Emery oversees the after-school program for 18,000 Fairfax County Public Schools students across 27 middle schools, where his innovative programs ?– beyond your typical kickball game — earned Emery the 2011 Afterschool State Champion Award from nonprofit Afterschool Alliance. In another life, you were a research physicist for the government. Why this?
I got very involved in education when my children went to school in the late 1980s — PTAs, then I ran and served on the school board. I thought I could make a difference. For a number of years I’ve been with the Fairfax Partnership for Youth, and we formed an after-school network; middle-school kids have a real need for support and services in that time between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. It’s shown to have an impact on academics, on behavior, and on school culture.
What should an after-school program achieve for kids?
Each of our site directors at the schools design a program based on the needs of a community. At some schools, they may have more academics than others; at other schools there may be more behavior-based or leadership activities. It could be that students are part of an advisory group, and they survey their classmates as to what kind of activities they would like to do. It could be that they survey the local community, and decide an initiative they would like, such as dealing with the homeless community.
But they’re also running around like kids, right?
Yes — intramurals is a big draw. Flag football, basketball is big, soccer is huge, volleyball is growing, as is cheerleading. They do science clubs, art clubs, drama.
What advice would you give to other districts getting after-school programs off the ground?
[Have] a strong partnership. The school system can’t do this by themselves, the county government can’t do this by themselves. We come to a common understanding of what we can do.
