Anitra Edwards, Explore Austin
This month's Staff Spotlight is Anitra Edwards! Anitra is the Interim Program Director at Explore Austin, where she supports positive, impactful experiences that help youth grow in confidence, courage, and resiliency.
For Anitra, a fun, engaging, learning-filled childhood is essential to growing up into a caring, fully functioning adult. She's always wanted to be a positive role model for youth so they can grow up to impact their community and the world in a positive way. As she puts it, "Children really are the future."
One of Anitra's proudest moments came this past May. “In our program we ask our Explorers (youth) to do really hard things. We ask them to become part of a group of people that they don't know, to wake up early and show up on Saturdays, and to spend multiple days away from home from their family during the summer. While they are in program we ask them to do physically challenging things that test their confidence, their courage, and their resiliency. When you're doing the work you sometimes forget what you're asking.”
This past May, the program sent 18 young girls on a summer trip with their brand new team. Anitra assumed some wouldn't show up, but to her surprise, all 18 did. Even though they had just met, the girls supported each other through hikes, setting up tents, cooking outdoors, and sleeping outside. On the last night, the whole group, girls and their five mentors, decided to sit together and watch the sunset. "In a time where it can be very difficult to hold kids' attention, these girls decided to just be with each other in nature," she shared. Many later said it was the highlight of their trip. Anitra was grateful to have had a hand in bringing these girls together for a memory she hopes they'll cherish for the rest of their lives.
Her message to fellow OST professionals is to remember the "why" during the tough times. In her words, "Why did you get in this work, why did you choose this path, why the children? That's what keeps me going." She reminds us that we're not just impacting the one child in front of us, but the children they'll interact with, the adults they'll meet, and eventually the adult they'll become.
