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born in
Unknown: any way. Welcome to another segment of breaking down
barriers with wall neural. We're excited about a our guest for
this segment. And while once you tell our listening audience who
our guest is today,
listen, I'm happy to Earl, thank you. We're happy to be here
today, we have a very special guest. One that We're
tremendously excited about having. It's Devin Harris from
UNLV, who is the Associate Director for early Outreach here
at UNLV. Thank you for being here. Devin. Thank you.
Thank you all neuro for having me. I'm very excited.
Oh, that's great. Listen, if you would, other than it's great to
see you. We haven't seen your what in three weeks. That's a
long time for us. It is but it's great to see again, tell us
about the early outreach program over here at UNLV.
Of course, so UNLV, early outreach, we are all about just
building that college going pipeline. So you know, our goal
is to make sure that we're identifying and supporting
individuals early on, primarily elementary students, middle
school students and those early high school students to just
help increase their chance to be successful. You know, and that's
not only academically, but also socially, as well. So a lot of
our programming focuses on, you know, soft skill development, as
well as those college readiness skills that will help increase
their chances of, you know, post secondary success. So, early
outreach, there's a quote, from one of our caps professionals
here at UNLV, I saw give a shout out to Dr. Crab, one of our
beloved partners as well. And she talked a lot about early
outreach, being able to, you know, change lives change
generational outcomes, you know, ultimately, our community and
the world. And that's truly what the early outreach program and
team believes here at UNLV is that by reaching students and
families early on, we can do just that, you know, through our
programming, and through exposing the students and
families to what post secondary life looks like, you know, and
how that can change the trajectory, you know, for their
students lives and their family as a whole.
Okay, great, Devin. Yeah, share with our listening audience.
What you think what are the most important lessons for parents to
share with their, with their kids about education? Yeah, I
think one of the most important lessons that we always like to
tell our parents is to share their own journey, you know, and
a lot of times, you know, we work with parents who say, but I
didn't go to college, you know, is that beneficial still? And
the answer is always yes. So regardless of whether, you know,
our parents went to college or not share what that you know,
college and or career journey look like for you? Why did you
decide to go the route that you took, that's what we want
students to be able to see and to hear. And to know that the
path to college, the path to career looks different for
everyone. There is no road that's the same, you know, but
that's what makes us all unique and special and valuable. And
then you get to share that knowledge on and pass that along
to other students, you know, coming behind. Another thing
that we like to encourage our parents to share with their kids
is conversate. have those conversations, talk about what
your students should be doing now. Again, both academically
and socially. So even as young as kindergarten, you know, and
sometimes folks are, are thinking like how do you talk to
a kindergartener about college? You know, how do you break it
down to their level, you know, and a lot of times, you know, a
great thing is just bringing them on a college campus. Right?
And and explaining that just like you go to school, this is
as you get older, you'll have an opportunity to go to a school
like this, you know, where you take classes and, and you get to
do some fun, exciting things and meet new friends, you know, so
you just play on different things that appeal to, you know,
various age groups. So, there's so much that the kids can be
doing now, but they definitely need to have those
conversations.
You know, I liked that answer. Because, you know, Walt and I,
we were, some years ago, we were mentoring some some some
youngsters that the police department asked us to take
over. And for the life of us, we lost our mind because we had a
kid that wouldn't go to middle school. His parents couldn't
remember that. I remember parents just have a well of a
time getting the kid and he just got out of elementary schools or
middle school, and they just didn't know what to do, because
the kid wouldn't, wouldn't go to school. And maybe they won't
I do. I do, you know, something that was really gratifying for
Earl and I, years ago, when we first started having our after
school athletic programs here on campus at UNLV. Our first event
was at the Cox pavilion. And I remember something that Earl and
I saw, and our jaws drop as the as the youngsters arrived here
at school on campus, their eyes were the size of dollar, silver
dollars, they had never seen a college campus. And what a
difference that makes them and to their parents, as you said
it, we don't think it happens. But there are parents and
families who have never been to this campus. And what a
beautiful campus it is. That's right. That's great. Devin, how
many? How many schools? And are they elementary schools or
middle schools? How many schools do you work with?
Oh, that question, it does kind of make me laugh only because,
really, it's countless. So Ella, you know, early outreach, we
focus on primarily elementary and middle school students. But
due to, you know, just Las Vegas and our population of students
that we serve, we noticed that, you know, even our high school
students still need some of those foundational college
awareness and readiness pieces. And so we're happy, you know, to
be able to bring our programming and bring that knowledge to
these high school students as well. So that when they start
that college application process, you know, they're
familiar with some of the vocabulary they're familiar
with, you know, what types of financial aid are out there. So
we do this across the valley, primarily through our early
outreach menu of services. So we have that menu of services, for
both, you know, for elementary, middle and high school. And, you
know, I'll brag a little bit and want to shout out my team.
Because Wow, when you talk about how many schools, we definitely
track how many students we serve. So for elementary this
past school year, we served over 10,500, kindergarten through
fifth grade students. Wow. And then for middle school, over
2000, for high school over 2500. And then we're really trying to
work on being able to service more parents. So we serviced
about 250, you know, through our parent menu of services, but
definitely looking for more opportunities to partner with
other organizations. And again, bring that parent aspect into
it, because it's so important that what we're telling the
students that they can go home and have those same
conversations with their parents, so equipping parents
with that knowledge as well, and that comfortability and, you
know, empowering them to feel like they can have those
conversations with their kids. So
that's terrific. Devin. Can you elaborate a little bit more on
the parent piece? The parent involvement piece that you were
referring to?
Yeah, absolutely. So one of our biggest partners within the
parent piece is ccsds Family Engagement Division, formally
called faces. And so they have something called the University
of family learning that offers different courses, if you will.
And so our parent presentations are part of their university, a
family learning courses. And so the different elementary, middle
and high schools that partner with family engagement, still
want to call them faces will select you know, soft skills,
believe it are not your soft skills for success was our most
popular and requested parent presentation both in elementary
and middle. So it just goes to show that even with all of
those, you know, more college related presentations right now,
at least parents are really wanting to learn how to work on
those soft skills with their students, and how they can be
successful behaviorally, and relationally. Which, to some of
us that are more familiar, you know, with working with kids may
not be surprising with, you know, having gone through COVID
in the pandemic, and sure needing to bring those back and
realize how important they are to success as a whole. You know,
and
one of the things that Earl and I have noticed that a lot of the
children that come up for our programs and are involved in
athletics or after school, athletic programs, many of the
parents haven't gone to college at all, either. So I know, it's
it's as important to them as it would be their child.
So that's terrific. Devon, what are some of your, your future
plans for early outreach?
Yeah, so one thing we're really excited about coming up for this
next school year on the elementary and the things, we
are going to be hosting what we're calling our early outreach
day camps. So those will be for students kindergarten through
fifth grade, they will be held on the staff development days
for CCSD. So those days when the teachers have to be at school,
but the students don't, but most parents still have to be at
their jobs. And so the kids will be able to come to UNLV, we're
going to spotlight different opportunities and academic
programs partnering with, you know, we have partnering with
our fine arts where the students will get to do different
activities with, you know, professors, and fine art
students and, you know, really get to spotlight those academic
programs. Part of our menu of services is majors and careers.
So it's a wonderful opportunity for students to get to know UNLV
better folks who work at UNLV and kind of start building those
connections. Sure. And really learning about what can I do
when I get to college, you know, and how I can translate my
interests and my passions, you know, into actual college majors
and opportunities that exist. So we're really excited about those
for sure.
Wow, that's, that's exciting. Sounds exciting. How, how do you
go about recruiting your schools or notifying your schools that
you have these programs? I know, Walt and I were out in talking
to some of the schools and, you know, we mentioned you, in early
I reached the principal, they light up and then they're there
for a while, and they're very happy, good reputation out
there. But how do you how do you go about adding schools and
getting more people involved?
Right, one of our most probably valued partnerships is actually
with our CCSD counselors. So at the beginning of the school
year, we work with the counselor specialists for elementary,
middle and high school, they have us at their kind of
beginning of the year initial meeting where we get to go and
share about our programming and that has really made a
difference. A looping the counselors in because they do a
lot within their schools, and can help you know, when the
teachers have so much going on. The counselors are able to share
these opportunities and help schedule those, you know, class
visits out. And then word of mouth is another one, you know,
just teachers talk, administrators, you know, and
our Instagram at UNLV. Early outreach is where we will
promote the different events that we have, and just our
community partnerships are another another big key for just
getting the word out. And schools kind of reaching out to
us, we're actually at a really great point where we don't have
to, you know, really try and recruit folks to you know, want
to use our services. Um, we have slots. So we're pretty popular
now. And we're, we appreciate it.
You do good work. And people appreciate it. Yeah. Do you
think that there's and I don't know if that's something you can
answer, but you think that more funding needs to go into into
education in certain parts of education?
Yeah, I'm sure you agree. Like 1,000%. And I'm even thinking
yeah, even funding for programs like early outreach right in and
a lot of our community partners as well that are trying to do
this work with really the staffing to I mean, wow, that if
we had more staffing, but of course then you need funding it
To be able to pay staff, you know, and and I just makes me
think back to when one of the elementary counselors specialist
called me a couple years ago and said, Do you have something that
you can offer? All 200 plus of my counselors? And I just said,
No. I, but it made me start thinking that, you know, we
needed to make our programming more sustainable, you know, and
they're in stemmed our menu of services. And, and while we have
so much more we want to do, it takes people and it takes money,
you know, and even even access to and getting into the schools.
And there's just so much, you know, there's a lot but yes,
always more funding, more funding for our schools, you
haven't, you
know, a question that in the last five years, I've never
asked you, but I would like to do it today that you have. You
have seen our programs here on campus, with our elementary
school kids, parents, etc. And the big part of this for us, is
one of the big parts are the police department, law
enforcement in general lvmpd, North Las Vegas, PD and
Henderson. And they come out and they work with the kids during
the events. How do you? How do you feel that makes a big
difference? Not only from the educational standpoint, but
developing relationships at an early age with these youngsters?
Yes, that's a great question. It absolutely makes a difference.
And I think what I've enjoyed the most, is seeing how much
more the officers are, you know, catching on to it. Right? So
it's not always the most comfortable for the students and
or the officers sometimes interacting in these spaces.
Right, you know, especially if they're not as familiar with
working with students, or what do you say, what kind of
conversations are you supposed to have, you know, or just those
preconceived notions we have, and we come with, you know, on
both in student and officer, but it's been so wonderful to watch,
you know, how, as we have more of these events, and different
types of events, not just athletic base, but, you know,
promoting academics as well. And giving these officers a chance
to serve on panels and answer, you know, questions directly
from students. And the hard questions to write has really
helped break down, you know, start to break down those
barriers and really create those, those those conversations
and start building breaking down kind of that sometimes that
fear, even or Vatta, that just that divide really comfortable.
Yeah, yes.
You know, what, and I used to be board members of Southern Nevada
power. And we were when we were board members, we went to New
Orleans to the national convention. And we was just
totally shocked that a lot of the chapters we spoke to had
never thought of partnering with higher education, whether it's
the community college and their city or state, or just the
university, when we told them about how we partnered with
UNLV. And they just lost their mind and just couldn't conceive
that. And so how would you, if you had to have a community
component? Come and partner with you? How would you how would
that be approached? How would you invite them? Oh, yeah,
I'm just you're talking to just new community partners, right?
Yeah, absolutely. That's probably my Honestly, my
unexpected favorite part of this job of my job, and other really
outreach are building these community partnerships and
YouTube are a big reason why I think you're probably my closest
community partners. Hey, and so we absolutely, you know, that's
exactly what we want to do. You know, and it's kind of amazing
how there's so many organizations and, you know, out
there doing such good work, and a lot of the work that we are
all doing, you know, intersect in some way. And so it's kind of
finding where that aligns, and how we can just enhance right
and support what each other's doing not try to take away, you
know, attendance from this or that, you know, but it's that,
like, could we add to that in some way? You know, and we in
early outreach, we never claimed to be the expert. It's on, you
know, anything really? I mean, yeah, well college and career
awareness and readiness, no. But, but there's even, you know,
there's, I mean, there's so many experts out there, and that area
too, and we'd love to learn more. And so, especially
community partnerships in those areas where, you know, we
definitely don't feel like claim to be those experts, we love
being able to do that. Because we want to bring the best to our
students, to our families, to our events, you know, and also
introduce them to the community that's around them. You know, so
community partnerships are huge for us.
You know, we're all that's a great, great question, what we
saw at that national convention, with major cities that have
wonderful universities there, that they just never thought to
contact the University, and I don't know how we kind of got
involved way back when I can't remember, but it was such a
delight. And the people here and you and your staff, work so hard
to make this these programs the success not only for you, but
for us. It's, it's it's really something to see and we get to
experience it. You guys do a lot of the works. Yeah,
so that's not and firsthand, I mean, you the partnership, and
I'll speak for walk because we both feel the same way, the
partnership, you guys took power to another stratosphere, when we
had the partnership, when had the partnership when we have the
partnership with you guys. Because we were excited, one for
the kids to see to university to drop that, that that see, you
know, I can go here, and then for the parents and the family
to experience and what's so funny as all we were hearing in
the beginning was all the parents won't be able to get
there. And I know that out of the office, you know, that
wasn't never a problem, getting the parents here to see the kids
compete. And then for them to take a look at this beautiful
University and somehow be involved in, you know, fantasize
about their kid going here. So we'd like to like to thank you
for that, that partnership. And you guys just you and Barb and
the rest of everybody's just been terrific to work with. And
so we're really, really happy. I had a quick question for you.
How, how did the pandemic changed for that period of time,
or if it's still going on how you did business and how, how we
had to go because we still had to keep going. So we did share
that experience? Some different,
right, definitely changed dramatically. So, you know, our
programming is, is always in person, you know, we're at the
schools. And once you know, the world kind of shut down, we had
to turn everything that we used to do in person into virtual.
And that was definitely different for us, you know,
because we so much enjoy being able to connect with students,
you know, in person and just see their, you know, feel their
energy, we thrive off of that, too. You know, on my team, the
three professional staff, we were all former teachers, so
we'd love being in the classroom. So it just all makes
sense. But when the pandemic during the pandemic, again, we
that but we say the pandemic was a work blessing in disguise, in
that we had always wanted to do that menu of services that I
spoke about before. And the pandemic finally allowed us to,
because we weren't at the schools, you know, we weren't
having those large on campus partnership events. We weren't
doing the early outreach, campus visits and tours. So now all we
had to do was, you know, our presentations, and, and all of
this. So it gave us time, because we're really rooted in
research, we want to make sure that the information we're
putting out there, you know, is backed by research. So it gave
us time to do that and create, you know, the slideshows and
make them engaging and adding those pieces of how are we going
to keep the attention span of kindergarteners virtually while
we talk about fixed versus growth mindset, you know, but it
was amazing how many students we could serve now, because we
weren't just doing things classroom by classroom. But we
had all third, fourth and fifth grade at the whole school in one
Google meet. So big difference can we could offer programming
out of state now, which was really neat, right? Because most
of our programming is done here in Las Vegas, especially in
person but now that we have everything virtual as well, you
know, we had a school, I believe from Florida that had us you
know, virtually to do majors and careers. So I didn't know now we
can be everywhere. No So that's a really cool thing coming from
the pandemic. Sure. I'm trying to look for the positives too,
you know?
Well, listen, we'd like to thank you for being our guest today.
You know, we love working with you, we love working with this
university. And we're very excited about what's, what's the
future holds? And so we would definitely want to have you on
again.
Yeah, thank you. Well, we'll make a make a point of that.
Devin, thank your staff. Because as busy as we all get in, you
know, what the events and, and we're running around doing
things, we never really have the right amount of time to thank
you or your, your staff and all the people that make this stuff
happen. And it makes in terms of us breaking down barriers in our
community. We've got to get our cops and our kids together, and
you gave us a great forum to do it. And it's made a difference.
Big difference. I know, not only for the kids, but for the cops
as well. Earl and I've seen that as well.
And for the city and the parents Oh, I mean, it's it makes it
takes us all and I appreciate you guys also recognizing, you
know my team because truly when I talked about those numbers of
students we serve that was them. That was my team out there you
know, doing those outreach visits and it's
isn't we seen him in action. Yeah, morning once and so we
know
that and I always want to recognize all the hard work and
passion they put in
and the energy because they have a lot of damage. Yes. Thank you
again, Devon. Walk are listening office, our audience. Until next
time, you're listening to breaking down barriers with
Walton neural. Thank you very much.
Kevin Krall: breaking down barriers is brought to you by
Glo fitness, a fitness studio offering a variety of classes
and sessions like Mommy and Me for mothers wanting to connect
with their children through fitness offering strength
training boot camps and more Glo fitness is located at 40 to 50
East Bonanza Road Suite 19 specials and class schedules
available at glow fitness dot Vegas or glow fitness dot Vegas
on Instagram more information by phone at 702-612-6414