Weekly Media Roundup: April 6, 2022

St. Olaf Kinesiology Students Volunteer at Northfield After School Programs, Northfield News (Minnesota)

Each day after school, students from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota are sharing their knowledge of kinesiology (the study of physical movement) and healthy life choices with elementary students in the Healthy Ways afterschool program. “Healthy Ways champions healthy habits and lifestyles for children and families by providing educational and fun nutrition and physical activity programming,” Diego Calvario Bravo, the coordinator of Healthy Ways, told Northfield News. The college students assist in the planning of nutritious afterschool meals, exercises and educational workshops.

Kathleen High School Risk Club Partners with Tech Firm to Offer High-Paying Internship, ABC Action News (Florida)

The Risk Club afterschool program at Kathleen High School in Lakeland, Florida is providing students the opportunity to create apps, learn computer coding and tour local tech companies. “You can’t be what you don’t see. So, we do college tours, business tours, just different fun-based field trips to give them exposure: let them know it’s a bigger world out there,” Jeffrey Williams, founder of Risk Club, told ABC Action News. The afterschool program receives funding from California-based tech firm, ServiceNow.

Kindness Without Boundaries, Tribune-Star (Illinois)

Students in the Beyond the Bell afterschool program in Paris, Illinois painted rocks with positive messages and distributed them to community members, who have placed them in locations around the country along with notes to contact the school if they are found. Now, students are tracking the rocks’ locations using pins on a map, and the rocks have made their way to Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, and elsewhere. Sixth-grader Blaise Davis told the Tribune-Star, “We’re trying to spread kindness ... so that the world becomes a better place.” Beyond the Bell is funded by a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant and offers science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities, a cooking club, guest speakers, and more.

How Richmond is Helping Students Stay Off Their Phones After School, WTVR-TV (Virginia)

Since 2014, nearly 2,000 students in Richmond, Virginia have participated in NextUp RVA’s free afterschool program, which provides positive, enriching activities for teens. In the program, teens connect with mentors, get academic support, and take part in discussions about mental health and wellbeing. NextUp RVA data shows that participating students have a higher graduation rate than Richmond Public Schools students as a whole.  “What we want to see is for the entire community, the entire region, to understand how important it is that schools can't do it alone, out of school time matters," President and CEO Barbara Sipe told WTVR-TV.