volunteer mentor
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  Speaker 4: when I moved to Washington and I mentored for five
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  Speaker 4: years and when one of my scholars, Audiel, got into
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  Speaker 4: his top choice high school, it made me pause.
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  Speaker 2: I thought I was working for a corporate foundation at
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  Speaker 2: the time. I'm like, oh, this is this is good work,
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  Speaker 2: like tangentsially, like doing good in the world, but.
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  Speaker 4: A higher a team that felt so concrete because this
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  Speaker 4: was a school that you know, he and his family.
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  Speaker 2: Didn't know about, but for higher achievement.
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  Speaker 4: And so fast forward to today, Audiel is now thirty
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  Speaker 4: five years old.
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  Speaker 2: He has an eleven year old daughter. I am proud
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  Speaker 2: to be her godmother.
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  Speaker 4: I have a nearly eleven year old son, and they
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  Speaker 4: are like very much growing up together.
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  Speaker 2: And it's one of the things that I love most.
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  Speaker 4: It's not like written in our mission statement, but it
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  Speaker 4: does kind of track a sense of belonging. Like we
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  Speaker 4: tighten the social fabric, these relationships endure, and in.
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  Speaker 2: This era of.
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  Speaker 4: AI and social fragmentation and polarization, I don't think there
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  Speaker 4: is anything more important than human like meaningful relationships often
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  Speaker 4: across difference, which prevent us from.
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  Speaker 2: Being able to other people. Like if you are in meaningful.
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  Speaker 4: Relationship with someone and you've laughed with them and you
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  Speaker 4: understand their struggles and you know, you share meals with
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  Speaker 4: them like you can't other whole groups of people, and
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  Speaker 4: so that's a piece of what we do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fantastic. I appreciate you explaining that. And that
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  Speaker 1: kind of leads me into another segue because you mentioned technology.
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  Speaker 1: There's social media. Obviously when you started a couple of
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  Speaker 1: decades ago, it was a much different world, and now
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  Speaker 1: we're living in a very fluid world where it's on
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  Speaker 1: fire and kids have a lot of distractions out there.
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  Speaker 1: I imagine when you talk to scholars and psychologists and
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  Speaker 1: parents and kids and everybody, with all that is being
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  Speaker 1: thrown at children right now, probably makes it that much
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  Speaker 1: more difficult to get everybody's attention on that one thing
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  Speaker 1: that you want them to get excited about. Can you
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  Speaker 1: go into that a little bit about today's world when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to a middle schooler and an early high
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  Speaker 1: school or about all the things that are going on
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  Speaker 1: in their life.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, just attention is so hard to keep for anyone,
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  Speaker 4: for adults and children.
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  Speaker 2: And so what we do is try to really ground
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  Speaker 2: our program in what matters.
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  Speaker 4: To that child and also to disconnect from devices. So
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  Speaker 4: our centers like these phones, it's right next to me here,
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  Speaker 4: they go in boxes. During centers, you can be engaged
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  Speaker 4: in the learning, but we start with what matters to
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  Speaker 4: that child. And so often our centers that learning block
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  Speaker 4: period I mentioned starts with journaling. And you know, I
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  Speaker 4: was at center the other day and the prompt was
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  Speaker 4: write about a role model or someone and who inspires you.
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  Speaker 2: And there was a little boy in one of our
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  Speaker 2: Baltimore centers who.
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  Speaker 4: Was in fifth grade but was at writing unfortunately at
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  Speaker 4: a first grade level, he was brandon new to higher achievement.
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  Speaker 4: But he was writing with fervor and you could see
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  Speaker 4: his little small motor skills like developing as he was
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  Speaker 4: writing with fervor about this prompt.
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  Speaker 2: That was so meaningful to him.
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  Speaker 4: And I couldn't wait to see who is his role
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  Speaker 4: model he's so excited about. And I read it, I
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  Speaker 4: was like, oh, okay, his role model is a guy
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  Speaker 4: who is a YouTuber who does like plays Fortnite while
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  Speaker 4: on YouTube. But this little boy was so passionate about
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  Speaker 4: writing about his role model that he was improving his
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  Speaker 4: small motor skills, such as his teacher told us recently
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  Speaker 4: that he's now up to a second grade level, not
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  Speaker 4: all the way to fifth yet, but he's only been in.
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  Speaker 2: The program like six weeks.
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  Speaker 4: So it like when you ground in what matters to
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  Speaker 4: a child, they will focus.
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  Speaker 2: He wasn't on YouTube. He was writing in a notebook about.
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  Speaker 1: This person that you know that's huge And I'm glad
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  Speaker 1: you shared that because I've heard from so many scholars
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  Speaker 1: in the five years that I've done this program. When
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  Speaker 1: we have the opportunity to talk, they're writing down, especially
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  Speaker 1: at children at this age that you're talking about. It's
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  Speaker 1: so important. And if you can get them to write
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  Speaker 1: down their feelings and what they're experiencing around because you've
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  Speaker 1: already mentioned all the things that are going on and more,
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  Speaker 1: it's extraordinary a benefit for them to do that and
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  Speaker 1: for everybody that they can journal. I'm so glad you
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  Speaker 1: do that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's really important.
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  Speaker 4: It's cathartic, and it helps them crystallize. Crystallize their emotions.
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  Speaker 4: Then you can work through them. You can you can
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  Speaker 4: manage through your emotions much more clearly if you can
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  Speaker 4: name them and write them down.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about your partnership with schools,
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  Speaker 1: not only middle school, high school, but the colleges. And
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  Speaker 1: then I want to get into parents in a little
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  Speaker 1: bit too, and get feedback from what you're getting from
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  Speaker 1: parents of what works, what doesn't, what they need help with,
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  Speaker 1: because once again, I imagine with the world moving so quickly,
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  Speaker 1: that you've got to keep on top of what's happening
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  Speaker 1: not only at the middle school, in high school, but
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  Speaker 1: also the collegiate level as well too. Tell us about
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  Speaker 1: how conversations work with everybody with things moving so fast,
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  Speaker 1: about making sure that we've handled this, we're preparing them
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  Speaker 1: for that. There's just a lot going on. I guess
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  Speaker 1: my point is there's a lot of balls in the
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  Speaker 1: air for you and the people that you work with
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  Speaker 1: it it must be extraordinary to keep.
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  Speaker 3: Up with.
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  Speaker 4: It is. The world is moving fast. I think the
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  Speaker 4: thing we focus on is both having our eye on
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  Speaker 4: the horizon, make sure that we are moving in the
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  Speaker 4: right direction. And so you know, we are internally figuring
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  Speaker 4: out like how do we use AI mostly in our
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  Speaker 4: back office, and at the same time just grounding in
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  Speaker 4: the lived experience with our scholars, taking it day by
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  Speaker 4: day while having our eye on the horizon. And I
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  Speaker 4: will say what helps with that is we have very
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  Speaker 4: We have extraordinary staff, full time staff and part time staff.
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  Speaker 4: Our full time staff is about forty people, and I'm
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  Speaker 4: so excited the last few years we've had extraordinary retention
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  Speaker 4: of those staff. Right now for this year it's ninety
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  Speaker 4: eight percent full time staff for retention, and part time
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  Speaker 4: staff is like ninety four percent, which is unusual for
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  Speaker 4: a part time role.
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  Speaker 3: That's extraordinary.
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  Speaker 4: People are committed to this work and they that helps
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  Speaker 4: us manage the swirl that you mentioned. When we have
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  Speaker 4: consistency in the adults who are showing up with our scholars.
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  Speaker 1: Without knowing too much, I do know that when it
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: comes to the school system, they only have so much
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: bandwidth and resources. And that's where you come into. And
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I imagine that you hear from these schools and these
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: partners and the parents. It just must be a godsend
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to them that you guys are here to help and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: fill in those gaps where the schools just can't, would
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I be correct?
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah? And you know, we offer a free program.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Our program takes a lot of money to run, so
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: I spent a lot of time fundraising, as do my colleagues,
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: and it is free to our scholars and families, and
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: our school partners just want more of it, and so
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: many of them. We have four right now who actively
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: want us to expand to those schools and they're trying
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: to figure out, you know, they schools are expected to
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: pay a small portion of our annual expenses for that school.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: They're trying to figure out how the budget for it,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: and then they want us also increasingly, we're bringing asked
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: to kind of push into the school day, particularly on
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: that high school placement work that we do a.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Lot of middle schoolers.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Middle schools are now understaffed as the COVID funding has
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: gone away.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: A lot of.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Social work and counseling positions that had been.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Sort of plussed up at schools have now been.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: Eliminated, and the caseloads are huge school counselors. I mean,
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: the average caseload in the country is like four hundred
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: and ninety six kids to one counselors in a youth
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: mental health crisis like that is just untenable. And so
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: programs like ours, well, we are not counselors. We provide
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: small groups. These mentoring sessions are like three students to
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: one mentor our staff.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Like the bigger learning blocks are like twelve kids to
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: one staff member.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: So we provide this nurturing environment that helps helps insulate
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: the risk and the challenge that schools are facing when
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: their counselors and social workers are so overwhelmed.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Since you mentioned it, I certainly want to talk about
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: it about being funded. How are you funded?
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we are pretty diversely funded. We're about forty
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: percent foundation funding, about thirty percent individual donors. That's the
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: piece that's been growing the most, and then corporate has
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: been declining. Unfortunately, it's about at fifteen percent or so,
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: and whatever the balance is, maybe twenty percent ish is government.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: Government has also been declining, as it has for just
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: about the entire nonprofit sector.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: I want to talk about challenges.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously every nonprofit I talked to, you know,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: going out there and getting money is their number one priority,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and it's also hard to do, and we really appreciate that.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: But what other challenges are posed to you and your
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: team currently in today's climate?
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my goodness. So one of them is volunteer recruitment.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: For those four schools I mentioned who would like us
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: to expand we need to recruit to serve seventy sixty
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: or seventy students, we need to recruit about twenty five
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: to thirty volunteer mentors, and so we want we need that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: That's a constraint to growth, is to recruit more volunteers
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: who can come once a week to mentor our scholars.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: So that's a plug you want to really engage. Mentoring
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: is the best way to do that. Other challenges we're
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: facing have to do with, you know, the vulnerable communities
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: in our regions are more vulnerable than they've ever been.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know how far you want me to go
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: down that path, but it is.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: To hear about that.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: It's intense.
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: You know, increasingly, the underserved neighborhoods that we serve are
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: you know, full of families who deeply care about their
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: children and who are frequently undocumented, and those families are
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: under threat, and and school attendance is down in those
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: communities pretty substantially, and we want to make sure that
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: we can support those families as much as possible. But
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: you know, the level of stress that those children are
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: taking on is way more than any child cap be expected.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I can only imagine. I did want to ask you
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: one more thing, because you've probably got attention a lot
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: of people who maybe want to be a volunteer mentor
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: what's the screening process and for them to have to
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: do that?
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Yep. So the first step is going to our website
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: hire Achievement dot org and we have a button right
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: on the main page says volunteer and you have to
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: fill out an application. Then there's an interview, a phone
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: interview with one of our staff, and then you know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: there are some security processes you have to go through,
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: background check. I think you still have to do a
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: TV test things like that, and then you get match
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: with a scholar. But this is prime recruitment time because
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: we will start in September with our program, and so
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: this summer is the time to take action to become
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: a volunteer mentor.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I did want to mention a little bit more about
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: parents and teachers out there when to feedback and I
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: imagine you get all sorts of feedback about how you
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: can get better about how this is working, maybe this
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: is not working. Can you tell us about how the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: line of communication works, because I know you're kind of
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: in that. We talked about data, which is obviously huge
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: out there, but also getting one to one feedback has
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: got to be extraordinary for you about how you can
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: get better and how you can twist things around just
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: to make them work for everybody. How does the feedback
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: work with everybody that you work with when it comes
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to parents and the scholars and the schools.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do a lot of feedback loops. Twice a
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: year we.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Do kind of scholar engagement surveys to get the scholars
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: feedback on what's working with it's not working, you know,
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: And then every summer we do one on one meetings
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: with all of our families and scholars to check in,
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: like on their goals and you know, have those goals
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: shifted how Like what is the progress.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: We've seen and what questions do they have?
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: What do they want us to like and adapt to
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: address more more fully? And you know, one of the
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: things that really stands out to me about feedback is
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: at a lot of times our staff when they're calling
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: home to our scholars families, it might be the first
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: time that that family got a positive phone call.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Home about their child, right right.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: I guess what, Like Jamal was doing amazingly today and
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: he was answering these questions and you know, he was
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: so engaged in this content like and that matters.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: For families to hear that.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because when the phone rings, it's usually not good news. Yeah, yeah,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I love that. Well, listen, we only have a few
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: minutes left. I want to get some final thoughts from you.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: But I know, as a leader of a company at
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: higher achievement, you're always looking for the future. What do
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you hope to happen in the next two to five years?
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Now know what you do, But with the system in general.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: So for higher achievement, we are looking to grow.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: We're serving about six hundred students now, we're hoping to
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: serve eight hundred and the next probably three or four years,
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: we want to grow.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: We are also looking to scale a piece.
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: Of our program this eighth to ninth grade transition. We've
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: piloted some things this year, will grow them next year
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: to have students who are not part of Higher Achievement
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: benefit from this advising on where to go to high school.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: And so look for that to come from us in
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: the coming years. And the system as a whole, my goodness,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: the system. There are a lot of systems, so the
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: after school system across the country. My hope is that
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: our country continues to support that. There's one federal source
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: of funding for after school programs called the twenty first
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: Century Community Learning Center Grants. The last couple of years,
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: it's been zeroed out by the President's budget, and people.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Have advocated to keep it. There's a lot of bipartisan
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: support for after school programs. Thankfully. I hope that continues
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: and grows. For the system as.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: A whole, I hope that we just continue to ground
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: in student experience and nourish students' natural curiosity and give
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: them the learning experiences that help them become the leaders
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: that we're going to need for the future, and that
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: we let them. We scaffold that, but we let them
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: lead the way and not not have the adult sort
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: of getting.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: In the way.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's well said. Well listen.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: With a couple of minutes left, I just want to
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: get you some final thoughts. We want to give the website.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: One more time.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I know you're on social media platforms that everybody can
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: check that out. So what we've talked about and how
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: people can partner with you at Higher Achievement Lindsay, the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: floor is yours.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Thank you, well, it's been such a pleasure to be here.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: Dennis again. Higher Achievement dot org after school Academic and
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: Richmond and Mentoring program exciting right now in Washington, d C.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: The two leading candidates for mayor are both alumni of
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: our program.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: Which is to Ken McDuffie, absolutely huge. That's just wonderful.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: They've both been super supportive of our mission. They were
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: co chairs of our fiftieth anniversary campaign last year. In fact,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: both of them and I just encourage everyone to check
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: our website out, follow us on social media. We're on
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook at Higher achieve or Higher Achievement,
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: you can find us by searching those terms.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: And the best thing you can do is really think
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: about being a mentor.
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: And if you get even more excited, to think about
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: how to recruit other people at your place of work
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: or your place of worship or in your neighborhood to
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: recruit other people to be mentors. If not with us,
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: with someone get involved with kids.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And just one more reminder, when you go to the website,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: there's a nice and big green button on the top
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: right hand corner where you can donate, and there are
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: lots of ways to donate. And we should also encourage
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: because we have a lot of small, medium, large business
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: to listen to this program. For really cool nonprofits out there,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: they can reach out to you and partner up with you.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, we're always looking for corporate partners and other donors
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: as well.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: That's Kenny well LENDSI thank you so much. I'm glad
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: we found you. You're doing extraordinary work.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I imagine you've seen so many things over the last
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: couple of decades at running this wonderful organization Higher Achievement,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm glad that things are going as well as
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: they can. I know we're in a wacky climate right now.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: With that said, you're making a difference out there in
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: your team, which is extraordinary, and that's like we we
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: like to talk to people and put a spotline on
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: them that are doing some extraordinary things out there. So
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. I want to stay in touch
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: with you, but we really appreciate you joining us on
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Community DC.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Thanks Dennis Guild of So Clean the Oceans and Make
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Good World a better place.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Learn more at she Can STEMP.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: A message dropped you by the ad Council