by Mary Masla, OregonASK Field Correspondent  

This month we'd like to highlight one of our partner organizations Kids Unlimited. Tom Cole, Executive Director of KU exemplifies the passion it takes to build a community-changing youth development organization. Rather than tell you about Tom's passion, we'd like to share the following letter Tom wrote to the Oregon Education Investment Board's Youth Development Council in support of all afterschool and youth development organizations in our state. We think this letter exemplifies the power of not only youth development, but also the passion it takes to create a quality and impactful organization.

Here is an excerpt from the letter, please follow THIS LINK to our website to read the full letter.  

"Yaremi joined our after school programs while she was an elementary student and through it received help with her homework while providing her with a daily environment with capable adults who helped to provide the necessary support in order for her, like many students similar to her, feel like they can return to class with the belief they can achieve and more importantly know they had support to navigate difficulties.

The after school program provided many things for Yaremi. It was the first place she learned to dance, be a part of theatre and film and take her first field trip. She learned to use a computer and often the after school program's media lab at our center became the place that she could have the resources and support to keep up with middle and high school demands. While Kids Unlimited provided her with daily homework help, weekend programs, summer camps, tutors, mentors and lots of other engaging programs, it most importantly provided an opportunity.

In our community as in many communities, kids of poverty are often under-represented in programs because of both financial and in the case of our Latino culture, langue barriers. This year Yaremi Mejia graduates from South Medford H.S. and will be the first kid in the history of her family to go to college. She has accepted a full ride scholarship to play basketball at Portland State University. She was an All State basketball player and a member of a historic basketball team from South Medford that made history with a first ever state championship and a perfect 30&0 season. She was the point guard. She is the first Latina in the history of this state to have this honor and the first to attend a division 1 university on a basketball scholarship. While basketball was an opportunity presented to her that kept her connected, it was the focus on education that truly allows her to recognize both dreams. This relationship to leveling the playing field and recognizing how important community based after school programs are to the success of our kids is imperative."

This camp runs M-F, 9am -3:30 pm for grades 9-12. They have not chosen dates yet as it depends on the lead instructor's availability. The idea behind this camp is to use STEM to create solutions for current social justice issues (see below). The main instructor would; create activities that make the problems come alive; make connections between presenters about how STEM can create solutions; oversee the engineering challenge in the afternoon; add their own expertise into the camp.

Below is more information about the camp:  

Through project-based exploration, student will learn how science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can be used to address social justice issues. Professionals from our community will explain how they use STEM to address disparities in resources.  During this five day camp, students will embark on a journey to discover how climate change, health, food scarcity and water quality create social justice issues at local and international levels.

The program will explore four social justice themes:

• Climate Change
• Health
• Food Scarcity and poverty
• Water sanitation

Other possible topics:

• *Race: Biological Anthropology
• *Energy