Weekly Media Roundup: May 7, 2025

Opinion: We Need Heroes. Alaska After-School Programs Are Full of Them., Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)

In a recent guest column in the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Afterschool Network Executive Director Thomas Azzarella highlights the many ways afterschool professionals help students discover their passions and learn essential life skills. Afterschool staff like the five recognized by the Alaska Afterschool Network as Afterschool Superheroes help kids succeed in school, lead theater productions, design engaging science experiments and more. “But here’s the truth: even superheroes have limits. After school professionals can only continue their work if we, as Alaskans, choose to support them,” Azzarella writes. “Without adequate funding — especially at the federal level through 21st Century Community Learning Centers — we risk losing the very heroes who make these programs possible, and nearly 3,400 kids will miss out on safe and enriching after-school experiences.”

Mural Arts’ After-School Programming Prepares Students, Heals Communities, WHYY (Pennsylvania)

In Mural Arts’ afterschool programs in Philadelphia, students learn to express themselves, develop technical skills, and explore career pathways by collaborating on large-scale public art projects. Since 1984, the organization has helped create more than 4,000 murals and helped make Philadelphia the “Mural Capital of the World.” “I am passionate about art. It’s helped me find myself. I feel like emotion is the language of the soul and art is here to help us translate it so that others can understand,” high school senior Eylydia Knight, who helped decorate a community fridge that offers free food through the program, told WHYY. “As for my plans after high school, I’m planning to study architecture in college.”

Free After-School Program Helps Chinese American Students to Reach Potential, NBC Chicago (Illinois)

At the Project: VISION afterschool program in Chicago, Illinois, first generation Chinese American students receive academic support while participating in leadership, civic and career building opportunities. “They not only help me with my academics, but they also help me in other aspects of life,” Yvonne Liang, a sophomore at Project: Vision, told NBC Chicago. “The pressure of being a first generation—I feel like I need to succeed or the efforts they (parents) put into getting me and my siblings here would have gone to waste.” The free afterschool program has two locations in Chinatown and hopes to expand given long waitlists at both sites.

First-ever Lowcountry Youth Conference Promotes Education, Inspiration, WCSC (South Carolina)

Empowering Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Empowering Y.O.U.) teamed up with Carolina Teen Center’s afterschool program to host a youth conference in Hollywood, South Carolina, highlighting the many activities and topics they explore each day with youth at their programs, including financial management, social media safety, conflict resolution and much more. “We had the parents and the caregivers as well attending along with the youth and that’s great because we wanted that family engagement,” Carolina Teen Center Executive Director Lisa Hart told WCSC.