From WPS to Holy Cross: A Conversation with Keyshawn O'Connell
This week we sat down with Keyshawn O'Connell—a recent college grad from College of the Holy Cross—who talked to us about some of his experiences growing up in Worcester, attending the public schools, and getting involved with programs like Recreation Worcester, Dynamy Youth Academy (Upward Bound), and Bottom line.
Keyshawn shares his thoughts on how we might strengthen educational spaces for youth including increasing teacher diversity and giving young people a voice at the table.
More on Recreation Worcester.
More on Dynamy.
More on Upward Bound.
Transcript for this episode
JOSHUA CROKE — Hi folx! So last week we spoke with Frankie Franco. Frankie shared his own personal story growing up in Worcester including life in the public schools and how he believed his opportunities and experiences helped build the bridge to where he is today as the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Worcester’s Division of Youth Opportunities.
Frankie shared his passion for involving youth in every step of a process or decision that might impact their lives. Giving young people the opportunity to have a voice and to lead, he believes, is a driving element of what would help build a society that works for all young people and their families.
In today’s episode, we’re listening to Frankie and talking to a young man who grew up in the Worcester Public Schools and recently graduated from the College of the Holy Cross. His name is Keyshawn O’Connell. And, actually, Frankie connected us to Keyshawn because for the past 4 years, Keyshawn has worked at REC Worcester; a program Frankie now supports in his role at the city.
Oh, and listeners, if you or someone you know have a job opportunity surrounding social work and youth engagement; Keyshawn’s job hunting. Send us a note to publichearing@actionbydesign.co and we’d love to connect you.
This is the Public Hearing Podcast.
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Public Hearing is available wherever you listen to podcasts and airs on WICN 90.5FM on Wednesdays at 6pm, Worcester’s only NPR affiliate station.
To start our conversation, I asked Keyshawn to tell us a little about himself and what he’s passionate about.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I would say I'm a very involved, vocal, energetic kind of person that really likes to strive to create change. I feel passionate about youth work and I feel as though we need to help more youth go along the way of life. I am very vocal on what I, what I want to do for youth. And I just want to change my community, which is Worcester. I've been involved with a ton of Worcester communities that are low income or things of that sort. So I just want to change the overall kind of perspective of youth. And I feel as though a lot of students feel down about, you know, going to higher education or things like that because they don't have the support or advisory that I once did. And so I just feel like I just want to be that support system that helps them along through the process of life and to go about being successful. Cause that's what I honestly want them to be. I just want them to be successful and strive to do the best that they can because I feel as though a lot of youth have low confidence and look down upon themselves and I'm all about just lifting them up. I'm a very hands on type of person. I like engaging with youth. I don't like sitting behind a desk every hour on the hour. I know I like to be hands on and really get vocal and really learn about different perspectives that different people have to say. And I'm just that type of person that always wants, to not be the center of attention, but always wants to let their voices voice be heard. And I'm very friendly outgoing, which I wasn't before, but now I am, cause college has really changed me. And over the past four years in college, I really learned more about my culture and multiculturalism in general and really kind of found my other half because I do identify as biracial, which both black and white so I- during college. I kind of had that identity struggle where I didn't know which side to pick, but over my four years, I really found the friends that I really need to support me. And it's just been a great experience overall. So I'm just here to really empower youth voices and let them rise to the occasion.
JOSHUA CROKE: Quick jump in on a topic that I’m certain we’ll address and discuss in more detail in future episodes; but I’d encourage you to explore this topic at dinner: the fact that we have young people in this country who feel divided because of different parts of their identity. In Keyshawn’s case, identifying with his whiteness and his blackness.
If you have a story of embracing and learning more about your own identity, we’d love to talk to you. Send us an audio note to publichearing@actionbydesign.co
As a young man recently out of college, I asked Keyshawn where his involvement with youth work began and how he tapped into that passion.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I feel like it started off in high school where I was a part of the youth council and that was a youth council where we went over all these things that we want to do for Worcester. We wanted to give back to youth, wanted to create this program, to have all college access and things like that. So I think that was around my sophomore/junior year that I really wanted to engage with youth work and the youth work that I wanted to do. I was also a part of Dynamy Youth Academy which, which was like a mentorship program through Upward Bound that really helped me throughout my way explore what I want to do in the future. And we would do community service for youth. We would just have have this whole type of scheme, like this whole type of schedule that we did with youth tutoring and things like that.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
And I just became passionate with it. During my senior year, um I helped out with the kids that were of lower income and things like that, which really helped me- and lower status and students with disabilities as well. I helped, I engaged with them basically helping them tutoring and helping them with just physical education in general which I found really passionate about.
But with, through along the path, I kind of got more involved with law being like a lawyer, but I will like maybe six months ago, I decided to, you know, go back to social work and things of that sort, because I'm really not that interested in law anymore.
And I feel as though I don't want to engage with the youth that turn to adult first, I feel like you just need to talk to the youth at their core rather than seeing them 10 years down the road facing the criminal justice system.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I feel like my work is towards social work, engaging with youth. So I just feel as though they need as much support in general as they can express during these trying times as well for people of color, that it's really important for them to really get gain the support that they need from their teachers, from their guidance counselors and from basically from their parents. And I feel coming from a first- I'm a first generation college student it's was a struggle overall. And I just feel for the people that don't have the access to the resources that get them to higher education. So I feel as though that just needs to be implemented and it just needs to be done.
JOSHUA CROKE:
And you said meeting youth and talking to them like at their core. And I think that is so resonant in some of the work that we're doing with this podcast and talking to people about, like, if we're talking about systems that impact youth, right. Public education, juvenile justice, child welfare, public transportation—all these systems that are supposed to work for our young people, don't always work for our young people. And unfortunately there is, you know, additional levels of marginalization and oppression as you, you know have more intersecting identities. Right? So talk to me a little bit about that piece of the importance of meeting youth where they're at and talking to them about some of their own experiences and what they might be looking for. And maybe you have some examples of from your work with like REC Worcester and some of the conversations that you've had with young people, but what do you see are the motivations and the questions that young people are asking or what they're advocating for, for, for themselves?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I feel as though they've been saying that we need, we, they basically need help with the resources. They don't have books for them to go higher, to get higher education. They don't have any type of resources. Their parents really can't help them because they have not gone through the whole college process in general. So I feel as though that's the main point that has the main type of thing that's been said to me overall.
I feel as though they kind of struggle overall as well with education wise with the teachers, because they feel as old teachers, some teachers don't listen to them as much as they should. I mean, from my experience, I feel as though some teachers are- be willing to sit back with you and talk to you about certain issues while other teachers, they’re there to grade papers and just, don't get to know you one on one and the experience that you've been through.
So I feel as though there's really been kind of this they've said that there's been this lack of mentorship within the school systems that really need to be implemented because I feel like mentorship is key, especially at a younger age where you're just trying to find things out.
I've talked to a bunch of youth and, during this time, I've really kind of had to explain to them the process of what Black Lives Matter is and the movement that's currently going on because they're not educated. They're not as well educated in that as well, as much as they should. In college is the first time I learned about basically like racial justice issues and things that go around the world that are just unjust and racism and things on that sort.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I feel as though it needs to be taught way earlier in the whole process. I mean, I took my major was psychology, sociology, and it's really hard to take the sociology classes if you're not a major. So I feel like those types of issues need to be, be changed. I feel as though social justice issues need to be taught way earlier in, in public education and they just, they just really didn't have a clue on what was going on. You know, I had a couple they knew that I, during one of my experiences, they had a cop come to us and talk to us and then I've had a couple of my youth stay, Oh, they, they kill like us. They kill my- our people. And I just had to explain to them, I mean, that's, I mean, there's white privilege going on. So I had explained that whole, what white privilege is, and that you, that they are unfortunately at a disadvantage because of their, because of their skin color. And I just feel like that just needs to be taught overall. I mean, I wouldn't say a lot of households know deep in depth of what's going on if they, if they don't listen to the news or things like that. So I just was that kind of anchor to help them through the overall process, because I know everybody- a lot of people are hurting from this type of situation as within, as well as me that need to know what's going on. So I was just that type of person they could talk to and asked questions too, because I just, I just want to make sure they know what's going on around them.
JOSHUA CROKE:
From like the school vantage point in like what we learn, you know, and you know, me as a white person who grew up in a predominantly white, suburban high school, I can tell you that my history books and the information that we were learning even about the current climate was not what I was later exposed to when I, you know, started doing a lot more work with racial and social justice issues, you know, LGBTQ rights and, and these, these types of issues. And it's like experiencing oppression, verse learning about oppression is so interesting. And not interesting in like, Ooh, this is fascinating way, but like, I wonder how, and I'm kind of speaking off the cuff here, but I wonder how the parallels look of like experiencing bias and like, knowing these things are just like, these are things that I experienced because I'm a queer person, or I am a person of color or whatever the identity group that experiences, you know, oppression. Experiencing that and then learning about the terminology and like this like larger scale impact is, is different. But very eye-opening, especially when we're working to like better come together and push for equity and equality issues like in, in society. And this is across systems, but I think a lot of that happens on the grounds of the public schools of like, what should we be teaching young people about oppression and do we do a good job at that? Do you have any recollection of any like education around those issues going through the public schools growing up?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
Not that I can recall. No. I just, I just, basically, all we kind of learned about on a spectrum was about slavery and about what the, what happened this during those times and that what- who was oppressed and like, basically that was about it. I didn't really know. It was basically U.S. history. We kind of learned about Christopher Columbus. Yeah. That's, that's great. It just, it just didn't really- history books don't really engage like the true history of what actually happened.
JOSHUA CROKE:
Right. And how much that history is still impacting people's lives every day. I feel like I was sold a narrative of like, we got past these issues, which clearly we have, we have not. And you can just look at any statistics around pretty much point at a system and you'll see the impact and the effects of structural and systemic racism, you know, within that system. So tell me about your experience with REC Worcester - kind of switching gears. So you were there for four years, right? So tell me about your journey to Rec Worcester and, and what the program is and about in the youth that you worked with there.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I think Rec Worcester is a very good program for youth. Like you said, I've been there for four years. The first time I stepped foot in one of the parks that I was placed in, which is East Park was definitely eye-opening for me. Cause because that's the first time I actually looked over kids, mentored kids, watched kids. And I was like, what am I doing here? I've different age groups. So I don't know how, how they're going to react to me. I don't know if they're going to ask me questions. I don't know what's going to transpire, but I feel as overall, my journey has just gotten better and better. The kids got, got to know me better. I've- the kids returned to the summer camp. So it's just been a great time. I feel- the kids get three, three meals a day, food truck comes and a bunch of outside programs come as well, like dance, like a radio podcast like we're doing right now.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
It's just, it's just a great experience for the kids to just get out there from nine to five and just be them be true to themselves. You know, I just feel like some, maybe some kids don't really get to see express their true selves when they're in school. But I feel like it was the best thing for me to do to just make sure we have a safe space here. That's what I always try to do. When the campus come safe space here, you can tell me anything. And the type of roles that I've been in, I probably have been like every role. So I've been a youth worker, an assistant site coordinator, and then a site coordinator.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
And that's kind of different where a youth worker is there from a certain amount of time, like part time job, basically to just taking a little bit kids and just watch over them. So that, that is like the best overall cause you got your own group of kids to just watch and play with them and interact with them. We get to know their life stories and what they're all about. Assistant site coordinator did those basically like the same thing, but they oversee the youth workers. So it was kind of like a mentorship to help younger youth take care of the younger youth. So it was great for me to do that. I really learned about the student- about my own workers, as well as the youth. And then this year was a little off due to the pandemic, which we only had 15 kids per site, but I feel like being a site coordinator, I could still get to know each and every student the way that I wanted to, and really get to know them on a personal level. And it's just been a great experience overall.
JOSHUA CROKE:
And the, and the trust piece building that level of trust with the youth, I think is so important. And you talked about the like relationship building there. What are some of the things that you do to make young people feel comfortable being, you know, honest and open with, with you as someone who is in a position of authority?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL (18:36):
I kind of make it, make it seem like I still am the position of authority, but I'm, I'm just an average person. You know, I explained to them they, they feel like a little better when I explain to them my whole experience so I can relate to them. Cause we've all been through Worcester Public Schools. I know of the school system. So I feel like I there's this component of relatability that I get through with my youth to make sure that they're like, Oh, this, they, they think there's, this, this kid came from like a privilege kind of neighborhood and things like that. No, I kind of just came probably from a neighborhood that, you know, or things like that. So it's all about relatability for me.
JOSHUA CROKE: Relatability. Trust building. Coming together through the recognition of shared experiences. We’ve heard both Keyshawn and Frankie, in our last episode, talk about the importance of these things when engaging young people. From the youth work I do, I am constantly impressed with the level of intelligence and social awareness youth have. I often reflect and ask why we don’t involve more youth in the process of brainstorming and decision-making; especially surrounding systems that impact their lives the most.
I asked Keyshawn what we can do as members of our communities to best give back to and support youth.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
it starts with you getting to know the youth on a, on a personal level.
I feel like as a community, we need to listen to youth concerns and really implement that within how Worcester runs. Cause I feel like youth have a lot to say regarding policy making and regarding how the, how Worcester runs in general. So I feel like listening to youth voices is a main, main concern that needs to be implemented and tackled and faced. And I feel like that more youth need to be added to the conversation as well. Like certain like a big issue happening or certain things that are going on that will change Worcester that will affect them. I feel like they need to be in the room, sitting at the table to really give their input and be like, from my point of view, I, I feel as though this might work or this is, this is not going to work.
JOSHUA CROKE:
What are some of the opportunities that you see to support young people in public schools? Like what are some of the changes that you'd like to see in our public schools to better support young people?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
Like more, I feel like more college access programs should be implemented within high school. I feel as though more guidance counselors need to be aware of their students and aware of the problems they have, like a one on one kind of relationship, rather than a guidance counselor signing a slip or just going to the guidance counselor to sign something else. It's just, I feel like that relatability within guidance counselors is definitely key.
I feel also that just in general, more teachers need to really accountable for their students and get to know them on a personal level and really just engage with students and take, I would feel like, you know, if they have a problem with the student and take the time to really talk to that student, whether it be after school or at a certain practice or something like that so they really can engage with students.
And then I feel like more literacy kind of work can be implemented within the school systems relatively in middle school and elementary school because I'm seeing throughout the youth, a lot of youth don't know how to really spell. So I feel as though that's definitely impacted youth in general because they had a hard time reading and a hard time spelling, which I think needs to be addressed.
And then just overall, like we talked about before with the history. History needs to be updated. I feel as though some type of social justice curriculum should be implemented within this public school system, whether that be middle school or high school, because it's definitely something that needs to be- people need to be aware about.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I feel like there should be also be more cultural events that take place on high school. I know I went to probably like two high school, two cultural events, my entire high school career, which is really kind of, kind of sad, but I feel like that should be what I'm supposed to be implemented because that way people can understand each and everybody's culture and where they came from no matter where it may be.
And just, just in general, more higher up teachers and just have the conversation, be willing to have that conversation, whether- no matter what color you are and be willing to engage with students because they, they have the lived experiences that one white teacher might not have. So I feel as though that conversation needs to be had, I know that was a lot.
JOSHUA CROKE:
No, it was great. And, and, you know, you kind of just hit on this in our conversation that we had before you mentioned the importance of like teacher diversity. So I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on that.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I feel like that's one of the main problems is teacher diversity because throughout my whole throughout my whole academic career from elementary school to college, I could probably name a handful of professors or teachers or faculty members that are of color. But that's, that definitely needs to be changed because I feel as though where just people of color at the low, low end of the totem pole where they just not give it the opportunities that they should be to be, to get accomplished and things like that. And I have a lot of friends, we talk about this, like every single week where the diversity within a community or the diversity within school systems need to change. And I feel like once it does change, the more students will be open to discuss these types of issues and really create a bond with that faculty member or student or professor
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
It's like a, basically a rarity to see a person of color that teaches, you know, I probably was in probably my college class, where we had this professor of color that we were like, Oh my God, like, woo-hoo, that's great. You know? And I see, I see I'm not trying to transition, but I see within the call classroom, as well as if there's a faculty of color, more students of color will be engaged to sign up for that course or take that course rather than something else that they actually need.
So I feel like that relatability, and that factor is definitely, is definitely a key that should be worked on. And I feel like it is getting worked on, but I feel like it just like you hire one faculty of color and that's like putting a band aid on a bruise or something like that, you know, it's not going to fix the overall problem unless you implement more of these faculty of color going on within the system.
JOSHUA CROKE:
Right. And it's the, you know, the conversation around like the diversity versus inclusion versus like belonging. And I talk a lot about this and in my work is, you know, the, the concept of embracing and celebrating diversity is really critical. And it's like the first step in actually creating a culture of where diversity is like uplifted and celebrated. And, you know, it's, again, another thing to include people and, you know, set diversity goals on a campus or within a school system. But at what level do those people now feel like they belong and they feel like they have like equal ownership and responsibility to everybody else and are treated fairly and equally there. And that that's such an important component of this. And like, when we're talking about like systems level change, obviously there's like different layers and like hierarchies there of, you know, what can we push for like the superintendent and the administration to adjust and change around their policies and procedures so that we can accomplish more of this equity work across the entire district. But I would, you know, I would ask now, what are some ways that you feel—for any educators who might be listening to the show teachers in our public school systems—What are some of the things that you would say to them as to how to better create a culture of belonging and acceptance for all of their students in the classroom?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I would basically say that be cognizant of your surroundings, be cognizant of those students that you have of color that have gone through different backgrounds. I would feel like that for when you're sitting down with a student, they talk about experience. I would feel like you don't say like, you basically speak with I-statements, you don't, you don't say like, Oh, we are here for you. We say, Oh, I, I believe the things that you do, I feel the way you do speak with I statements don't really try to relate, try to relate to the, to the person that you're speaking to, but don't really take on their whole experience at all. Like, Oh, I felt that, that a it's like, okay, we have these lived experiences. And then the personal, the faculty that have not of color, it doesn't have, you can't really relate to them on that type of level.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
And I would just feel like intertwining some type of social justice within your curriculum, whether that be based on reading a book based on social justice or taught even discussions like 30 minute, like a peer, a class period, just talk about social justice issues. I talk about what's going on in the world and things like that, just to implement that type of thing. I know in my in high school, my AP government politics class, we always had on Fridays to look up a news article and just summarize it and just hand that in. I feel like that was very beneficial because a lot of people understood what was going on around them and going on around the world news. And I feel like just maybe implementing that and having discussion on what current events did you find intriguing? What, what do you want to talk about more? And I feel like those kinds of cluster discussions will create that bond that is needed with a student teacher relationship.
JOSHUA CROKE:
What are your thoughts on the strength of, or lack of strength in the relationship between the like the school system and like parents and caregivers and, and that dynamic, how do you feel that that exists right now?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I feel like, In the current day, I feel like more parents are aware of what the school system doing because of the pandemic. And because they want know if their child's going back to school or not, whether it's going to be hybrid and things on that note. But I feel like before this pandemic, I feel like the school system and the parents were not on the same page at all. I feel like parents, like, it's hard to schedule like a teacher conference or anything like that because the teacher has their own duties and the parent has their own plans and things like that. And I just don't feel like parent teacher conferences are basically a thing anymore, or they have it probably once per semester or once per quarter, which is fine. But I feel like more of that needs to be implemented because the school days, six, seven hours, and you don't know what your child's learning or what they're doing.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I feel as though that will educate the parents on what their child is learning to educate themselves, go moving forward. And overall, I just feel as though the public school system doesn't really focus more on people that speak different languages, the minority population, because people get news, students get newsletters to give to their parents about like a field trip or self what's going on in school. And it's only in English or Spanish. What about the other languages that are going around the city? What about people who speak a different language? What's going to happen to them? Their parents can understand what's going on and what if the student just moved and doesn't know that good of English to translate or something like that.
JOSHUA CROKE:
And especially now in like the COVID times where so many parents and caregivers are also playing the role of teacher at home. And you know, it's crazy for me to think about requesting like third graders, sit in front of Zoom for, you know, six hours a day, which is just not feasible in my mind. So, so many educators and school districts and stuff are adapting, and thinking about new ways of teaching and learning that kind of in many ways challenge the classroom structure that's been around for like hundreds of years. Right? You know, that hasn't seen a lot of evolution or innovation relative to like how young people learn and we're seeing more and more the importance of like hands on learning. So like getting, you know a project that you have to like work on and you're, you know, integrating geometry and math and science to solve the problems presented by the project.
JOSHUA CROKE:
So like project based learning, hands on learning also like adapting the learning environment and learning space based on how young people learn. Right? Like, I am very, not like a sit in a book type learner. I'm like, give me a project and I will figure out all the things relative to that project. I would rather work on like a project that's going to take me 40 hours, then sit down and take a two hour test. Like, that's just, that's just my like learning style. And so I think now we're seeing how much opportunity there is to adapt our systems of education so that it meets the needs of the individual child.
So I want to talk a little bit more and hear more about your journey to Holy Cross. And I know in our earlier conversation you had mentioned, and you've mentioned guidance counselors a bit, and I think you mentioned some challenges that you've had with guidance counselors in the past. So I'd love to hear that story.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So basically in middle school, I really didn't know who my guidance counselor was for a period of time. I didn't know where to go to. I didn't even know where basically the office was to go to ask the guidance counselor question. I only made her probably sign off on saying, or them sign off on a bunch of papers that I had, but I really didn't sit down at any, to any point within my middle school or high school career where I just talked to one on one, my guidance counselor about what's going on. If it wasn't required, I didn't just go up to an office and say, Hey, I'm dealing with this, or I'm struggling with this. Or, Oh, I, I did something that was like, I got accomplishment or things of that nature. But in high school it was kind of different.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I probably talked to my guidance counselor, like probably two or three times. And that was just probably required to say, Oh, I'm going to this college, or I'm interested in this, or here's my college list. See what you think. So I really didn't gain that type of relationship or a confident bond with my guidance classes throughout. I've gained- I feel like the, the account, my guidance counselor, actually my teachers as well. Cause my teachers really gave me a type of advice that I need to go into Holy Cross and really kind of inspired me to move on higher and get education in general, but nothing from basically the guidance counselor, it was kind of tough because I understand that you have a ton of students that are assigned to a guidance counselor at per time. But I feel like you can, if you're a guidance counselor, your, your job is to gain that type of bond or relationship with a student and know what they, what they're doing in the future and what their goals are. And I feel like that guidance counselor just didn't didn't care about that they just cared about, “Oh, you got a college application. Do you need a recommendation?” Here is a recommendation. That's about it. So they really didn't. I really didn't have any in depth conversations with them.
JOSHUA CROKE:
What are your thoughts on like the importance of those positions in schools? We know that guidance counselors, especially in you know, like underfunded, like schools that are, you know, in Massachusetts, we call them a gateway cities, you know, Worcester, Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, like cities in our communities. A lot of guidance counselors are like one guidance counselor to like, I think it's like 200 students or something, which that's a lot of people to talk to. So and you mentioned earlier the importance of like mentorship and like that- I envision guidance counselors as a mentoring type role for young people, but I don't think that's the role that they always play. So you know, you talked about some experiences with like Dynamy and the mentorship that's offering offered there. And how has that helped shape kind of your pathway to, you know, applying to Holy Cross and going through that experience?
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
I think Dynamy changed me as a person because I didn't know what I was going to do. I was always that kind of person before high school. I kind of sat in the back and didn't really talk to anybody, but they really drove me to go to, it was definitely drove me to go to college and go to a higher education and definitely learned what you want to learn and be the type of person that you want to be. And throughout Dynamy, we've had various meetings where that'd be a class meeting within the senior class or junior class, or like one on one meetings with my Dynamy mentor that really helped me inspire me to do the things that I've wanted to do.
KEYSHAWN O'CONNELL:
So I feel like they really inspired me and really made me that person that I am to strive to be the best person I can be. And I also had a mentor in Bottom Line that really is another college access program that helped me even apply to these colleges in general and helped me, you know, get on my deadlines and get those applications out and apply them any scholarship that was available, get the- all the money that I need to go farther in that.
I feel like college is definitely the best experience of your life. You learn so much about yourself. I've changed. It's like I've changed each and every year from freshman year to senior year, I changed completely to a different person. And you just keep on evolving to the type of person that you need. So I just say college is that time where, you know, you're figuring things out and really knowing what you want to do, which career, but also kind of being cognizant of who you are and what you've done.
JOSHUA CROKE: I want to thank Keyshawn for his openness and honesty; sharing his thoughts and experiences with us. I know we talked about a lot of the challenges that young people are facing today and I want to recognize the hard work so many leaders, educators, parents, family members, guidance counselors, and others are doing to support our youth and work to elevate the quality of and access to education for every single kid in our neighborhoods.
As a community-centered designer that puts people at the center of all my work, I want to talk briefly about how to translate challenges into opportunities.
We talked about a lot of things today that might seem overwhelming; lack of access to books, not enough mentorship opportunities for youth, lack racial justice history in classrooms, disparities in a diverse teacher workforce, and more. Challenges may seem overwhelming to the point of inaction—simply not knowing where to begin.
So one of the things I encourage is, as you listen to stories like this or sit in meetings at work, write down things that stand out to you as questions.
The human centered design method is famous for "How might we" questions. I like to write "HMW", usually on a sticky note, and then take that challenge and turn it into an opportunity.
I’m going to leave you today with some examples. Thank you for listening to Public Hearing. If you like the show, let us know — tag #PublicHearingPodcast on Instagram, Twitter, wherever. And send the show to a friend. Thank you!
Okay, so here we go:
How might we strengthen the relationship between students and guidance counselors so that youth feel supported in their educational journey?
How might we increase the visibility of college access programs to young people starting in middle school?
How might we create culturally sensitive classrooms that integrate racial justice history education and are safe spaces for students to discuss how history impacts the present?
How might we create a diverse teacher workforce that ensures each student learns from people with a variety of backgrounds as they go through the K-12 education system?
And for this final one, I’m reflecting back on something Keyshawn said that really hit me; partially because he said it so casually but also how devastating it is that this is an observation some of our students make at a very young age.
How might we make kids in this country not feel as though they are at the “bottom of the totem pole” for no other reason than the hue of their skin?
brief pause
End Credits
Public Hearing is created and produced by Action! by Design. We use design thinking, facilitation, and storytelling to help strengthen community in a way that is inclusive, equitable, and prosperous. We also help companies and organizations move past inclusion to create innovative workplace cultures of belonging. To learn more, visit actionbydesign.co
I’m your host, Joshua Croke. Our Creative Producer is Myka Papetti. Our Audio Producer is Giuliano D’Orazio. Original music by Giuliano D’Orazio. Our intern is Ellie Garfield from Clark University.
Shout out to our radio partner, WICN 90.5FM — Worcester’s only NPR affiliate station ==!
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