Elevator Speech

What is youth development? I still find myself choking up when someone asks me this question. However, after taking the intro class and really diving into the meaning of YDEV this semester, I feel I have a much better handle on how to talk about YDEV and what we do.
Youth development is the study of collaborating with youth and consists of work involving youth in various areas. Some of these areas include leading with, care, purposeful play, and social justice, which are also known as the anchors of youth development. As a youth development major, I will advocate with youth and help them have a voice of their own. I will help them have a sense of community and how to build that community. Additionally, there are three ideologies of youth development; they are risk and resiliency, positive youth development, and critical youth development As a youth worker, I feel as though I express positive youth development because I enjoy the ideas of a positive supportive environment along with positive reinforcement. Youth development workers and spaces really put focus on the youth they are working with and instead of teaching them, it feels like you are all learning together.

Event #2: Rhode Island College Open House Feat. YDEV!

                       

November 18, 2017 RIC Admissions Open House 1pm-4pm

"So what is youth development?" This was the question of the day at the RIC Admissions Open House. Each major had a table set up with faculty and students and brochures to go into detail about each major. When people had come up to our table, the students lead conversations with the young person while the faculty conversed with the parents/guardians. As a youth development team, we took turns practicing our elevator speeches and helped each other out when one would get stuck or lost for words. When discussing youth development, words like care, leading with, and purposeful play were thrown in there which was taken from our YDEV Anchor assignment. Going to this event was a great way to get word out about youth development and I also think it really gave us a better understanding of what we do and why we do it. I think it helped a lot of us to hear ourselves say "I'm a youth development major and here's what I do and what classes I take, etc."

In addition to students discussing the major, we also had brochures and other papers that people could look at to get a better understanding of the major. Lastly, we had a sign up sheet that people could sign with their name and email if they were interested in becoming a youth development. In just the one hour that i was there we got a good amount of signatures. Overall, this was a great networking event and gave us all practice on talking about youth development as a whole and what career paths can come from a bachelor's degree in youth development.

             

Event #1: Youth Development Advising

          

It was that time of year again. Time to look through the course catalog, time to do your research on Rate my Professor.  However, this time was different. It was FINALLY my last time registering for classes as an undergraduate. With the help of my amazing advisers, I was already on track to graduate since the day I switched my major to Youth Development, so I knew the exact classes I needed to take and when I needed to take them.
When attending the youth development advising event, I got to meet new people who had already declared their major or who thinking about declaring their major as youth development. It was great to be able to meet new people and give a brief elevator speech about what youth development is and what we do. In addition, it was great to see so many seniors coming to the event to assist new comers and give them insight on previous professors, classes, etc.
After the advising part was complete, of course we broke out into an ice breaker, which is one of the course requirements in our youth development classes. Ronya, our YDEV Org President was there to lead us in a ice breaker titled "rainstorm" which everyone seemed to really enjoy. In addition to this, we went around in a circle and introduced ourselves and said where we were in our undergraduate careers, with most of us being seniors. I feel as if all majors should do events like these because it gives newcomers a chance to learn more about the major and get feedback from others who have been in the program for a few years. I really enjoyed being a part of this event and wish there had been more newcomers that we could help out!

YDEV Anchors

                        

           Purposeful Play                                           Leading with

 Purposeful play and leading with youth can be two key components to take away from our youth development college courses when proceeding into the real world. They both have clear objectives that can be most helpful when working with youth. For example, when we conduct purposeful play activities, we hope to understand that concepts such as art and play can be a starting point for exploring content and community through ideals such as care and inclusion. When we try to understand the concept of leading with youth, we want to experience and practice the intentional elements that allow adults to lead with youth to make a better world. 

Leading with youth gives them the opportunities to be a part of the process. They can help make decisions, create rules and feel important in the process. This can boost their self esteem and help them to feel more comfortable when leading in a group. It is important to have this type of environment where youth feel like they are being heard, not just directed and spoken to. Purposeful play is a fun and exciting way to learn new things. Maybe it is something simple as conducting a name game ice breaker, or maybe something a little more complex like getting to know your classmates in a deeper and more personal way. In addition, purposeful play can help the child to learn more about their peers and about themselves. Play can help "get the wiggles out" and have bonding time between the youth and educators. Overall, purposeful play and leading with youth can benefit both the children and the educators as a whole. 

YD Ideology

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rZPZmMqa3BSF_nNiyP2Jdi2nNSo6IjXhZGlQ6ksiLIM/edit?usp=sharing

After reviewing the Youth Development Ideology Inventory, I found myself to have more of a positive youth development ideology. I believe previously doing this experiment in YDEV 250, my ideology was more critical youth development, so it is interesting to see how just in a year how my youth development ideas have shifted. As a person of positive youth development, according to the horoscope, I have a "constellation of assets". This includes internal and external assets. A focus of this ideology focuses on positive growth and strengths, in addition to trying to prevent any negative outcomes. 

When it comes to youth work, I do feel as though I value the positives. I value positive relationships with youth, positive reinforcement, and positive strives for the future, such as making learning objectives and goals. I also value having a support system and commitment to positive learning (which would be the internal and external assets mentioned previously). Overall, I agree with traits that the other ideologies possess. However, I personally feel as though my mindset when working with youth is to always be positive. This includes being a positive role model that they can look up to and showing them how to be more positive in themselves, in others, and in the world in which we live in.  

    

Injustice

There have only been a few times where I have felt injustice, but nothing bothers me more than the injustice in the work environment. At my current part time job, I am somewhat treated like a manager. I run the shift, I answer the phone/make calls, go to other stores if needed, and have been asked to do other duties such as going to the bank and training sessions. However, I am not payed as a manager. At my job there are three levels; these include crew member, trainer, and manager. After five years, I am just now becoming a certified trainer. Let me point out that there are people who have not been there as long as me and have been promoted multiple times. Yet, just because I know how to do my job and perform the tasks well, does not mean that I should be taken advantage of. 

It is unfair to me that there are people who came in after me getting promoted over and over again. Meanwhile as I previously stated, I have been there for five years and am just now getting my first promotion to trainer. It makes me feel unappreciated which causes me to not get along with most of the management team. I do a lot for the store and no one seems to notice or care. There are a few people on the management team that will stick up for me and notice how much I do for the store, but most just choose to ignore the fact that I do anything. These types of situations happen weekly. However, as much as I hate the treatment, I can do whatever I want and make my own schedule; So the flexibility is really why I stick it out week after week. When these situations happen, I try to just stay calm and not get worked up, especially because it occurs so often now that I'm used to it at this point. 

Mapping Interconnected Care

                          

In this piece, Victoria Restler meets and interviews various teachers from New York City who discuss the different ways that they care for their students. I found it interesting how each teacher had their own way that they presented themselves to their students, how they teach their students, and care for them and meet their needs.

• Sarah (A bat signal for LGBT students)
• Michelle (The $nack Factory)
• Lee (As I am at home, I am in my classroom)
• Eli (Looking at myself through the eyes of students)

Michelle: Also known as the teacher who supplies the snacks. When students were falling asleep in her class, she was under the impression that they thought that she was boring. However, after her first year of teaching, she looked deeper into why the students may actually be falling asleep. Maybe they were working until 2AM and got a limited amount of sleep. Maybe they skipped breakfast and their energy level is low. To show her students that she cares, she supplies snacks that may give them the energy boost they need to start their day. Some may see this as coddling the students. "Instead, she advances a view of her students as human beings coping with extraordinary challenges, and frames her own work in terms of creating a home-like safe space."

Lee: Clean Everything! As an educator, Lee feels as thought the children should have a clean and organized space to work in. This is for many different reasons. For starters, this is just the type of person that Lee is, as she states "I clean all the things". She believes a space that a child is learning should be clean. However, she doesn't just think about the cleanliness of her classroom, she thinks of the impact is has on her students.  For example, many students where she teaches come from an home where cleanliness does not always exist. So, she feels that providing them with a clean area is showing respect to them as students and as people. This also helps the students to become more organized themselves. Lee feels as though the students "deserve this" and wants them to view it as this way too.

Personally, I have also seen these reflected in some of the youth spaces I have volunteered in. Snacks have been present a lot of the time as well as cleanliness and dressing professionally. However, I don't know if teachers/youth workers that I have worked with bring the snacks, dress professionally and make sure the space is tidy for the same reasons that these New York educators say. It would be interesting to ask these same questions and go through the same process with educators and youth workers we know to see what results we would get. Would they say the same things as said in this article? Would they say they dress professionally and tidy up because it is part of their job? One would be interested to find out the answers to these questions.