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Author: Diego Arancibia

The Student and The Teacher

For the past year and half, our team has been working to transform the organizational culture of large educational systems. Though deep and profound as a sentence, we have found that this transformation essentially begins with oneself.  Simple to say and write.  A lifetime to do and practice.  And yet many times we are often asked, “This is great stuff…. But when are we going to get to the real wo...

4 Things I Learned From Bonnie Reiss That After School Leaders Should Reflect On

We are honored to share a reflection from Breakfast Club blogger @diegoarancibia about lessons learned from a pioneer and innovator, Bonnie Reiss. Bonnie was the mind behind the inception of Arnold’s All Stars, now known as the After-School All-Stars. Bonnie Reiss, a top advisor to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a lifelong liberal Democrat who found common ground with the Republican ...

My Why: Kickball

This is probably the most important question that I continue to ask myself…it’s a question that has to be asked with a series of “Why’s.” Each one peeling back a layer of a deeper meaning. It’s a question that I toiled with for months. It wasn’t until a few days ago, when I sat discussing character development and social and emotional learning, that a coll...

We Shouldn’t Fear Our Leaders: 3 Reminders for the Next Generation

The changes are becoming apparent. The transition is here. Individuals who once ran programs at a site level are now in positions of leadership at a state level. This is the moment that we have waited for with much anticipation and excitement. This is the conversation that we have had late into the night at several BOOST conferences. So it is in this moment that I remind myself that leadership at ...

7 Ways to Maximize Your BOOST Experience

Below is a list of 7 ways to make the most out of your next BOOST Conference! 1) Be PRESENT. Don’t compare last year to this year. You will be chasing a ghost or even worse, you will try to “recreate” last year’s experience. Every year is distinct and every year there are new ‘openings.’  Which is one of the secrets of BOOST and something that can be appreciated...

Is Your Program Instagram Worthy?

“If the young are not initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth.” – African Proverb In traditional societies, parents would send their children outside of their immediate family to an ‘elder’ in order for the child to begin a rites of passage. This rites of passage gave them the opportunity to learn the social norms and mores and join ...

Fear of Failure and the Move to Greatness. Why After School Programs Must Lead Education Reform

I LOVE WORKING AFTER-SCHOOL!! To me, there is nothing like working with students on projects or events that they will remember for their entire lives. What do we do in after-school? We make memories!! I remember when I was eighteen and had just started working in an after-school program at Gompers Secondary School in one of San Diego’s tougher neighborhoods. I had some of the best times of m...

Ode to Site Supervisors

I began to reflect on my career and realized that my days as a site coordinator have been the most defining and empowering. I dare say that this experience, as a site coordinator, prepared me for the biggest challenges of not only my career… but my life. So, I have written this ode, in honor of the site coordinator… The one who is a part time employee with a full time attitude. The one...

Somewhere along the way we forgot that we are Superheroes…

I remember that it was during middle school that I began collecting Iron Man comic books. I don’t know if it was Tony Stark’s playboy swagger or his awesome suit that rocked me. Almost everyone has childhood memories of their superheroes and one’s immediate desire to “validate” why his/her superhero was the best. Personally, I’ve always been intrigued in how we ...

Breakthroughs @ BOOST

It wasn’t until the ride back from Palm Springs that I began to absorb my most recent BOOST experience. BOOST, for me, has been the metaphor for the movement of afterschool. BOOST has become a type of gauge of the movement. Whether it’s the number of participants, the quality of workshops, the keynote, I have always been able to use BOOST as a diagnostic for the movement. This was the ...