In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Chris Smith, President and Executive Director of Boston After School and Beyond. Chris talks about helping youth-serving organizations “play to their strengths” and work on their relative weaknesses by providing clear data and useful recommendations in the context of a network built for thoughtful and purposeful collaboration.
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BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development
Center for Character and Social Responsibility
“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series
To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish.
In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.
Chris Smith is the President and Executive Director of Boston After School and Beyond. Over the past two decades, Chris has created, scaled, and led cross-sector partnerships in education and workforce development. Under his leadership, Boston After School & Beyond has developed a nationally recognized model of summer learning that improves student outcomes, built a citywide program performance measurement system, and cultivated a network of more than 300 programs serving more than 20,000 students. Previously Chris worked at the Boston Private Industry Council, where he collaborated with business leaders to integrate work and learning in order to help thousands of students graduate, with universities on Boston’s first-ever study of college graduation rates of Boston Public Schools students, and with legislative leaders to address the dropout rate in Massachusetts. Chris began his career at the US Department of Education in Washington, DC, where he coordinated partnerships for the Secretary of Education. A native of Worcester, MA, Chris earned a BA in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, CT and an MBA from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.
Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.
Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.
Music:
Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions
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Caring, Character, & Community