Opening Doors and Remembering Your Path

Julie Smutko Daugherty, the previous editor of The Y4Y Insider and host of the Voices From the Field podcast, sat down with the current Insider editor, Cappella Santos-Brown, to reflect on what she wishes she’d known before embarking on the Insider’s journey and the lessons she’s learned about planning, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

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Transcript

Y4Y: Thank you for joining me for this special conversation, Julie. It’s bittersweet to say goodbye to The Y4Y Insider, but it has been an amazing journey to see it grow into what it is today. The newsletter has been such a treat to work on, and I can only imagine that, when you stepped in prior to me, you felt the same way! When you stepped in to write and edit the Insider, what was your vision?

Julie Smutko Daugherty: My past experience in newsletter writing told me that you have to keep the content fun and lighthearted for readers to stay engaged, but not get carried away with your own sense of humor. We’ve all read marketing materials that seem so concerned with entertaining the reader that busy people just give up because the writer is trying too hard. Our 21st CCLC audience is as busy as they come, but still, it’s nice to, like I said, keep it fun and light, and that was goal number one.

Y4Y: That’s so true. It really is a fine line between writing content that feels entertaining versus cheesy. What went into deciding which categories would be featured, like the popular “Gathering STEAM” section? 

JSD: I would always try to focus on any new training content on the Y4Y website, because (a) it was an opportunity to bring new courses and Click & Go training material to the attention of both leaders and frontline staff, and (b) featuring that content in a short blog could act like a movie trailer and give learners a quick overview of what to expect. Before I invest two hours or more in a movie on Netflix, I like to watch the trailer to see if it’s really something for me, so this was a big role of the newsletter, in my opinion.

Y4Y: That’s a great point! Could you walk us through the process of figuring out what information our audience would find the most relevant?

JSD: As you know, this is an evolving process. I always try to keep an ear to the ground, and by attending national conferences, listening to Y4Y’s technical working group, and watching the chat box in Y4Y virtual training, I could get a sense of what weighed most heavily on the minds of our audience. That, and of course “clicks.” Like you mentioned, STEM resources are always popular with our 21st CCLC professionals — the clicks don’t lie!

Y4Y: Exactly — it is an evolving process, and that’s what makes it so interesting! In Y4Y’s Voices From the Field, you’ve had a multitude of interview subjects ranging from state coordinators, program directors, and various subject matter experts. Can you talk about the lessons you’ve learned through these interviews?

JSD: Well, lesson number one is that in this field, we have so much to learn from each other. Practitioners can learn as much from each other as from us — In fact, Y4Y largely draws from best practices around the country to develop ALL our material, not just the podcast. And, listeners are excited to hear about successes and “learning opportunities” from others who are doing the same work. I like to joke that the world is made up of people who are very happy to learn from others — like, “Gee, thanks for telling me the stove is hot. I won’t touch it” versus those who just have to find out for themselves, like “Oh, that stove is hot? Let me just touch it for myself, even if it means getting burned.” Our 21st CCLC audience is mostly made up of the first and is eager to learn from others’ experiences in the hopes of jumping straight to success.

Y4Y: Any cool stories that have stuck with you throughout the years?

JSD: So many, but I’d say they’re the guests that gave me a different lens on education in general that really stick out, like Stacey Gummy, who runs a forest kindergarten, who talked about how many concepts very young people can really learn by exploring nature themselves. Then there was Tiffany Grant and Amy Franks — two unrelated podcasts that really hit home, for me, that our students of color deserve to see themselves in the books they read and the language they hear spoken. One of my earliest inspirations was Tara Cox, who talked about makerspaces and, my favorite part, the concept of undoing “right answer” thinking. Then there was Katherine Manley, who, after growing up poor, poor in a mining town (and writing an excellent book about that experience, by the way), had a perspective on teaching the most disadvantaged students that you couldn’t really get if you hadn’t lived it yourself. I could go on all day — our whole team knows what a passion I had for every Voices opportunity.

Y4Y: Yes! I almost see every Voices guest as a dish, and they all come together to form this amazing buffet that our audience can learn from. Every single one has different ingredients, spices, and “nutritional value” if you will, to provide something very different but very necessary. So, I know from personal experience that keeping the Insider fresh takes a lot of planning and organization — much of which was passed down from you at the beginning of my journey! Could you share how you managed all the moving parts when things always seem to move so quickly? Was there a process that seemed to help you the most?

JSD: Well, when you’re editing, you definitely have to get comfortable with the role of “nagging.” It feels like nagging anyway, but I would remind anyone who finds themselves in the position of keeping a lot of balls in the air that most people are just going to be grateful for reminders. As I keep saying, we’re ALL busy. But that said, it really is important to give others and yourself generous timelines whenever humanly possible. And of course, remain flexible. The rest of the “process” is just keeping to a calendar.

Y4Y: Hey, I can tell you that I appreciate a good nagging! Unfortunately, sticky notes and a to-do list will only get you so far. In that same vein, no project is complete without some setbacks, and as a monthly project, I can think of a few just since the beginning of my journey with the Insider. Could you share a little bit about any challenges you’ve experienced throughout the process and more importantly, how you’ve overcome these challenges?

JSD: I would say flexibility and creativity can help you overcome a lot of obstacles. When having to plan themes so far in advance, the content we might have based them on didn’t always come online at exactly the moment we had hoped for months prior. If a lot of other elements were built around that theme, we could use a little creativity to tie existing (and equally important) content back to that theme. There were also a couple of cases when our understandably busy Voices guests had to postpone, so I always tried to work ahead and could often pull a future guest in early, and maybe just tweak how their interview was “packaged” — just enough to show how that conversation was relevant under that theme. But that’s just the sprinkles — every interview was like a beautiful cake unto itself.

Y4Y: Flexibility is exactly right. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve quoted that one Friends episode: pivot! One of the reasons why I love the Insider so much is because it blends relevancy and creativity. I especially love how each issue is themed, which is something you started at the very beginning. Do you have a favorite issue or an issue that was particularly fun to work on? How did you find inspiration for the various themes and even the content that was featured?

JSD: Well, as you know, I actually built most issues around our “Creative Program Ideas,” column. After the Voices interview, my favorite part of editing The Y4Y Insider was drawing from numerous calendars (from whimsical days of the year to historical events, several agencies like the U.S. Treasury, National Librarians, etc.) and using interesting happenings in any given month to inspire program activity suggestions. When I really applied myself, I could find ways of tying together all the month’s events and new Y4Y content (or maybe existing content most relevant to where our practitioners were in the school year) and come up with a theme.

As far as a favorite, that’s tough. I loved the many issues — especially through the pandemic — that had a theme designed to unify our practitioners who were all feeling so isolated at that time. In fact, Y4Y’s virtual training was SO instrumental in helping our learners feel connected. Beyond that, I hope there were issues that got people thinking — like “Find Your Hidden Treasure” or “Variety Is the Spice of Life.”

Y4Y: I loved hearing about how you thought up new themes from the Creative Program Ideas because I actually think of themes from either the time of the year or what kind of cool courses or tools we’re coming out with at Y4Y.

So, as we move forward, what do you hope audiences have gained from the Insider’s resources or Y4Y as a whole? Is there anything you’d like to share with them as we enter the transition into the new Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC National Technical Assistance Center (NTAC)?

JSD: In response to the last half of your question, it’s clear that the Department of Education is so invested in out-of-school time as the needed springboard in communities across the country that the Secretary is looking to expand training for these professionals through the new Technical Assistance Center. Since we’re always hearing “I wish I knew about you guys earlier!” we know that the resources our amazing team has developed have been crucial to the 21st CCLC audience, and here’s our chance to expand that reach. As for the Insider, whether folks read just one blog, took one activity idea, or told their coworkers about a new training that Y4Y had to offer from each issue if nothing else, I hope it’s been that monthly inbox reminder to our practitioners that they are an important part of something big.

Y4Y: Thank you so much for this amazing retrospective on the Insider, Julie. I think we went over some valuable lessons that can really be applied to so many things — not just if you’re a newsletter editor! I look forward to seeing what’s next.