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 views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Enjoy the brain food.

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!

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How Youth Development Programs Have Responded to COVID-19: Creativity, Innovation, and Doing What’s Brave and What’s Right

Defined by lockdowns, face masks, and video conferences, the COVID-19 global pandemic caused the world to shift to an era of physical distancing, at-home and on-line learning, shuttered community organizations, and the possibility of stifled creation for young people around the world. Recently a colleague shared an essay, “A Message of Hope,” by English author Neil Gaiman, in which he describes the unusual moment of panic, disruption, grief, and pause we are collectively experiencing as the COVI...Read More

Build Your Kids’ “Moonshot-ability”!

Creative thinking. Bold imagination. Tenacity. Rising to a challenge. Innovation. Know-how. Skills we work on building in kids in afterschool, right? It’s also what it took to put together an amazing feat that made history, when on July 20, 1969, humans first landed and set foot on the surface of the Moon. President John F. Kennedy announced to the world NASA’s “Moonshot” challenge in May of 1961. NASA answered the challenge with a series of missions to the Moon, each making more progress toward...Read More

Let’s Play!

A few years ago, I took my youngest son and his friend to Laser Quest. It’s the best laser tag place I know, full of two-story mazes covered in glow-in-the-dark paint. I had intended to sit and wait for the boys as they enjoyed their experience, but a quick phone call with Mom changed that plan. “Go play. Have fun! I would if I was there,” encouraged Mom. She knows I’m still a kid at heart, just like her. With her voice ringing in my ears, I played two of the greatest games of laser tag in my li...Read More

Designing Innovation for Equity: What’s Taking So Long?

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally posted on May 07, 2018 on the TGR Foundation’s blog site. We are reposting with the author’s permission.  — Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion at the ASU+GSV Summit, representing TGR Foundation and the work we do. Speaking to a packed room, our session, Designing Innovation for Equity, set out to broadly explore equity issues in relationship to the Innovation Economy-focused redesign of education sy...Read More

Algorithms with Empathy

The algorithms, math, hardware, physics, engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence behind breakthrough discoveries like those spearheaded by Elon Musk and his teams require a person to be emotionally, socially, and physically prepared for the failures and successes of attempting to reimagine and change our world. I watched with great admiration as one of the most successful human beings of our time, possibly in all human history, cried at the thought of his heroes knocking him f...Read More

“Essence” of Leadership

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to win. — Paul “Bear” Bryant People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou There is something in our organization we call the Essence of Leadership. To us Essence is the spirit of the quintessential leader. Our mission at Children’s Choice is to pro...Read More