14. Jenny Atkinson

Will Bachman  00:01

Hello, and welcome to the 92 report conversations with members of the Harvard and Radcliffe class of 1992. I’m your host will Bachman and I’m here today with Ginni Atkinson, Jenny, welcome to the show.

Jenny Atkinson  00:14

Thanks so much. Well, it’s great to be here.

Will Bachman  00:16

So Jenny, let’s start by telling me about your journey since you graduated, and left Cambridge.

Jenny Atkinson  00:24

Sure. So I add, I went to the Harvard school, graduate school for education, right after we graduated, I did the master’s degree there, which was a great experience, although, you know, looking back part of me thinks I could have taken so much more advantage of that if I’d had a few years of your life under my belt. But, but I had taught during our undergraduate times student taught in a school in Dorchester, and had thought I was going to teach all my growing up years but had not had experience in urban school and learn so much there that I wanted to just like, get my head a little bit more around the the issues in urban schools, before I started teaching, and ended up more focused on after school, but did that program and then worked in boys and girls club that I had volunteered and then done work study at for all the years that I was at Harvard. So when continued, they’re doing education and art programs and overseen, you know, a range of staff that, that provided some of those programs at that Boys and Girls Club, and was there for quite a few years, loved it. And, at some point wasn’t wanted to keep doing it, even though it wasn’t enough of a challenge for me anymore on some level. So I did some other fun things. Like going to massage school. I, I had kind of been overly tired for many years, probably just too busy, but also other things, who knows. And one of the things I had thought was getting to know my body better would, and learning more about self care, maybe would would be helpful for me. So I went to this class, it was a card, it’s changed its name. But when I went to my interview to get accepted, the woman looked at my resume and said, Oh, you went to Harvard University? And I said, Yes, I did. And she said, she’s got this look on her face. And she said, we’d like to think of ourselves as the Harvard of massage school. Well, one of my favorite lines of life they were very academically focused in your work so maybe maybe there were who knows knows that that you know, just really brought a smile to my face net still does when I think about it. So anyway, I I ended up going to the national boys and crystals America national office, which was in Atlanta at that and spent a number of years there overseeing the education in our programs, it was a great time because it was right around the time that in the field, the after school field people were thinking a lot more about how do we make sure we’re helping kids in school academically. Prior to that, there had been much more of a like a swimming gym, focus arts and crafts focus and after school and and there were places that were for sure doing homework help programs and, and all that it was really an exciting time for, for thinking about that. And and helping people really think about what’s the best way to, to help kids that really often need help, to do better in school to get excited about learning. And so we, you know, we just went to schools around the country, I mean, sorry, boys and girls clubs around the country somewhere in schools, and did training on, on after school education programs in Boys and Girls Clubs, and worked on a number of resources for clubs and so, so love doing that. Then I wanted to get back into a club, I really missed the direct service. So I was the executive director of a club in Boston for a few years. And during that time, I had two kids. And when my second one arrived, I just, it was, you know, full time plus is just a little too much for me. And I tend to have night meetings, board meetings, and, and so I I actually stopped working for a short period of time while we relocated to New York City. I have some family here and my husband’s from Bogota, and Boston was just a little too small for him. So we we’ve been here ever since. And I’ve been doing nonprofit consultant with a very small consulting company called Smarter learning group, a range of clients from, you know, places like national organizations that are you serving to other initiatives that are usually mostly focused on education and mostly focused on communities and populations that that are in need of additional services and supports to be successful.

Will Bachman  05:01

There’s a lot of ground to cover there. Wow, what a backer, take your pick. So, before we dive into after school, I do want to ask a little bit about going to the Harvard of massage schools. I’m not sure what the Yale and Princeton of massage schools, let’s say you went to the Harvard massage schools. Yes. What does someone who has taken courses at a massage school know about the world that someone who hasn’t? does not? So what? What, what is the thing that you understand about the human body? Or about the world that you learned in that program?

Jenny Atkinson  05:42

Yeah, so so I went for personal reasons. And I got a lot out of that I, you know, I didn’t realize that this would happen. But I fell in love with my body as I realized how it worked, and how amazing human bodies are. And sometimes I would just, like, see my self in the mirror and, and kind of understand what was happening to help me to stand up or, you know, to walk in, and just thought it was so incredible. But I do notice myself noticing people, and often as they walk, saying, oh, that’s where they hold attention. Oh, those are the muscles that must be tight, that would be great. You know, if they, if they were to, you know, get some kind of bodywork that would help them to release that area where they probably hold a lot of attention. So that’s a way that I certainly didn’t look at people and look at the world.

Will Bachman  06:28

Maybe even or I went to massage school, maybe even a preliminary question, which I should have asked would be a massage school? Is it sort of, like, I met? So maybe it’s something more than just okay, you know, rub from here to here, like, kind of push hard? Or is it? You know, are you do get into anatomy and nerves and, you know, like, like, what is sort of the content of the courses like beyond mean? Is it sort of just, you know, rubbed from this side? Or this side? And do it super hard? Or are you actually kind of getting into theory and anatomy and physiology and so forth? Yep.

Jenny Atkinson  07:03

Yeah, we definitely did. And there’s a range of discussed most articles, as we established by stating that one is the Harvard but I think most of you know, will have an anatomy and physiology program, I mean, components. So we did learn a lot about that. And, and in the context of massage, in particular, we did a lot of hands on as well. So we would study, you know, muscles, and then learn what’s the best way to release tension in certain places based on like, the insertions, and, you know, the places where the muscles are attached. And, and we also, you know, did a lot of study of, like, contraindications. So, you know, if someone has these type of health issues, is it okay to do massage or not? Okay? How do you do massage for pregnant people, for example, I did the most amazing massage I did. And I, and I, we have, there was a clinic, you had to do a certain number of hours of people that would come in, to the clinic. And, and so and then I did a number of for a year or two, I would do a search for friends and family says gifts, I never really ended up doing it for pay. But, um, one of the most amazing massages I ever did was a woman who was probably 85, or 87, you know, and just thinking about her body and her life, while like touching and trying to provide some relief for her was really, you know, an incredible experience. But that made me think of her was the idea of, of massage for pregnant people. And just like the concept of, in some ways, massaging two people at once. But, um, so and then we had some, we did have some classes on just communication, which is, you know, really key, obviously, when you’re working with people and their bodies, and, and I think it’s less so now, this was in 1996 97, although still an issue for sure. But, you know, making sure that it was sort of seen as a professional experience for not only protecting the person doing massage, in case people were coming with ideas that were less than just about health, right. But also working with people because some, you know, issues come up all the time when you’re doing massage where people are having an emotional release, or, you know, there were times when someone would just, you know, suddenly be crying and not understand why or understand why and want to talk to that talk about it, which, you know, obviously you’re not trained as a therapist, but you know, they the program did try to address some of those issues and now someone in that moment would work with someone to help support them, you know, while having that kind of experience. And then there’s a little bit of a you know, setting up a business components and you know, a few other things like that. So that was probably the overview of the curriculum.

Will Bachman  09:46

What did you learn about what actually happens in the body like in the muscles in the course of or thanks to a massage like what, what’s actually kind of going on?

Jenny Atkinson  09:57

Yeah, you know, I learned a lot more having had a lot of this The US almost then having learned to do massage, and of course, those are tied together. And I haven’t had massage before that. For example, often when I get a massage, I will notice afterwards that my voice is lower, like, no one massage my vocal cords. But you know, even parts of your body that aren’t being massaged are relaxing, right? So. So oftentimes, and I’ll lay on a massage table, I have one in my house, I never lie on it, but when I go to get a massage, I think, why don’t I just lie on a massage table once? That’s, you know, like, that’s one of the things I think I really learned is just that we all need to most all of us need to slow down and, and rest more probably. But um, I think you know, and I guess related to your question of what did I learn for me? For me, at the time, I think I mentioned I had been really tired. And it was, I had, at one point been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, which is kind of a anti diagnosis, you know, it just means you don’t have a lot of other things. And I think the research has has, obviously changed over the years. And I think with Coronavirus in lung COVID. There’s a lot more interest in looking at what do some of these things like mono or epstein barr, you know, some of these viruses? How do they impact people long term, the time, it was very important for me to be physical, the reason I was tired. And you know, I think going to massage school, on some level, although we didn’t have a lot of I mean, it was very focused on the physical, I think it also helped me to understand, you know, how the mental and emotional are tied to the physical. And, and so it opened me up to the idea that, you know, for example, something like maybe my tiredness was connected to the fact that as I grew up as a woman, and I was raised as a Mormon, to unexpressed anger and sadness, you know, the stuff that like often girls, and certainly girls and conservative religions are not supposed to express maybe somehow it was turning that into tiredness, that might sound a little bit crazy to some people and, and certainly wasn’t what they taught in the school. But, you know, it just opened me up to thinking about a lot of that mind body connection in different ways. Through my own experience of having massage, and then again, through some of the experience of, of doing massage with other people. I it’s been a little bit too long for me to talk in much detail about what how the muscles change. So I can’t answer that question for you at the moment, unfortunately,

Will Bachman  12:47

let’s talk about the Boys and Girls Club. So just for listeners that have kind of heard of it, but are only kind of vaguely aware of it. Walk us through who the Boys and Girls Clubs serves, what, like ages or what, what kids it serves, and what sorts of programs it has, do they charge where’s their funding come from? Just give us the overview?

Jenny Atkinson  13:13

Sure, yep. So when I started in the early 90s, well, you know, I started volunteering, when I was a freshman, but really, you know, started getting more involved in the early 90s, the foot most boys and girls clubs were very close to free, you know, that this boys and girls that I worked at was $5 for the year. And that was because most poor boys and girls were in, in neighborhoods that were, you know, low income neighborhoods, places where people often didn’t have a lot of disposable income for something like after school. And so we saw a lot of kids whose parents were working really, really hard. Or, for other reasons, maybe we’re less able to provide some of the things that the Boys and Girls Club provided for the kids in the after school, and even into the evening time. So most Boys and Girls Clubs are six to 18 years old, there are some that are in schools or that are you know, over the years, the population has changed a little bit, although still, I think mostly serving kids in in, you know, the most sort of disadvantaged neighborhoods and circumstances when I was at bdca. And we would travel around the country, you know, I would always get in my rental car and drive to you know, it was usually the poorest neighborhood of the city where the Boys and Girls Club would be found. But, um, so so that there are some that are in communities now where they focus on, you know, two working parents that need after school and so they aren’t necessarily all you know, low income focus. But, and then similarly, for example, if they’re in a school they might be just for elementary school kids, but, but a traditional Boys and Girls Club with would serve six to 18 year olds. Some of those kids are I would, you know, they would wait for their sixth birthday to come to the club and just be a part of this thing that had in many places been a generational thing the day you join the Club and you’re six years old, and then they would stay through 16 for different programs and opportunities. And, and in fact, the club a worked out in Boston, I, I saw some of the kids have kids, you know, by the time I had left, and so and, and so there’s, in some places a real generational feel, and many of the alums of the club will give back and or have their first job at the club become donors of the club, in terms of the offerings of Boys and Girls Clubs. Originally, many of them did have a gym and a pool. And that’s where that sort of swimming gym concept came from lots of arts and crafts. And then over time, many have now like a learning center, or a place that kids can go to do their homework, we had a college clubs, so high school aged kids would come once a week and, and work on college applications and financial aid and all of that, you know, go through the whole process. Lots of clubs have tutoring programs, where volunteers and the community or others would, will come in and do one on one or group tutoring with young people. And off more and more now, it’s really tied to the work of the school. So they are looking at are aware of what is it this kid needs work help with. And, and, and addressing those things, in addition to maybe just completion of homework, many of them have summer programs that more and more have focused on education and addressing, you know, summer learning loss for all kids probably, but especially kids that aren’t going to lots of cool places and having enrichment experiences in the summer, they can lose up to, you know, they can lose many months of learning, and, and then go back to school and either be behind, or the teachers catching whole class up. So, so just reading books over the summer is something that makes a big difference. But obviously, having a more enriching content experience in an after school program is going to help with that as well, for young people, so many also have a range of art programs, you know, from arts and crafts, to some some really there’s some kids that just, you know, go and become incredible artists, whether it’s visual arts or performance, lots of amazing dance groups and, and, and sometimes acting. And then, you know, based on the club, there are there may be other things, there’s certainly like a focus on health and wellness or, you know, they, you know, making positive choices for sure.

Will Bachman  17:50

where’s the where’s the funding come from? Yeah,

Jenny Atkinson  17:53

so the funding for the most part is raised through sort of Corporation Finance and foundation, grant writing, some clubs have very strong individual who support their clubs. And, you know, they’ll have a whole department that does development and does stewardship of donors and and then there is usually some type of public dollars, although in most places, I would say that’s it’s not close to the majority of the funding. So but you know, they’re often places where some states or federal or local government funding plays a part in just the whole puzzle of how they put together their, the funding they need.

Will Bachman  18:42

Got it. I have very loosely followed the kind of research just very loosely around, like pre K. And for a while there was these different studies that showed that it made a big impact, you know, having pre K versus no pre K, on the students long term performance. And there’s a lot of effort in New York City now to universal pre K. I’ve seen some stuff how, like more recent research seems to suggest that maybe it’s not as effective, the pre K stuff, and that maybe the earlier studies might have been, you know, perhaps populations that just really needed it the most, and was going to have the most impact, but broadly delivered, it may not, you know, it still could be a good thing, but it’s it’s not the, you know, like the transformative solution that people had hoped for. What’s the what’s sort of the impact on after school programs like Boys and Girls Club? I imagine there’s been some research around that and does that sort of change life outcomes and kids that go through those programs do they have, you know, better college attendance for their, you know, for their socio economic status if equalized for that or that better, like incomes when they’re older. I imagine there’s some research curious to hear.

Jenny Atkinson  20:05

Yeah, I wish I was more just embedded in that research right now and give you some really great kernels and specifics, there definitely has been research that, that points to, you know, a range of those things, whether it’s, you know, more likely to stay in school, if they’re involved in integrate after school program, more likely, like you said, to graduate and go on to college. And success in life later, you know, there was, there was a, there was a study that early on, so it was before, a lot of the focus that was trying to tie after school to, to educational outcomes that boys and girls club did said something like 50% of alum said Boys and Girls Club saved their life. And, and in that case, you know, again, it may have been maybe the boys and girls that have changed and the whole society has changed in ways that that may not be what they would see now rates are and, and, you know, they’re so interesting to think about the the ways that like, kids who might need the club, most would come in to play basketball, and hang out with a coach, but are not interested in school. Right. And if suddenly, they feel that they have to go and finish their homework, they may end up just not going to an after school program. And, and that might be the kind of kid who says the club saved my life, even if it didn’t get them into college, right? Even helped them get into like, a trade or something like that, you know, I’m kind of like talking past research right now. But it’s, it’s interesting to think about the unintended consequences of changes that might be made in a field, you know. And similarly, with pre K, you know, there’s been a real focus on school readiness and, and measuring a range of things, not just educational readiness, but for sure, like, the ABCs. And, and some of that has been translated, I think, into programs where they think, oh, we need to get the kids to do a budget worksheets all day, and that’s how they’ll be ready for kindergarten, which I don’t think anyone would say that isn’t necessarily the case. But um, but you know, I think in some, in some cases, we’ve lost the playing part of pre K. And I know for sure, in kindergarten, we have and, and there may be some reasons that that’s better for kids. And accelerated learning is needed or important. But I, you know, when I, my kids went to kindergarten, it was not, there was no play involved. You know, what I mean? I mean, there was some fun, I’m not saying it was horrible. But if you compare what kindergarten was 30 years ago, till now, there may we may be getting better education outcomes, although we may not, you know, there are there’s, there are people that argue and I think there’s there’s a body of research that even would sometimes speak to that question of, if we have made pre K more school like, has, is that worse for educational outcomes down the road? You know, and I think that’s one of the things that, you know, having had experience in direct service, in running an organization in national organizations, working a lot with people that are doing some of the research it I’m not saying don’t believe in the research, I think research is important. But you know, I had an experience of a question on a on a on a survey, we were doing the Boys and Girls Club that asked how do you see guns in your home, and realizing that in different communities that meant different things. And in one community, it might mean that there were a lot of police officers, and whether a police officer or a child seeing the gun in the home was a good or bad thing, we could argue about that. But that’s different than seeing a gun in the home because drugs are being sold in home, it most of the time, right? You know, I mean, I don’t want to make it totally black and white, but, but there’s reasons that again, may end up being the home that would be different than in one case than another and, and so, you know, researchers spend hours and hours and tons of money to try to make sure they have the right question. And, and don’t get, you know, don’t ask questions like that where there might be more than one answer that would lead to different Yeah, we directions right.

Will Bachman  24:26

But what when I was a kid, we had guns in the home, but that was because we had you know varmints. Right, right. Right. Yeah. No, you know, go shoot a deer or shoot the shoot the weasel or somebody was trying to get at the chickens.

Jenny Atkinson  24:39

Exactly what you certainly can’t even do now.

Will Bachman  24:42

So well, what are some of the what’s kind of the alternative? A lot for a lot of the kids. So if the Boys and Girls Club program, you know, suddenly shut down or just hadn’t been there? What what is that student typically going to be doing after school instead.

Jenny Atkinson  25:06

A lot of now are probably on devices when I started was girls. And that certainly was not the case. And they would be sort of out and about, sometimes in their house, maybe watching TV, but oftentimes, out and about, and often, you know, I mean, I always feel like I see both sides, and that probably drives some people crazy, there is something to be said, for when I cart my child from one place to another where adults are curating their whole life experience, right, I think maybe it’d be okay, if my kids ran down the street to the park and played by themselves for an hour, right. And with no adults, making sure they didn’t fight or whatever. But for the most part, for sure, you know, kids that were going for six hours every day, just on their own, you know, much more likely to get in trouble, much more likely to, to be to meet with circumstances that would like they said, you know, the boys and girls would save their life, they would be more likely to get involved with them dangerous, or just things that, you know, obviously wouldn’t help contribute to, to having a successful life, you know, and a lot of them might be bored at home. Or at, again, not learning new skills, you know? So, so I think that’s certainly why in the communities that I’ve worked in with the clubs I’ve worked with, with parents, and kids are usually just dying to get to the Boys and Girls Club as soon as they can, you know, as old as they are as, as soon as they’re old enough, and especially if there are other programs in their communities as often as they can, you know, they’re certainly places where they have little league and other things that they go to, but in some communities, still, there may just be one after school option. So

Will Bachman  27:09

let’s talk about Harvard again. And going back, what were one or two courses or professors that you had at Harvard, not necessarily in your major, just any courses that have continued to have an effect on you for, you know, throughout your life.

Jenny Atkinson  27:31

You know, because I’ve listened to a few of your other interviews so far, and they’re also amazing, I have loved listening to all of them, and you’re doing such a great service for all of us. You might have the most fun job, but But listening is probably almost as fun. You know, I’ve thought a little bit about this question, as I’ve heard other people’s replies. And, you know, for sure, I was changed by some of those big classes where the teachers were almost like performers, you know, the Michael Sandel that Helen vendler You know, Marjorie Garber, I think someone else mentioned her classes, those ones, I felt like, my mind was blown at the end of the hour, every single time, you know, and I had read some Shakespeare, but the way she interpreted it and opened up, like all different ways of thinking about those texts was, every single week, I was just amazed. And it certainly impacted how I read and read literature and think about a lot of things today. But But then, I think there’s, you know, the freshman seminar I did, which was on Wordsworth, and just doing like, really close reading with a small group of people and a professor and we had to memorize Tintern Abbey, which it took me forever. I actually did it when I was on the subway, going to the Boys and Girls Club, volunteer. And I, I have, like, if I read it, now I have pictures of like, switching from the red line to the orange line, walking up the street to the Boys and Girls Club, you know, as reminders when I when I, when I read that poem, and, and I also was like, I couldn’t believe like, there were a couple of kids in the class who had probably done endless Latin declension memorization in, in high school, and they memorized it in like two nights. And I just thought, how is that possible? This is wrong and unfair. But

Will Bachman  29:14

can I put you on the spot? Can you give us a couple lines of it?

Jenny Atkinson  29:17

No, I can’t. Five years have passed five long years. I used to be able to remember about 30 lines, okay. I should have gone back and looked at it. All right. Such a beautiful song. And learning, you know, learning something by memorizing it is such a different way of learning for sure. But But back to your question. Yeah. I think I mentioned that. I’ve been thinking about this too much because I I couldn’t narrow it down. I took a class at an art class where I got to go to the Fogg Art Museum, and not touch but like be inches away from the work of William Blake when I was writing a paper about his artwork and his poetry, I mean, that maybe doesn’t change you in some ways for life, it’s not something I reflect on all the time. But what an incredible experience that is, you know. And then, on some level, I think my greatest learning happens. I, I was a part of the program, I think it’s called UTEP, where you can be certified to be a teacher. During your time at Harvard, I had wanted to be a teacher, and almost didn’t go to Harvard, because they didn’t have a degree in education. I’m glad I did. But I, you know, at the time, was still really feeling like that. I wanted to do that. And so I taught in a school in Dorchester Middle School. And I was certified to teach English and social studies. And that experience. Those young people taught me so much, you know, and, you know, that’s not maybe a typical Harvard experience, for sure. But and it was certainly like, kind of crazy making to go and student teach all day, and then come home and try to think about writing about the significance of the fifth fact of The Merchant of Venice, right? When, when you were with kids who, you know, the early 90s, in Dorchester was an incredibly unsafe time to be a young person in and there was a lot of violence. And the kids that I was working with, you know, they were scared to walk home, they didn’t have heat in their house, they came to school hungry. And, and so to think about how do I teach his kids about nouns and verbs was really, you know, it was, it was an interesting experience. And then to come back to Harvard, right for the evening. But, so, so I feel like I had a real huge range of learning experiences. And that was, also I think, one of the things about learning at Harvard, you know, there’s just, it’s just, there’s so many opportunities and ways to learn and, and things to consider and, and you’d learn so much from your classmates as well, you know, it’s been, it’s been fun for me to reflect on it. And just remember what a rich time that was.

Will Bachman  32:19

Now we turn to the Department of Culture, where asked if there’s any books or films or newsletters, or pieces of art, music that have been meaningful to you or that you often recommend to others?

Jenny Atkinson  32:38

Yeah, you know, I, when I was in high school and into college, I read so much literature and, you know, it’s the type of experience where I would read light in August and one read everything by Faulkner, The Bluest Eye and once read everything by Toni Morrison, you know, and do these deep dives. And, and then, I think after college, I got much more interested in nonfiction. And then when I had kids, you know, I ended up spending most of my time writing picture books and chapter books. Which there are some amazing I think picture books are still probably my favorites type of book. I have to find ways as my kids get older to get more babies in my life but um, but I, but I, I don’t read enough anymore. And, and I There’s so much I mean, I read of course I read on the internet, which I guess you can count rates. And certainly I read a range of things although nothing jumps to mind as something that I would necessarily recommend. They would pick up you know, there’s an author, her name is Keiko. Let me just think for one second her last name Keiko pasa, I think. And she has written every one of her picture books is delightful. She has one called ready for anything that’s about two animals, one who’s very scared to go into the world and one who’s overly excited to go into the world and, and they you know, get to the end and you realize there’s times for caution and there’s times for excitement. And you know, all of her books are just a lot of them have a turn at the end that you aren’t quite expecting that just is so fun. So all of her picture books are great stories and then also great pictures, that’s when I would definitely recommend and you know, I I think that in addition to just reading a lot more short stuff because of how the world is with the Internet. I am also spending a lot more time listening to podcasts. And I and I I feel I need to read more. I mean, I feel I need just the experience of reading a book in my life more. But I also learned so much from podcasts. And there’s some that are so interesting. And, again, I’m not thinking of any particular one that I would recommend. But as I thought about how much I’m not reading, I thought, well, there is something to be said for some of the things that I listened to

Will Bachman  35:25

any shows, in particular that pop out at you that are some of your go to subscriptions?

Jenny Atkinson  35:34

In terms of podcasts, yeah. You know, some of the just typical, most popular ones are probably the ones that come to mind. And I’m amazed by how still, you know, the OG, This American Life and fresh air. If I had to choose any out of the millions of podcasts out there, those are some that I would probably choose over any of the others, you know, actually, you know, this related to Harvard, I have to say, I come to Clemson my freshman year, and I didn’t end up staying with it. Although I love the experience, but when I listened to the political gabfest, I feel like I’m back in the Crimson offices, when as soon as I hear David plotz voice I’m like, right back there. And of course, of course, that’s a fun one to listen to. That yeah, I’m not thinking of any. Any that probably people aren’t familiar with. The one about Dolly Parton. A couple of years ago, was one of the best ones I’ve heard in a long time. I was not I’m embarrassed to say that. I was not. I mean, I wasn’t against Dolly Parton. But I just had never been a fan of her music. I mean, I just because I didn’t know it. And I didn’t even know a whole lot about her as a person. And that podcast not only did I come to love her music and love her like most normal people do. But you know, it went so it Dolly Parton’s America, it’s called it went in so many interesting directions. That’s when I definitely really loved and was one I never would have heard of, although I think it was pretty popular. But I don’t think I would have found it unless someone had recommended it to me.

Will Bachman  37:27

I will have to check that out. I think. I don’t know enough about Dolly Parton. I know she’s such a philanthropist. And musics. Great touch so many lives. Yeah. So Jenny, if folks wanted to find out more about what you have going on, connect with you follow up? Where would you point them online?

Jenny Atkinson  37:48

I have a very tiny social media footprint. So the best place would just be to email me and it’s Jay Atkinson. 2000 at yahoo.com. Which I say with embarrassment because the last time I went to upgrade my iPhone, some 20 year old asked me for my email and I gave it to them and they said Yahoo. How is that? Okay, Boomer, you know, I was like, oh, boy, I’m an old person. And, you know, I have a Gmail account, but I really use the Yahoo one still. So next time I go into Apple struggling my Gmail account, but J Atkinson 2000 at yahoo.com

Will Bachman  38:22

has invested way. All right, well, it’s not an aol.com account. So true

Jenny Atkinson  38:26

enough. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I’m not at

Will Bachman  38:32

all right, Judy. It was such a pleasure hearing about your story and all the fantastic work that you’ve done for the Boys and Girls Club and other after school programs. Thank you for coming on the 92 report.

Jenny Atkinson  38:46

It was great to talk to you and I look forward to hearing more about our classmates in the weeks and months and years to come. You know, in 30 years. When you’ve talked to all of us, you’re going to have to start over

Will Bachman  38:58

for the second for the second. I did. Yeah. So Jenny’s referring to the goal is to interview every alum of our class, there’s about 1600 of us by do one a week. You can multiply it out to about 30 years, so be at this time at and listeners. If you want to follow our journey, you can go to 92 report.com That’s nine to report.com. Sign up for the weekly newsletter to get notified of the latest episode. And you can listen there or on any podcast app and if you liked the show, can drop a review on iTunes it helps others discover the show. Thanks for listening