Speaker 1: 0:06

Countdown. Well, super excited to be having this conversation with you all and, of course, to partner with a behalf of grad gov, ideagen, who is doing amazing work to tell really impactful stories as part of their Future Us Summit, and so super excited to have Esteban and Quincy here to talk a little bit more about some of the conversations that we've been having off camera, but more so bringing in mentorship, which I know is a huge piece for both of us both of you all, as well as some of the work that you're doing pre-post-secondary education. So I really want to take the time to first invite you in, quincy, to talk a little bit about that mentorship piece and what that truly means in terms of innovation, the future of right, but also how can we be a part of that?

Speaker 2: 1:00

Yeah, so I'm a product of a great mentor relationship. Early in my life, growing up in a part of the state of Texas where I didn't have many people to look up to, there was there's a guy who put me in touch with an organization that allowed me to see outside my community, and once I saw that I was able to at least visualize where I could be, and that's very different than reading about different places. And so eventually that's led me here to washington dc and here with esteban, who's got a similar program, and I'd say let's start by asking esteban, just describe the organization that you're a part of and what's your vision of why you're doing what you're doing?

Speaker 3: 1:54

Well, I've been with Summer Discovery since 2019 and we're working with universities around the country, the UK and Spain, to provide residential pre-college programs for majority high school students. We have some middle school and in the tri-state area New York, jersey, connecticut we have some day programs for 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade and even in 1st grade and 2nd grade as well. So we kind of expand that gamut. Last year had an impact with almost 15,000 students. I think this year we're looking to have a little bit more. We just started our programs a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 3: 2:32

But I've also done this work pre-Summer Discovery and really it's this work of understanding that summer is this amazing time for students just to figure out who they are, get away from the noise of the neighborhood, get away from the noise of siblings and parents. You know there's pressures that you have during the academic year. Everybody's kind of doing this thing, everybody's wearing this thing, everybody is vying for the same school that they're applying to. When you kind of get out of that environment, environment, you get to be a new person, you to be in situations where you're figuring out your leadership styles, your leadership skills.

Speaker 3: 3:12

Here's the discovery exactly, exactly exactly, and and that that discovery of yourself, yeah, this is so important because when you're in a program that says you're in charge of this team and here's your project maybe you don't have that during the academic year, where they're just saying we have this test at the end of the year, we're going to prepare you for that During the summer. You get to be a leader During the summer. You have to negotiate with your roommate During the summer. Maybe your parents only gave you so much money and by the third day you're like I spent half. How do I figure this out? So you're learning things about yourself you may not have in that traditional academic setting.

Speaker 2: 3:53

So we'll talk maybe about the institutions that that you support and get these youth into those institutions, but maybe more important than kind of where they're going is how they see themselves. So you spoke of you know, let's talk about a little bit what you just said and given students a chance to simulate various roles they may have in a way that gets them outside of their you know, their friend zone. So are these students able to you know what are the different types of roles that they can play?

Speaker 3: 4:24

Well, I mean, some of the roles are very specific. You're in Class A and maybe this class is about international relations, or maybe this class is about pre-law and you're assigned a project and you're going to be in charge of this project and you're going to make sure that your team comes to the last day of the program and presents their pitch, just kind of as a nuance. But there's other rules that are not assigned. You're in charge of figuring out what are you going to do during free time with some of your friends between 6 and 8 pm Crucial time.

Speaker 3: 4:58

Knowing that you have rules as well, you can't leave this part of campus, you're not allowed to go to this part of the city, you know? And how do you negotiate that? So that's a rule. That's maybe not part of the class, but you have to figure that out, you know. And somebody says, oh no, well, let's, we can go across the street, we can go to that part of the city. You're like no, you can't. You're taking on a role, a leadership role, or you're negotiating, you know, with a roommate, or you're trying to really just figure out. I have no clean clothes.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Do I go on?

Speaker 3: 5:27

this excursion right now, or do I actually stay back and go to the laundromat in the basement and wash my clothes? It changes very much because mom's not doing that for you and so those are new roles that you take on. But you combine that with the academic experience that you have, you really leave a different person, more mature, more understanding. That here's who I am, and I had to make decisions. That may be my normal academic year, or because mom and dad are waking me up every day and driving me around all of my activities. I didn't have that this summer. I was on my own and I had to figure some things out, and now I'm leaving this program with a little bit more autonomy, a little bit more maturity and figuring out that. You know, I don't want mom to know that I can do laundry now.

Speaker 1: 6:16

One of the things that Quincy and I both appreciate we're both Hoyas, Georgetown University and, as I mentioned before, I serve as the Executive Vice President for the Graduate Student Government and one of the things that we prioritize for students is how do we not only develop them as a good student right, which it sounds like you are as well but how do we develop them as the whole person, the sense of Cura personality.

Speaker 1: 6:39

You've heard us before and you know what has so much resonance and makes your story so powerful about what you're doing and transforming not just the trajectory of these students but their lives right in terms of leadership development, professional development, academic scholarship, all these other things. Can you talk a little bit about? You know how you first got to some of this work right and thinking about, because you know you, you've been doing this. This is your first rodeo. You started 2019 with this organization, but you've been building up to this for some time. Could you talk a little bit about how we got to this point and how that has kind of shaped the work that you're doing now?

Speaker 3: 7:16

I would say my first summer program, because I'm obsessed with summer. I've been working in summer a long time. It was probably my sophomore year in high school. High school, wow. And a friend of mine had a check. Okay, old school paper, check Old school check.

Speaker 1: 7:29

Old school paper check. I just dropped one of them off earlier today. Yeah, where did you get that check? They still exist.

Speaker 3: 7:35

They still exist. And he says oh, this is a stipend that I got for being part of the Flautown program.

Speaker 3: 7:40

the local community college I did an up and down program in Louisiana, so you understand and you know they entice students because you know, do I do this Saturday program with Humber Bound or do I go and get this job? So instead of doing the job, they're gonna give you a stipend. And it's a job because you have to show up, you have to be there, and during the summer they do the same thing as well. So I was really interested in that, so I signed up and that summer they said we're gonna give you a stipend but you have to live on campus for as many weeks. You have to take these two courses that are being taught by a college professor. And it was in my hometown, but I didn't drive.

Speaker 3: 8:22

How often do I leave the east side of Stockton? I was going to a whole different part of town and living there on this college campus which I drove by, but I never knew what was inside of it, and I was now taking a biology class and taking a business class and really seeing myself in that environment for the first time, being taught by college professors, and saying I can do this, I belong here. That check is now ancillary. I now understand that there's a bigger trajectory, okay, that if I embrace this, I can change the trajectory of my life. That's where I'm gonna go into the future and start thinking about careers after high school. That these options of getting the job right. After high school I could go to college good and never thought about that.

Speaker 2: 9:13

So would you say that you had us an amount of measure of self-determination in you, that that self-determination wasn't triggered until you got outside of your neighborhood. And so what does? What do you think it takes today to see kids develop that self-determination? We grew up in a different area, an era didn't have smartphones, electronic devices. I think I had an atari a rotary phone.

Speaker 2: 9:48

We had one computer in the house. We had to schedule time with mom. So kids now are distracted and that self-determination might be buried underneath all that. What does it take for a youth to realize they've got self-determination. They can do more.

Speaker 3: 10:03

Well let me preface it with after doing Upward Bound and, being a student, worked in Upward Bound during my college years and kind of stayed within this and then for a while it was a lot of access programs like Upward Bound and TRIO programs, and then moved into some of the programs where, working with universities and at universities where it was a $10,000 price tag or $6,000 price tag for a program, we still had scholarships, and so that whole trajectory up until now. I've worked with students from all different walks of life. So students like myself, yourself, where we've done those Upward Bound programs, or students who would not be able to afford this program without a scholarship, families who are full-paying and they're going and they're there, international students, international scholarships, and seeing all of those different students from all of those different walks of life realizing that, on the human development level, all students really want, all those young people really want, is to figure out who am I, yeah. What's my identity? Where do I fit into this world? Yeah, and do my ideas? Are? They're gonna be able to translate into a future, but also, what's the future? I don't know what the future is, and it's good to be around other people.

Speaker 3: 11:22

So whether you're talking about a student, who is, you know, from the Upper East Side or from the Upper West Side in New York City or from Queens, and they're doing a program. It really doesn't matter. The fact is, on a human level, they're all just trying to figure out who am I? Yeah, and we can give them that space in these programs are so important. Yeah, because the traditional learning model of the fall and spring kind of the class from 9 am get out at this time helps to a certain extent. But this out of class time whether they're amazing after-school programs, amazing Saturday programs or making summer programs are sometimes thought as an extra to the academic ecosystem. But what I've learned in this world is that Amazing Saturday programs or Amazing Summer programs are sometimes thought as an extra to the academic ecosystem. But what I've learned in this world is that it's essential because that's what helps a student understand who they are in these non-traditional settings and I think that's what it gets back to and I think it's so important.

Speaker 3: 12:21

I think, sometimes people look at the organizations who are working in space after school, saturday programs, summer programs and they see it as maybe not the same level as what the school system is providing in fall and spring. But I would argue that's just as important because we're providing that opportunity for the student to get out of maybe their comfort zone yeah, lean into discomfort and figure out who they are.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Yeah, and it sounds like development of the whole person. Cura personalis, cura personalis, but as you think about so, we talked a little bit about the buildup to this current moment. We talked a little bit about some of the work that you're doing presently and we kind of inched at it a little bit with Quincy's question question. But I'd love to go a little bit deeper and double-click on what do you see as the future of the education space? Now you have folks that are graduating with master's degrees or advanced degrees, and the job market right now may be different, right?

Speaker 1: 13:15

Quincy alluded to this, as well as some of the skills that were traditional for students. Right, in terms of the resilience, the resilience, the grit, all these other things. Now you have things like AI, you have things like chat, gpt, you have things like automation and all these sorts of things that we didn't have growing up. I remember going looking up stuff in an encyclopedia. Some people don't know what. That is, right, it's a very large book that has a lot of words, but you know. So talk a little bit about what you see as the future and as you prepare young people for that future, what are some of the things that you're giving them as nuggets and tidbits to help think about how they can see themselves in the future.

Speaker 3: 13:50

Well, I think it's looking at like things like AI, and I think there's noise and there's distraction when we're talking about AI, just in the sense of, oh, students are going to use it to cheat, students are going to use it to create something inauthentic and turn that into a grave, and we hyper focused on that. But let's hyper focus on using it as a tool. Sure, so, like the encyclopedia example you just gave, we had encyclopedias in the house and I said, mom, what's Australia? Where's Australia? And she was like go look it up, get it, come over here, bring it over here. All right, so I'm going to help you find it. And it's here. I want you to read about it Now. Go over there and read about it and come back and tell me about it.

Speaker 3: 14:25

But she taught me how to use encyclopedia, that it was a tool. So she wasn't in the house and I wanted to figure out what's coal mining or what's oil, and I can go and figure that out. We have to do the same thing with AI. We have to figure out how do we help the students understand this is a tool. So whether you're going to be the person who's maybe gonna do the coding and the machine learning and the behind the scenes thing to develop it and design it. Or you're going to be the person who owns a dance school and you're gonna figure out how can I find out who's in my area to market to so I get more dance students.

Speaker 3: 15:02

Is AI a tool that I can use? They should learn that in school and they should really figure out how can I use this as a tool. And I want to pivot to that conversation how do we do that in these non-traditional settings to say, let's figure out what this tool is and how do you learn it? So you're learning how to use AI, but you're also have a different skill set. How do I take something that's brand new, I've never seen before, and then figure out how to use it as a tool? And that's a skill set that we can use, whether it's encyclopedia or whether it's AI.

Speaker 1: 15:35

yeah, what I'm hearing is AI and automation and language learning model tools are similar to that of something like social media. It's not inherently positive, it's not inherently negative, but it's a tool and, depending on how you use it and you know, if you put junk in, you're going to junk out, but if you put in a good product, you can get a better refined product. Is that what I'm hearing?

Speaker 3: 15:57

you say yes, yeah, yeah, very much, so, very much so, and it's just how do you use the tool that was the screwdriver wrench? Yeah, you know compass like how are you using these tools to achieve your objective and what you want to do? Absolutely you can decide. Is this a tool I even need for whatever my passion is?

Speaker 2: 16:16

and yeah, but at least you know you need to use it yeah, yeah, um, I want to maybe take the conversation back to your relationship with these students and their future. So you're working with them to maybe see themselves after high school, maybe some colleges and we can talk about. Maybe some students don't go to college, maybe they join the military or maybe they're working at the auto shop, but for those that want to go to college, you're working with certain colleges. Which colleges are you working with? And maybe after that there's certain students who you know. I'll tell you a story. Like I talk to high school students all the time, they'll watch a Texas Tech game, play Penn State.

Speaker 1: 17:06

We know who's winning that.

Speaker 2: 17:08

The Raiders go win that game all day, every day. When the Raiders win, they'll want to go to Texas Tech. That's their first time. I'll have to have an honest conversation with these students grades and I go get you into Texas Tech. You may need to go somewhere else first. You can graduate from Texas. You can't start. But so there's a, there's a. To me, there's a difference in the students who may feel like they can go somewhere else but they may not get there. So like, what type of students are you looking for in your program to get them to see themselves in success?

Speaker 3: 17:49

We're talking about the pre-college space specifically. I would say almost all the pre-college programs, the ones that we're working with. Ut Austin is one of them, UCLA Cornell, UC Berkeley, but I also have colleagues who are working in programs that are associated with summer discovery Almost all the programs.

Speaker 3: 18:08

It's a certain type of students going to look and say I'm going to study pre-law for three weeks, I want to do that. They're kind of, you know, determining this is what I want to do. So that's the type of student that's self-motivated. And then that's where it's very important for these universities to be very truthful and honest about. Here's the experience, here's what you're coming to do and here's what you're going to leave with.

Speaker 3: 18:27

No different than a freshman, I mean than a senior, figuring out where do I want to be a freshman next year, what degree do I want to get? So it's kind of like that's why it's pre-college, it's kind of like this experience before to really figure out is this a place that I want to be at? And then you know if the student is. You know third generation UT Austin. You know grandma went there, mom went there, you know my big sister goes. I'm gonna go there.

Speaker 3: 18:49

Yeah, of course I'm gonna go to UT Austin and they figure out. This is a great school I love. I see why mom and my sister, you know, really appreciated it and my grandma came here about.

Speaker 3: 18:58

I Am maybe thinking about something else. And there could be a student UCLA who's thinking I've maybe thinking about something else. And there could be a student at UCLA who's thinking I've been thinking about UCLA forever. I've gone to the games, go Bruins, but then they end up at UT Austin and that's okay, and I think that's what these programs do. It helps people figure out.

Speaker 3: 19:14

I need to fit. I need to be in a place where I fit in. I need to be in a place that's the right fit for me and I think that's what's most important. So's the right fit for me and I think that's what's most important. So maybe the right fit isn't that school that dad went to, but maybe the right fit is going to be school I never heard of and maybe now using AI to like research, some schools that have some of the attributes and the things that I want. So if I'm a student and I can really figure out I want to have, I want to be a biology major and you know, there's all of these schools where I can go and get a degree in biology but at the same time, I want to play rugby. They do their research and they figure out. Yeah, there's a you know a rugby, you know team at this school. Anybody can sign up. And now I've kind of whittled down my list of schools because that's what's going to make me happy and really figure out what I want to do next. But I need rugby for those four years Like they can use AI to figure that out, but it's the right fit, what's going to be right for them.

Speaker 3: 20:12

And I think there's a lot of students in this country, in this world, who think that it's prescribed for them of what they need to do. And it's through these similar programs where they can really figure out, I can really expand my view of what I want to do. And you can take that from the flip side and I think we have students who who are first-generation maybe have never had anybody at the dinner table talking about school sure, we're talking about an industry or certain business and they don't realize that their right fit is Stanford, mit and Harvard. So I worked at Georgetown. I was assistant dean for many years. I helped run one of the programs they ran, the summer college immersion program. We worked with kids from Crystal Rain camp, juniors, and we accepted students who were on that trajectory. Just on paper. You're more than likely you're gonna get into MIT, you're gonna get to Stanford, but you have to apply. They didn't think so.

Speaker 3: 21:14

They would look at their essays and they'd be in the program, and there's usually about 40, 45 students who are in the program and a lot of these prep programs are kind of figuring out, like how do we prepare you for the SAT, the DCT, how do we help you figure out? You know to be prepared for calculus your senior year. We didn't do that in that program. Really, in that program what we did was here's the college app. Here's how the Harvard application works. Here's how the Stanford application works. Here's fast flow. Here's how the Harvard application works. Here's how the Stanford application works. Here's FAFSA. Here's why you have to make sure your parents are filling it out in time for A, b, c and D.

Speaker 3: 21:50

We're here at Georgetown for three weeks. Let's understand how Georgetown works. Did you know that some of these schools are going to require you to do an interview?

Speaker 1: 21:59

Or supplemental material.

Speaker 3: 22:01

Supplemental material, material, a portfolio, and how do you put that together? How do you prepare for an interview, because you've never done an interview like that before. And then we work with those students are really just figuring out how do you navigate this, because a lot of other students will sometimes have a personal college counselor or in their boarding school they have somebody who's like really just working with them intensely. Some of these schools, these students, are coming from schools where their college counselor has, you know, 400 students in their case caseload, so they're not getting the attention that they need. So how do we help them figure this out? And that is helping them figure out their right, because these students right fit is maybe not the local community college, which is okay, and it is Stanford, yeah, and it is Georgetown, yeah, and it is MIT, and how do we help them get there?

Speaker 3: 22:52

And so it goes both ways. But when it comes down to his right fit, what's the right fit for you and who's your support system helping you figure it out? And some students come from families and and means to have those support systems there and some students don't. But if we can evolve this education ecosystem and make sure that every student from every zip code has the opportunity and has a support system, whether it's a community-based organization, a university or their own family. But they had that support system to figure out. This is my next step and here's what's possible Incredibly salient points.

Speaker 1: 23:29

I mean, you said a lot and I just want to double-click on a couple things. And I found a lot of resonance with it, particularly because my mom, single mother, raised four boys by herself, worked two and three jobs. She graduated and got a college degree, but she had four little children, right. So she didn't fully participate in the college experience. To the point where you fast forward and she's dropping me off at Penn State in the middle of Happy Valley, pennsylvania. You know. She said here you go, you know, and then I'm essentially finding out.

Speaker 1: 24:01

You know I had upper bound to help me out on the Saturdays and over the summer and things like that. But I also understood that a lot of this is up to me, right, and I have to be the architect of my own discovery, of my own journey, right, which can take different forms. Talk to me a little bit about who was the Esteban for you, right, as you were going through your journey, right? But also what is some of that advice that they gave to you and that you kind of kind of carry on to your students now?

Speaker 3: 24:31

well, I mean definitely amazing teachers that I had. Um, I mean, I think it was, it was fourth grade. There was just one teacher just really believed in me and she says you don't belong in this reading program. I'm going to test you and you belong in this other program. She put me into that program Gifted intelligence.

Speaker 1: 24:51

It might have been.

Speaker 3: 24:52

I don't know what we called it back then, but she made sure that I was in a higher level program.

Speaker 2: 24:57

She saw something.

Speaker 3: 24:58

That's where I go back to that conversation of being seen and heard. She saw me, she heard me and I realized, okay, and I'm going to look for people like that in my life, who are going to see me and hear me and listen to them, because maybe they're going to help me with that next step. Then, of course, it was like the friend who showed me the check from Upward Bound.

Speaker 1: 25:17

Yeah, money talks.

Speaker 3: 25:19

Money talks, money talks, money talks. And Up Money talks, money talks and upper down counselors. Amazing professors in high school did IB International Baccalaureate Program and they pushed us and it was amazing. Just that push was needed, that push to say like you can do better, you can study more, you can write a longer paper, you can write a better paper. You're thinking this is an A, I'm giving you a C, but I'm gonna give you a chance to redo it to get an A.

Speaker 3: 25:48

Those were those moments where I hated it in that moment. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:51

But I realized I got the same paper three times. But I got the.

Speaker 3: 25:56

A, exactly exactly so. It's those people who push you into discomfort so that you grow, because if you don't grow, you're never going to see yourself outside of a certain definition or certain zip code, or you're not gonna see yourself being able to go across the country to a college and be on your own to figure it out on your own as well and be okay with that.

Speaker 1: 26:19

One of my favorite pieces of advice is a quick follow-up to that question. One of my favorite pieces of advice is a quick follow-up to that question.

Speaker 1: 26:23

One of my favorite pieces of advice is a mind expanded, cannot return to its original form, right Going back towards the exploration and the discovery that you've been talking about all throughout our time here. What is one piece of advice that you would give to a student, based off all the experience that you've had, all the people that reported to you, what's one piece of sailing advice that you can consider?

Speaker 3: 26:45

um I go back to the, the jesuit principle?

Speaker 3: 26:50

sure, yeah, some of them are so universal and I think that idea of reflection is so important to take the time out to reflect on who am I, who have I been um, who am I now? Do I want to do? Who's impacted me in my life? What brings me joy? What brings me happiness? Reflect on all of those things to really figure out what's that next road that I need to take.

Speaker 3: 27:16

And who are these people that in my own neighborhood going back to your other question as well, we've been into this there were some people who were those maybe nontraditional mentors. These were people who were waiting for the bus stop, were just ending their day at 7 am in the morning and telling me go to school, I don't want to see you cutting school. And if you do, don to school, I don't want to see you cutting school. And if you do, don't do what I do. And that moment and those teaching moments were important in the neighborhood that I lived in. Those people were just as important to help push me along, because they saw me, they heard me and they said you're going to be this, don't do what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 27:58

But, Esteban, you ever ask yourself when you were in, let's say, younger Esteban, Esteban, you ever ask yourself when you were in, let's say, younger Esteban, when faced with the person at the bus stop, said don't do this. You ever ask yourself why do you care? And I ask that because in today's time you've got so many youth that would rather be here in DC, pentagon City or out in Tyson's, out in the metro on motorbikes. They want to have fun with their kids, with their friends, and you know you've got mentors who are telling them you can do better. Sometimes I'm faced with the question that they ask why do you care, mr Nolley? Why do you? You know you're not my dad, you know. And so what are some of the challenges that you face as a mentor? To reach those kids and perhaps turn them around so they can see themselves the way you see them 20 years in the future. You know sometimes you have to get them out of the way.

Speaker 3: 28:55

I would almost say the struggle and the hard work isn't even working with the youth or identifying the youth. The struggle and the hard work is getting people in our communities, because we need more people in our community to see and hear these students. So it goes back to once again if I'm not seen and I'm not heard, I'm never going to have any self-acquisition, any agency, any understanding that I can be something different. I need you to see me and hear me and there's not enough adults in our society, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, who are taking the time and whether that's volunteering, whether that's doing this as a job, working with you to see them and to hear them and to be a change, a trajectory in their life.

Speaker 1: 29:41

And I think we have to do that. And I think we have to do that because you here for a second, because you said something that's powerful there. Why do you think people don't take the time?

Speaker 3: 29:51

We're busy, we're wrapped up into our own mind. I think people will say, oh, the kids are always on the Internet, the kids are always on the phone.

Speaker 3: 29:57

I think us, as the adults, it's our responsibility in society to put that away Absolutely the adults. It's our responsibility in society to put that away absolutely and to take the time to volunteer and work with whether it's a youth in foster care or homeless or and is just your neighbor's kid, and because you're working in Scouts, you're, you're someone in that moment and you have the ability to see them and to hear them. Do that, that, take the time, put us the adults. Let's put everything to the side, let's put the noise to the side and let's do what our job is to do, whether we're parents or not is to be there for the youth in our community, across our city and all the zip codes, and really show up, because if we don't show up for them, it's not on them, it's not their responsibility, it's our responsibility.

Speaker 2: 30:46

Yeah, this is powerful. Like I said, I was a product of a mentor. It wasn't necessarily as formal as yours, but I do see the benefits of at least someone believing in me, even when I couldn't see that I was worth anything. So that is, that is a you know, and I see maybe a difference between, say, what I may have had and what somebody else didn't have. So I definitely feel the need to kind of pay it forward, I guess. So I definitely appreciate the work that you've done.

Speaker 1: 31:22

Yeah, as and as we get ready to wrap up here, I got one more question for you. You obviously have a national presence, worked with groups all over the country, worked with different schools all over the country. How can we support you, those of us that care, that actually want to hear students that want to take the time to invest, whether it's financial contributions, donating time, making strategic partnerships what can we do to be better partners to you and the work that you're doing? And, of course, talk a little bit about how we can connect with you after this.

Speaker 3: 31:56

Yeah, well, I mean there's, there's work in every single neighborhood in every single city. I'm also on the advisory board for NPEA, national Partnership for Education Access. They do a lot of work with different organizations around the country, also do some work with National Summer Learning Association, nsla. Their ethos and their mission is to make sure that every student, every zip code, has options to participate in an amazing summer program.

Speaker 3: 32:29

It's not even about helping me, it's helping us as a society. It goes back to volunteering your time and whether that's just being a scout leader in your neighborhood for your son or daughter's friends and people they're volunteering to, you know, teach a youth group at church, or really signing up and say I'm gonna go spend time and tutor these, these homeless kids at the shelter, or we're going to participate in this organization to work with kids in the foster care system. Washington DC has some amazing opportunities for that. It's finding those opportunities because I think it really goes back to that old adage that it takes a village. But if you're not participating as a village elder and bringing your wisdom to somebody else, then the fault's going to lie on you. This society isn't going in the direction that we think it should be going in because we're not seeing or not hearing our youth. So you have to look in the mirror, ask yourself am I doing these things to see and to hear the youth so that they can become future leaders?

Speaker 1: 33:32

yeah, and for those listening. What can we do? What actionable next step can we take to be the change that you're talking about?

Speaker 3: 33:39

here, um. Volunteer in your community. Volunteer in your community for youth and with youth.

Speaker 1: 33:45

Absolutely, absolutely Well, esteban, thank you so much for your time and thank you for joining Quincy and I for this conversation.

Speaker 2: 33:50

Yes, sir, absolutely Very timely.

Speaker 1: 33:52

And, of course, we look forward to supporting you and continuing to grow with you. Thank you, thank you, music.