Beyond Walls Twin Cities

Beyond Walls is thrilled to announce the exciting hire of our new executive director, Mikhail Darlington. Mikhail has worked for the past nine years at the Boston program, SquashBusters in many roles, most recently as the program director. Mikhail was a student with this program in middle and high school before attending and graduating from Temple University. Mikhail is an impressive leader, understands youth development programs and is fully committed to taking our Beyond Walls program to the next level. To learn more about Mikhail and how you can support the next chapter with Beyond Walls, see our full announcement below. Thank you to Squash and Education Alliance for their support in this extensive search! https://lnkd.in/gzcxkDeG

Final weeks of summer photo dump! The last weeks of summer programming focused on “working out our brains!” We explored many Minnesota museum staples including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institue of Art, and the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Our students learned a great deal about art, culture, and themselves! We’ve had an incredible summer and sincerely thank all the staff, volunteers and community partners who helped make amazing summer learning happen!

Week three of summer learning at BW focused on how cities and communities support us, and what better place to explore than our capital city if St. Paul! Our major highlights were exploring the Minnesota State capitol and learning at the beautiful and interactive St. Paul public library. Both institutions provide leadership and connection for our students and families. We are having a blast, but can summer slow down??

This week of summer learning focused on the theme of telling a story. BW students explored their community by touring the Hmong Cultural Center, bird watching at the Kroening Nature Center, learning through STEM at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and trying new sports at The Heights Racquet and Social Club - a jam packed week!

First week of summer fun at BW had students learning and collaborating with Project Success and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health-we learned all about public health examining the intersectionality between new advances in technology and public health initiatives utilizing drones to combat community health disparities and promote health equity.  Here our students are in drone flying and safety class. before assembling and flying real drones!

We’re still smiling and celebrating our weekend at the Squash and Education Alliance nationals at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Our high school students played tremendously and showed exceptional sportsmanship making our program very proud! Thank you to the SEA staff and alumni for hosting and organizing this tournament of 300+ scholar athletes and for all the program leaders and players- an event to remember!

One week until these high school students fly off to the east coast for the Squash and Education Alliance nationals! We were so lucky to have former coach Adam help us train to get ready, and thank you to The Heights Racquet & Social Club and Minneapolis Club for getting our players on different courts! Watch out everyone!

Final days of our school year program were a blast! We saw tremendous growth on and off the courts, and we are so thankful for our staff, volunteers, families and students. We’re looking forward to summer programming starting in just a few weeks! Huge shout out to our school partners Hiawatha Academies, Community of Peace Academy, Saint Paul Public Schools, and Venture Academy for their dedication to our students, and to the University of Minnesota for being our program home!

It’s teacher appreciation week! Be sure to shout out the teachers, coaches and mentors in your life today (and every day!) at BW, we are especially grateful for coach Gil and Mr. G who help our students learn and grow on and off the court!

What a WEEKEND! Our student athletes had the best time at the 2024 Minnesota State Squash Tournament. We played hard and left it all on court! Huge shout outs to MN Squash Association for putting on such a great tournament and The Heights Racquet & Social Club for hosting in their amazing racquet space!