Early Prevention Using a Digital Video Intervention in the Afterschool Setting
By Hailey Jones, Sarah Frerker, Rolena Stephenson, & Carol Cox
A recent survey of U.S. youth substance use showed that rates for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use were similar to those during the previous year—with a rise, however, in overdose deaths, possibly due to synthetic opioid abuse. About 20–30% of high schoolers reported vaping, with a small increase in vaping cannabis in the preceding year. Past-year use of alcohol for high school seniors was 52%, between 6% and 8% of high schoolers reported illicit drug use other than marijuana, and over one-fifth of middle schoolers perceived taking prescription narcotics as high-risk behavior (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2022).
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Building STEM Learner and Teacher Identities
By Isabella Lorena Contreras, Boa Sarabia, Claire Gillaspie, Jess Jensen, & Jasmine Nation
Makerspace activities and creative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects in afterschool environments can help youth develop academic content and problem-solving skills while expanding what it means to do STEM (Peppler et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2025). These opportunities support students in developing a “STEM identity,” defined by Chiu (2024) as “how individuals know and name themselves, who one is or wants to be, as well as to how one is recognized by others” (p. 90).
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A Tribal Approach to Engaging Educators and Students Through a Native Summer Learning Program
By Suzanne Delap, Celia Stall-Meadows, Ashley Nunley, Cheyenne Burkett, & Cassie Mixon
Promoting educational success is a primary focus for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Choctaw Nation provides scholarships and programming that support student achievement, yet families with school-age students remain challenged by Oklahoma’s limited per capita education funding, ranking in the bottom 10% of U.S. states (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024). Furthermore, the cultural needs of Native students are often insufficiently addressed in traditional education practices and curricula.
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Supporting Youth Development Through Youth Participatory Action Research
By Sally Neas, Steven Worker, Car Mun Kok, & Dorina Espinoza
As a new Latina immigrant to the United States, Julia remembered feeling devalued and marginalized because she did not speak English: “People … tell you that you are less for not knowing how to speak the language, because this is a country where only that [English] language is spoken.” Julia then enrolled in a Spanish-facilitated youth participatory action research (YPAR) program, in which she and her peers designed and analyzed a survey on how other immigrant students had learned English.
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A Three-Tiered Approach from the Philadelphia Out-of-School Time Literacy and Quality Improvement Initiative
By Patricia McGuinness-Carmichael, Karen B. O’Neill, & Kathryn A. Wheeler
Research indicates that out-of-school time (OST) programs have the capacity to support literacy skill development and can provide a comfortable environment where youth can build excitement about literacy (Afterschool Alliance, 2015). Providing literacy-rich environments outside the school classroom where children can practice and enhance their literacy skills has been a priority for the City of Philadelphia and the William Penn Foundation.
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By Audrey Boyer
Sports can be a defining aspect for young people that shapes their identity. For me, starting at an early age, sports provided me with a community bonded by a shared passion. My journey began early with ballet at four, followed by soccer, softball, and basketball.
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