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This practice-oriented article presents a comprehensive framework for strengthening cultural responsiveness in afterschool STEM programs, grounded in the design and implementation of Math CEO— a university-community partnership engaging Latinx middle school students in Southern California. The framework centers on six dimensions: student-centered learning, interpersonal relationships, critical thinking, relevance and language, social justice, and cultural diversity. These are applied across three interconnected domains: program structure, curriculum, and pedagogical practices. Through detailed examples and a case study, the article illustrates how culturally responsive practices can be embedded into informal math activities to foster student engagement, cultural identity, and deeper learning. highlights the importance of mentor training and curriculum development as strategies to ensure these practices are applied consistently and sustainably. 

Scholars have increasingly argued that we need to attend to adolescents’ race, ethnicity, and culture in after-school activities to ensure positive effects. Still, little is known about adolescents’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices in after-school activities (i. e., the use of diverse teaching practices, cultural engagement, and affirming diverse language preferences), including whether they are stable over time and beneficial to Latine adolescents, who are minoritized in U.S. society. Theoretically, culturally responsive practices are expected to help after-school activities meet adolescents’ three basic needs as conceptualized by self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Findings based on 134 Latine adolescents (53% girls, Mage =11.74 years) participating in an afterschool math enrichment activity suggest adolescents’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices in the activity were moderately stable from winter to spring. There were no significant differences in adolescents’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices based on gender or preferred language (i. e., English or Spanish), and significant positive associations emerged between adolescents’ perceptions of diverse teaching practices and their feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study offers insights for future theory development in the after-school field, particularly in the context of program quality, culturally responsive practices, and their implications for adolescent development and well-being. 

This practice-oriented chapter highlights Math CEO, a university–community partnership at UC Irvine that connects middle school students from Santa Ana Title I schools with undergraduate mentors for weekly sessions of math enrichment. Its relationship‑driven mentoring, asset‑based curriculum design, and intentional integration of social‑emotional learning provide concrete strategies for building capacity in inclusive informal STEM education. Relevance and Implications for Practice: This chapter provides a practice‑based model for identifying and implementing culturally‑responsive informal pedagogical practices (CIPPs) in STEM afterschool programs. A mixed‑methods research study at Math CEO has documented reciprocal benefits: youth gain confidence, enjoyment of math, and early exposure to college life, while mentors develop instructional skills, self‑efficacy, and an interest in teaching or community‑focused careers. These dual impacts align closely with the grant’s goals of understanding how CIPPs influence both youth and afterschool staff, as well as building long‑term capacity for high‑quality, research‑informed informal STEM programming. 

Afterschool staff are critical to youth’s experiences in activities and shape what youth garner from activities. This study focuses on undergraduate students’ experiences working with adolescents in an afterschool activity through a community-university partnership in an effort to understand the challenges afterschool staff face and the strategies that helped them address those challenges. Undergraduate students, who are referred to as mentors in the activity (n = 15; 11 female; 8 Latine, 7 non-Latine), are the staff for a math enrichment afterschool activity serving largely Latine youth. The undergraduate students were interviewed to understand (a) the challenges they encountered when working with adolescents, (b) the strategies they leveraged to respond to these challenges, and (c) the extent to which the themes varied by racial/ethnic cultural backgrounds. Undergraduate students felt they experienced challenges with promoting motivation, teaching math content, navigating group instruction, building connections with adolescents, and establishing authority or respect. To respond to these challenges, they sought help from experienced undergraduate students, attended trainings, facilitated collaborative learning, integrated real-world examples, engaged in structured non-math related conversations, and leveraged students’ sociocultural assets. Results provide key stakeholders with insights on how to design trainings to better support undergraduate students who work with diverse youth.