Meet our new generation of businesspeople!
Girls create DJing businesses. Kids embody different food truck roles. Youth operate socially-conscious clothing brands and learn braiding, cosmetology, budgeting, and pricing, all thanks to your support of our Beyond School Bells initiative, VentureLab, and Young Entrepreneurs of the Future Omaha!
Nebraska Children and Families Foundation is dedicated to weathering the storm. Although these storms come and go, one thing remains for certain within uncertainty: together, with your support, we can continue to stay afloat and redirect ourselves during rough weather. Beyond School Bells, our afterschool network of dedicated statewide professionals has truly done an incredible job of remaining buoyant during difficult times. For the third time since the pandemic, the team and their partners, the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE), NDE’s 21st Century Community Learning Center, and Nebraska Extension rescheduled GetConnected 2022, their statewide conference of afterschool learning leaders, and on Feb. 25, it was finally able to happen!
In the real world, failure is often viewed as a disappointment. Whether we blame our shortcomings on others or the world at large, when we don’t achieve our goals or embody our envisioned success, we often feel helpless. The good news is Nebraska Children’s Beyond School Bells, Nebraska 4-H Youth Development, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Honors Program can change this mindset through quality afterschool programming in the form of “winternships” and more!
As a teenager, A’jza escaped her family and hid for three weeks in a friend’s closet. She’s also walked herself to therapy, deciding that she needed mental health support. She learned Omaha’s public transit system as a child, worked a job since she was 12, and has been mistaken for someone almost twice her age – with good reason. Read about how, with a Connected Youth Initiative and Beyond School Bells internship, this remarkable young woman stepped into a thriving career.
Afterschool’s Impact: “It Prepared Me for Being a Leader in the Adult World; I Have No Fear of Leading Adult Men or Women in STEM.” Read more about Kathy.
Today, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation’s afterschool initiative, Beyond School Bells, and many hardworking partners aren’t just growing greens. That is to say, the Greenery is not your typical afterschool program. Read about how we’re changing the face of afterschool.
Meet Amanda Gutierrez. Amanda is passionate about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). She’s planning on being an astronautical engineer. Amanda is also one of the newest members of the Million Girls Moonshot (MGM) Advisory Board. MGM is a multi-year, national initiative organized by STEMNext to increase the presence of women of color and other underrepresented groups in STEM. STEMNext awarded an MGM grant to Beyond School Bells (BSB), Nebraska Children’s initiative supporting afterschool and summer learning in Nebraska. Read about why STEM is Amanda’s passion and how a trip to the moon might be in her future.
Why is our guest blogger and Beyond School Bells’ Director of Partnerships, Anna Wishart, so excited for this winter? Read more to find out how Beyond School Bells, in their newest, high-tech initiative, is bringing sustainable agriculture to the next Nebraskan generation.
As with many successful people, Braxton Crowder’s journey was neither straight nor smooth. Beyond School Bells is pleased to present this interview with Braxton, whose dedication to afterschool programs mirrors BSB’s mission to create and sustain them. Read how this driven young man’s resolve and support from an afterschool program changed his life and created a thriving career path.
Outfitted with all kinds of STEM-rich materials, games, tools, pop-up tables and awning, BSB’s Think Make Create (TMC) Labs ® are 7-by-12-foot mobile makerspaces that become instant platforms for hands on learning for kids attending afterschool and summer programs.
Growing the Good Life 