Since 2009, the Out-of-School Time Special Interest Group (OST SIG) has sponsored two types of awards, OST SIG Scholar and Emerging Scholar Awards, both established to promote and support quality research in the field of Out-of-School Time.  Recipients must demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their research; and conduct innovative, high quality research that contributes to the field of Out of School Time learning. Emerging Scholar award (category A) is awarded to a graduate student in a pre-defense stage. Scholar award (category B) is awarded to early career professionals in the first five years of their post-doctoral career.  Awards application (RFP) will be distributed in September and will be due in early November. Decisions will be made by an awards committee in early February, and the award presented at the OST SIG business meeting during the AERA annual meeting. The award consists of a plaque and a check for up to $350.  

OST Scholar – Ryan D. Heath, M.A., L.C.S.W., Ph.D., Syracuse University

Dr. Heath is an assistant professor at the School of Social Work at Syracuse University's Falk College. Heath’s research seeks to understand how out-of-school programs (e.g., extracurricular, afterschool and summer programs) promote the social-emotional development of low-income youth, students of color, and other historically marginalized youth. To improve the reach, quality, and impact of these programs, his work aims to elucidate how extracurricular programs interface with other social-ecological contexts that affect youth, such as schools, peers and families, and to identify the potential mechanisms through which extracurricular programs influence youth’s social-emotional development and educational attainment. He has been involved in several research projects, most recently as a collaborator on the “Becoming Effective Learners—Out-of-School Time Study” with The Consortium for School Research at the University of Chicago. Heath has published in Youth & Society, Urban Review, Urban Education, LGBT Health, and Pediatric Research. He is also co-author of the research report, Foundations of Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework.

Emerging OST Scholar – Ishmael Miller, M.A.,Graduate Student, University of Washington-Seattle

Ishmael Miller is a Ph.D Candidate studying Educational Policy, Organizations, and Leadership at the University of Washington-Seattle (UW).

Miller has experience working in a variety of out of school time organizations (school clubs, summer camps, and after school programs) as a volunteer, front-line staff, program manager, advisory board member, and academic researcher. Additionally, Miller has worked toward providing systemic equity at The University of Mississippi and Marquette University and out school time organizations by serving as a curriculum designer, student organization advisor, race and equity divisional committee member, and bias incident response team member. He has been honored by the University Council of Education Administration as a Jackson Scholar and received the Plecki, Richard and Rose Endowment in Educational Leadership from the University of Washington. In addition, to being selected as a UW CoE Unite:Ed - Community Partners Fellow with Schools Out Washington.

Miller’s research focuses on race, equity, and leading out of school time organizations (e.g., “designing leadership practices and crafting learning environments rooted in providing equitable experiences to all youth). Miller's current research study is examining the application of culturally responsive leadership practices in an out of school time organization.