Beyond the Tassel Episode 1

The inaugural episode of Beyond the Tassel Podcast features excerpts from high school seniors from a rural high school in southern Illinois and an urban high school in North Saint Louis County, Missouri. These schools are as demographically disparate as you’re likely to find, but the students we interviewed from both places shared very similar ambitions and post-secondary plans. Students reveal ambitions, concerns, hopes, and fears as they grapple with their future, some quite certain and others, not so much. But there is much to learn in the deeper stories we will be featuring in subsequent episodes.

Beyond the Tassel deals with the transition from high school to what lay beyond. It’s an experiential story-sharing extension of an education equity initiative, called Journey12. Education equity doesn’t mean that every student or every school will have equal access to resources. That just isn’t a practical, near-term expectation of American education. Our schools and our communities are all different, they have different needs, and different funding mechanisms. Education Equity means that we endeavor to help kids find what they need to be successful, where they are. We’re focused on stimulating interest in, and providing access to the ideas, tools, and professional post-secondary guidance that can help support kids everywhere, enabling them to make the most of their post-secondary options. The American educator is, perhaps, one of the most critical change-agents in our world today. Through encouragement, teaching, coaching, and a thousand other demonstrable examples of support and guidance, these remarkable professionals enable young people to soar. But educators can’t do it alone. The best outcomes feature engaged school communities. Parents, teachers, students, coaches, local business owners — all of it. We created Beyond the Tassel to do just that; engage the community with the stories of actual students facing and overcoming challenges and declaring their intentions beyond high school in a way that starts conversations and leads to deeper connections. Our hope is that when kids and parents hear the stories we’re going to share, that they’ll be more likely to engage their best aspirational selves, and forge a more deliberate post-secondary future that will result in a win for the child, the school, and the community.