What does it mean to educate beyond the classroom?

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with longtime educator, coach, mentor, and community advocate Ashley Toussaint for a conversation about education, identity, youth development, community building, and the responsibility to pour back into the places that helped shape us.

Ashley reflects on more than two decades in education and the experiences that shaped his philosophy of seeing the whole child, building relationships with students, and recognizing that education is about much more than content and test scores.

We talk about teaching in Miami and New York, coaching, mentoring younger educators, Haitian-American identity, running as a tool for community building, and Ashley's eventual return home to Miami.

The conversation also explores his involvement with the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust, neighborhood development, scholarships, preserving Little Haiti and Black Miami, and why residents need to better understand the local institutions and decisions affecting their everyday lives.

Throughout Ashley's journey, education keeps showing up in different forms.

Sometimes it's a classroom.

Sometimes it's a track.

Sometimes it's a conversation.

Sometimes it's helping someone understand what's happening in their own community.

So we ask:

What does it mean to educate beyond the classroom?