Redlands analyst wins national education award
Helen Welderufael helped assess educators’ needs during pandemic
In a year when distance learning made it harder for educators to assess students’ needs, a national organization has honored a Redlands native who is using data to connect kids with the help they require.
Helen Welderufael was selected as one of 46 Next Generation of Afterschool Leaders by the National After-School Association.
The honor aims to highlight emerging talent who have the potential for a broad impact on the field.
“It makes a lot of sense that from all these years that we have been trying to get one of our people recognized with NAA that this is the year that they chose to have a regional operations analyst such as Helen be recognized,” said Johanna Lizarraga, general manager of the San Bernardino County region of Think Together. “Data has never been more important than it is right now.”
Welderufael, a University of Redlands grad, said it is an honor she didn’t see coming.
“I honestly do what I do because of the mission (to help kids), so being recognized for that, it’s amazing,” she said.
Welderufael was recently promoted to data operations manager with Think Together, a nonprofit afterschool program provider that serves about 200,000 students in the state. Previously she analyzed data for the group’s San Bernardino region. In the county, the group serves about 3,200 students from 91 schools in the Redlands, Rialto, Colton, Cucamonga, Ontario, Montclair and Upland school districts.
Data has been especially vital during the coronavirus pandemic. From English language arts and math scores to surveys on how families are coping with COVID-19, there’s a lot of information that can be used to help.
“I think the data helps us visualize the work that we have done, and also helps us figure out the work that needs to be done,” Welderufael said, and it’s her job to relay that message.
The challenge in virtual learning is students don’t have a direct connection with teachers, peers or anyone else on campus, said John Durán, Expanded Learning Lead and Afterschool Program Specialist at the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. That’s where data can help.
“Knowing where students are helps us deliver the curriculum to them that’s more precise than just giving them something that’s cookie cutter,” he said.
Data that he had never thought to ask about has become vital during the pandemic, he said.
Whether students live in an apartment or have a yard becomes important when deciding what kind of physical activity to offer. How many siblings a student has can be an indicator of how long a student can focus on a video call.
What Think Together and other expanded learning providers are doing right, Durán said, is “they’re listening, they’re giving students voice.” That leads to buyin, both from students who could choose to do something else, and from schools that appreciate the extra insight and help for students who may be struggling.
Welderufael said she participated in several afterschool programs when she was younger.
“Growing up, I didn’t live in the best neighborhoods and my escape was to go to afterschool programs,” she said.
It’s where her interest sparked in education.
“I knew I didn’t want to become a teacher, but I did know I wanted to contribute to a great mission, and I wanted to support kids,” she said.
Data also helps back up pitches to possible funders and identify sites where attendance is low and the causes.
When schools shut down in spring 2020 as the pandemic intensified, the group pivoted to virtual learning as well and worked with school districts to use data to pinpoint what kind of help students needed most, especially in harder to reach groups such as homeless and foster youth. Equipped with that knowledge, the group then distributed distance-learning material kits and offered tech support and small-group tutoring.
Moving forward, data will influence reopening plans as well.
“We don’t know the trauma that (students) are bringing back to the classroom,” Durán said. “Now they’re going to have to collect some additional data on what happened with our students, where they are personally … and mentally where they stand as well.”
Data analysis, Welderufael said, is about “using the information that we have to make sure that we are serving our community in the best way that we can.”