Weekly Media Roundup: October 2, 2024

Minneapolis, St. Paul Educators Rally as Pandemic-Era Funding for Arts, After-School Programs Dries Up, WCCO-TV (Minnesota)

As federal COVID relief funding winds down, parents, educators and lawmakers rallied at Adams Immersion Elementary School in St. Paul to call on lawmakers to prevent drastic cuts to afterschool programs and other critical supports. “We cannot afford for funding to fall back to pre-pandemic levels. We know if school funding increases, academic outcomes improve," U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told WCCO-TV. St. Paul Public Schools received more than $200 million in pandemic funding.

Sprouting Readers Afterschool Program Promotes Literacy and Well-Being, RoughDraft Atlanta (Georgia)

At the Sprouting Readers afterschool program in Atlanta, students in kindergarten through third grade benefit from small-group literacy tutoring led by students from Emory University. The program, which also includes healthy snacks and nutrition education, was created to boost literacy rates and address food insecurity in under-resourced communities. “We can always use more general operating funds to expand,” Joan Wilson, Assistant Director of the Emory University School of Medicine, Urban Health Initiative, told RoughDraft Atlanta .“We just started working with children in refugee families at the Clarkston Community Center. More general operating funds would help us when new opportunities like this happen. Reading just opens so many doors for children.”

New NASA After School Program Engages Students With STEM Learning, WDTV 5 (West Virginia)

Thanks to a new partnership between NASA and 21st Century Community Learning Centers, about 1,000 students across 10 states will benefit from expanded STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activities at their afterschool programs. The programming will focus on real-world problem solving and hands-on learning. “Students across the country are going to be getting a whole lot more opportunity now to try science and space programs now with the start of this collaboration,” Cindy Marten, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education, told WDTV. “They’re building airplanes, they’re looking at aerodynamics. And a partnership with NASA is incredible for kids to actually get to see what it’s like to work in the sciences field.”

NAACP Awards: 'I'm being honored for something I love, love love love to do', The News-Gazette (Illinois)

Ten years ago, Angel Johnson created Angel’s Youth Center in Champaign, Illinois to help students stay safe from gun violence, succeed in school and reach their career goals. Today, the afterschool program offers tutoring, financial literacy, cooking, and career exploration, including guest speakers ranging from a local radio host to a heart surgeon. Last weekend, NAACP Champaign County honored Johnson with its Community Outreach Award. “When the NAACP said we want to honor you for all the hard work you’ve done in this community with these youth, it hit me. My dream came true,” Johnson told the News-Gazette. “I love youth. My dream came true, right, because I’m being honored for something I love, love love love to do.”