Lauren Furst

I interviewed one of the staff members at my community site. Her passion is helping kids

figure out what interests them. People often discover their passions early in life between the ages

of 7 and 13 and there’s a correlation between spending your life doing something you enjoy and

happiness. She believes that it’s important to give kids the opportunity to stumble upon things

that interest them by exposing them to a wide variety of subjects and making learning fun instead

of feeling like work. One thing she said that struck me was “every child deserves an opportunity

to experience unfettered joy on a regular basis”.

This staff member spent 15 years working at independent schools in the greater

Philadelphia area, running afterschool programs and summer camps. At one school she worked

at, she helped start and run 165 different afterschool clubs and 86% of the school’s population

participated in afterschool activities. While she enjoyed her work at independent and charter

schools, she realized that a lot of the kids weren’t always engaged and were forced to participate

in activities that they didn’t necessarily enjoy due to external pressures from their families and

communities to get into a “good” college. She also faced a lot of pushback from the

administration and parents who focused on homework time instead of fun time for kids to

explore their interests. Eventually she realized, why waste her time with entitled kids when she

can provide opportunities for underserved ones and make a much bigger difference. The kids in

independent schools have plentiful access to resources and less of a need while underresourced

children have very little and need much more help. There is a very large difference in

experiences between the kids she served in independent schools vs public school because even

small things matter to underserved kids and they’re so excited to learn and have fun.

She started working at this community site in October, running a Saturday program for

kids with weekly themes to expose the kids to a wide variety of topics. Everything was so new

and exciting to the kids, which she found very humbling. Everyone knows that large inequalities

exist in Philly, but many turn a blind eye to it because they’re not sure what to do about it. She

found that helping out at this community site is something that she can do. Even if it’s only 40

kids over the summer, it will have large long-term impacts. The kids that she works with now are

anxious due to food insecurity, community/familial instability, or having to take care of

themselves/their siblings so coming to camp where the focus is on play and fun makes a huge

difference in their lives. Taking the time to know and care for these kids matters so much more

to these kids than to kids who have an overabundance of resources and people who care about

them. The camp provides breakfast and lunch for the kids daily which includes fresh fruits and

vegetables. Some of the kids didn’t know what an orange was or had minimal experience with

fresh fruit so these experiences matter.

As this staff member continues to work at this community organization, she wants to

create a curriculum rooted in play as kids age and become an institutional foundation to provide

programs for kids of all ages. This organization is starting a preschool and these kids can

continue their involvement in the organization through classes which helps to form long-term

relationships and make lasting differences.

Interviewing this staff member was very eye-opening. She had so much experience

working with children who came from privileged backgrounds and saw the same needs going

unmet in communities of color and in poverty, so she decided to help provide resources to these

kids. Kids in public school don’t have access to large varieties of afterschool programs or

chances to discover their interests through play due to a lack of resources and complicated social

situations. Their home and community lives are also very different. Programs like these make a

big difference in keeping kids engaged and helping them learn different skills (collaboration,

creating joy, etc.) that aren’t taught in the classroom. I realized how different but similar the

needs of different communities are and the importance of serving the communities that need it

most, even when it can be difficult to do so. It’s important to let kids of all backgrounds be kids

and to give them the resources to be as happy as they can be at every stage of their lives.