“The award belongs to everyone,” says Bridget Adams, director of Youth and Family Engagement in Newport News Public Schools (NNPS) Youth Development department. “We believe youth development — which we define as promoting positive experiences, relationships and environments for every student — is everyone’s business. So, it’s an award for the bus driver, for the security officer, for the front office staff….”
Announced in March 2024, Newport News Public Schools earned a silver Magna Award in honor of its Youth Development department’s achievements. Now in its 29th year, the national Magna Awards program was sponsored by American School Board Journal, the National School Boards Association’s flagship magazine.
In previous years, NNPS has been honored with 12 Magna Awards, including seven Magna Award winning programs, three Magna Award Notable programs and two honorable mention programs. For 2024, award-winning criteria included a focus on educational innovation and creative problem-solving, among a few other elements.
Adams began working for NNPS in 2006 as a teacher at Warwick High School, becoming a student activities director in her last few years of teaching. She says, “At the same time, I had started a nonprofit called Made for More, which was 100 percent youth development-focused.” This is where her love for youth development began. Since 2016, her work in the department has shifted from extracurricular involvement to multifaceted, successful programs that help students thrive.
Now, Adams describes the department as “an infrastructure of dedicated school-based staff members who lead youth development-focused initiatives. “We have more than 230 staff members in our school buildings who help us sponsor close to 1,000 opportunities: clubs, sports and activities for students in grades K-12. No other school division has that,” she says. NNPS Youth Development staff are also present in the division’s juvenile detention and alternative schools.
Adams shares that the 2024 Magna Award application “focused on our Youth Development infrastructure, but it also focused on innovative programing, like our gun violence prevention programming, and our empowerment programs, like Bloom, Blossom, Flourish [across the division].” Illuminating the expanse of these resources, she explains that “all 40 NNPS schools have access to those same empowerment programs and that innovative programming, as opposed to school divisions that might not be able to do that.” She credits the department’s infrastructure with the ease of connecting more students to more opportunities, positioning NNPS toward their recent win.
“Students have access to skill-building, clubs and activities, athletics and other opportunities that not only help them build skills, but also a sense of belonging to their school community and also to build healthy relationships with nurturing adults who are leading that work,” Adams says. “A lot of young people don’t have that in their lives — they don’t have nurturing adults — but they can get that in their school communities.”
Kyra Wilson, a senior at Heritage High School, says, “I’ve been shy for a lot of years, but I feel like this year and last year [were] both the years that I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone because of who is beside me and the types of groups I’m in.”
Wilson participates in three of her school’s Youth Development groups. Flourish supports high school girls, encouraging women’s empowerment and leadership. The My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper program provides mentorship opportunities. The Emerging Leaders Institute prepares dedicated student leaders. “Being in the groups helps everybody,” Wilson says.
Heritage High School’s Youth Development leader is Tiffanie Smith, who Wilson says has “definitely helped me a lot, giving me opportunities I wouldn’t think I would have.”
“The Youth Developer here at Woodside [High School] is Ms. [Samantha] Reynolds, and Ms. Reynolds is amazing,” says Paul Jones, another NNPS senior who, like Wilson, has remained in the school system all the way through 12th grade.
As one of Reynolds’ students during his sophomore year, Jones says: “I was going through a lot of personal situations, and I was able to just talk with her, and she gave me advice that was crucial to help me through those situations. Just meeting with her helped me figure out that life throws a lot of things at you, but with the right people behind you, and the right support system, you can get through anything.”
TO THE POINT:
NNPS Youth Development
Address: 12465 Warwick Blvd., Newport News, VA 23606
Contact: Bridget Adams
Phone: 757-283-7850 x.10318
Email: bridget.adams@nn.k12.va.us
Website: www.sbo.nn.k12.va.us/youthdevelopment
