Breakfast Club Blog
The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is a curated space where bloggers from around the world contribute content on a continual basis about a variety of topics relevant to in and out-of-school time. The BOOST Breakfast Club blog is at the heart of an ongoing dialogue where expanded learning and education professionals share their personal thoughts and stories from the in and out-of-school time field. They also tell us what they ate for breakfast!
The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!
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Catching Grit
Grit is defined on paper as “courage and resolve; strength of character.” My son, Oliver, turned 13 a few months ago and recently received an opportunity to demonstrate what it means in practice. He has played Irvine Pony League baseball since he was seven. I never asked him if he wanted to play. I signed him up because I wanted to share the experience with him. I threw him a thousand pitches in the park before he ever played his first game. He started in 2016, playing at the “Pinto Machine Pitc...Read More
From a Learning Disability to a Ph.D.: A Life-Changing Journey
As I opened an email titled “Congratulations! Your dissertation is approved.” I felt tears of happiness slowly running down my cheeks. I smiled, closed my eyes, and took a long, deep breath. It had been a long and difficult journey, but somehow, I felt that it was only a beginning – of a new era, the one where I officially had no reason to doubt myself. “I am a doctor now,” I thought to myself. “I did it, I proved them all wrong.” For as long as I can remember I was told that I wasn’t good enoug...Read More
For when you feel lazy or unmotivated…
3 quotes I use to spark motivation when I feel lazy, unmotivated, or hopeless Lazy isn’t permanent Let’s get something straight: no one feels enthusiastic, motivated, and productive all the time. Even if it seems like it from the outside. I know because I’ve been called a motivated, disciplined, and courageous person since I left a great job to become an entrepreneur. But I’m not like that all the time – not even close. There are plenty of times when, even though I absolutely love my life ...Read More
Love in Your Voice
It’s not always easy to be yourself. Maybe you can relate to this. I’m in a café with a cup of tea. It’s funny actually. There’s a trendy wooden table beside me. As I sit to write the first words of this blog project, in my head I hear the voices of writers I’m reading and speaker types famous for dumb one-liners. They are a crowded group in a room somewhere in my brain, an indecipherable rumble. “No Chad. Be you. Find your voice. Don’t write like them.&...Read More
Persistence: Why It’s Hard Before It’s Easy
I’ve written about this very thing before, but I’m struck once again at how HARD things are before they become EASY. My son and daughter took a few rounds of swimming lessons this summer. For my son, who only recently turned three, this was his first experience with swimming lessons, and they came at a time when he was only just beginning to enjoy just simply playing in the water. Here’s how the first round went for him: During his first lesson, he cried hysterically from the f...Read More
Healing the World Begins with Me!
Right now, it seems that the world is a pressure cooker of challenges from which no one can escape. The COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented job losses have created incredible stress and uncertainty. Police violence toward African Americans—and centuries-long institutional racism—have sparked outrage and demonstrations across the nation. In New York City, we saw a spike in gun violence over the July 4th holiday. Child abuse and domestic violence are on the rise—and we know actual rates are higher...Read More
Hey Afterschool Leaders, We’ve Been Called In
Most of us are compelled to work in afterschool programs because we want to empower youth, nurture young talent, even level the playing field. Despite doing this important work daily, we are painfully aware that the conditions of schools, neighborhoods, and economies just never change. So, we find ourselves, though well-intended, propping up a system that still doesn’t equitably serve all the people in this country. As agency leaders, we are witness to, and work daily against, the pressures, pol...Read More
You May Sputter, But You Must Start
When I was in high school, my dad tried to teach me how to drive a stick shift. I like to think I’m really good at it… once I’m in like third gear. Once I’m cruising, driving a stick makes me feel so accomplished—like some kind of race car driver, like a really good driver. Once it’s easy. But getting started? That’s an entirely different story. The perfect coordination of movements required in getting a stick shift from neutral to first gear—the dance between the clutch and the brake that must ...Read More
The Lost Places
“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” Rosalía de Castro I love quotes—they inspire me, they encourage me, they guide me, they offer words when I can find none. I collect them like one might collect coins or shells, and surround myself with them when I feel lost. I’m in a lost place right now. I think so many of us hide that feeling, that lost place, shielding ourselves instead with an “I’m fine!” for the rest o...Read More
The Super Hero That IS Within
Editor’s Note: This blog was first published on Monday, April 8, 2019, with permission to use from The Leadership Program and Erika Petrelli, CEO. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The kids and I saw the movie Shazam. We all loved it, and afterward, they immediately grabbed their sketchbooks with the intention of creating their own superheroes. After some initial prototyping, Dylan came up with the character of “Sir In...Read More
The Flawed Leader
For the past 15 years, I have developed and grown an afterschool program model from its infancy serving 20 kids in a church to serving over 600 kids across three cities, demonstrating incredible success rates. By all means I have been deemed as a visionary, strong, competent leader. Each year as we get larger and stronger, the pressure mounts as the praise continues, and the expectations build. However, what most people on the outside looking in don’t see is with all the ambition, the drive fo...Read More