Host & Guests
Host: Spandana Pavuluri, Student, duPont Manual High School, Kentucky
Shelby Drayton, Senior Manager, UP Partnership
Connor Flick, Student, Gatton Academy High School, Kentucky
Diversity is very much something that we would like to achieve and diversity makes our spaces stronger. And so even just start with that question of how diverse is your OST program, does it reflect the community that you serve? And then working from there to say, if it doesn't, how can we make sure that happens?
— Connor Flick
About the Series
Despite years of research on the benefit of out-of-school-time (OST) programs, research studies have shown that young people from lower-income families do not have the same access to these programs as those from higher-income families. In a 2020 student-led survey commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, a majority of the 191 respondents reported that either they or someone they knew had faced obstacles that had prevented them from joining a program.
In this episode of Beyond the Classroom, student researchers and OST practitioners discuss some of the most common barriers to participation in OST programs, from a lack of transportation to the inability to afford program fees, and what can be done to address them.
