Deborah Moore, youth studies faculty member and associate director of the Youth Work Learning Lab, is working with two high school interns on an evaluation project this summer to study what young people in St. Paul typically do after school versus what they would like to do after school.

The students, Michelle Ramirez and Mushtak Barqab, are part of the Minneapolis YWCA Girls Inc. Eureka!®, a five-year summer and school year program for girls interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. The University of Minnesota partners with the program to offer summer interships to girls who are in the last two years of the program.

The girls are interviewing people ages 12 to 18 to gather data and stories that illustrate what it is like to be a young person during after school time.
They are designing the interview questions, conducting the interviews, and analyzing the data, and will create a preliminary report of what they heard.

“These bright young women have jumped into the world of research and have already captured some powerful stories that contrast what young people have to do versus what they want to do after school,” Moore says.

In addition to learning how young people spend their after-school time, the interviews are aimed provide insight into the pressures and stress young people face, and to find out what kinds of spaces communities could provide to help young people thrive. This The girls’ project is a part of a larger effort with Sprockets, the St. Paul afterschool network called “Listen Up!”, a citywide evaluation project to learn about young people’s experiences during after school time. The report from the projects will go to St. Paul’s mayor, city council, afterschool programs and others interested in how to support and engage young people in the community.