Award-Winning Actor and Author, Hill Harper, to Keynote Summer Changes Everything™ National Conference, November 12-14
Kansas City, MO to serve as host city to nearly 1,000 out-of-school time leaders committed to summer learning as a solution to closing the achievement and opportunity gap in America
(Baltimore, MD – August 28, 2018) – “How was summer break?” That’s the question teachers across the country often ask at the start of a new school year. Depending on a child’s zip code, these answers will vary, as not all summers are created equal. Decades of research, tracked and curated by the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA), reveals that summer learning loss constitutes a most significant, if largely unrecognized, threat to academic achievement in America. It is primarily during the summer months that tens of millions of American children go backwards academically, causing the achievement gap between rich and poor to increase dramatically. Recent research, however, shows that high-quality summer learning programs maintain and advance students’ academic and social growth, keep children safe and healthy, and send students back to school ready to learn.
With this as a backdrop, NSLA takes its national conference, Summer Changes Everything™, to The Heart of America – Kansas City, MO, November 12-14, 2018 and is pleased to announce Hill Harper as its keynote speaker.
Hill Harper is an award-winning actor, author, and Founder of the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping underserved youth succeed through education, mentorship, and grant programs. Hill Harper currently stars as Dr. Marcus Andrews on TV’s #1 new drama, The Good Doctor on ABC, and is a four-time New York Times best-selling author.
Harper will be joined by a who’s who of speakers and industry influencers, including Maxine Clark, creator of the Blueprint4Summer app and Founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop®, scientist and Miss USA 2017 – Kara McCullough, along with Miss Teen USA 2017, Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff of Kansas City – individuals all committed to education and expanded access to summer learning opportunities.