What is YDEV?

"Teachers play an incredibly important role, but fro every teacher that influences a child's life, imagine how many "youth workers" - broadly defined - are doing so as well?"

Youth development is more than just child care, more than just teachers and more than just office work. Youth workers are another individual included in this phrase that a village is needed to raise a child. Youth workers are a child's coaches, instructors, and any after school activity leader. These people are important to a child's health and well being. Having multiple adult youth workers for youth to talk to and express themselves to is what helps youth grow. Youth development is anything and everything that has to do with helping the youth in our communities grow to use their full potential to better their lives and their surroundings. 

Event #2

While at my internship there was a teacher meeting on a professional day on November 23rd. At this professional day the teachers and principal talked about using the google programs online as a classroom tool. Such as Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Forms etc. Google drive is a quick way to save documents and images so you can open them up quickly on a different device. This could be helpful in a classroom because you can save images or large documents instead of printing such document. Google docs is useful in classrooms for papers when they are working on a certain document at home and also work on it at school. Google docs can also help when a student is working in a group with other students and they can work on the document at the same time. This means that not just one can work on the paper at a time, this means a student doesn't have to wait on another student to finish their side of the paper before the other can work on it. Google forms can be used when a teacher or principle would like to have the student body's opinion but would like to have the answers be anonymous. This could be a useful tool for all youth development settings because youth tend to not like their names being used when answering a form. With this program students can rate or answer questions about the setting or about other information without the connection of their name. Youth development could use the technology advances to make submitting assignments to teachers easier and possible even if a student is sick. Sometimes youth do not have the access to resources that they need such as these programs through google so having these free programs available for someone with a computer or even a phone could help youth's education.

Event #1

On November 2nd I went to the new president's town hall which is where the students told the president about our issues with the campus and asked questions to the students about certain topics such as diversity. This town hall was known as a listening tour in which students, faculty and staff were able to give their input on issues and opportunities that the school has done well on.

As our new President Frank Sanchez settles into his new position he is already taking leaps and bounds over our previous president when it comes to taking in the students ideas. I shared with the president the Youth Development group advising ideas and how helpful that other students have better ideas than some advisors do for their students. He shared with us the new advising technique that some advisors came up with in order to make the advising experience better. Mr. Sanchez is thinking about the youth in college and is trying to make the transition from high school to college an easy one rather than stressful. With the changes he wants to make he is making this college campus a better environment for the youth. Mr. Sanchez is concerned about the safety for the diversity on campus such as LGBT+ individuals who request gender neutral bathrooms. We all know this campus does not have the requested amount of gender neutral bathrooms that would be suggested for the amount of students that are on campus. Mr. Sanchez put this into perspective and with the renovations of the buildings more gender neutral bathrooms will be made to accommodate these needs. This is what the definition of youth development is, he is working hard to make the environment better for the youth at Rhode Island College. 

Center for Resilience

Mindfulness practices are important in order to be proactive in resolving conflicts as well as being useful to help individuals remain or regain focus. Resilience is needed in any career or learning setting in order to achieve. The Center of Resilience is used in the classroom of many schools around Rhode Island by trying teachers, administrators and parents to work directly with the culture of the schools. From my research I found that their main goal is to help the students at these schools manage their time and work load better to give the students a successful opportunity to become adults and community leaders.

Mindfulness is useful in other places besides a school setting which means what these students learn could be passed on to help the community. I found it interesting to see the high school testimonials and how they change their behavior from what they would normally do with their peers to something that would better them in the long run. I can relate to this when we went to Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls and interacted with the students, these students were leaders of their time in my opinion.

Voting

I rarely feel the need to vote because I am a believer that our vote does not count. This is the main reason why I shy away from the voting booth. When it comes to the public issues I feel that I am informed but not the amount that I need to be. As for the candidates I believe that the candidates talk enough trash about each other that if a person follows the debates you can find out all the bad aspects about the candidates.

But when we talk about the good aspects of each candidate, I feel uninformed. The election alienates me because I feel that my vote is worthless. 

My questions are:

1. How do we introduce voting to the youth so when they become our age they are more informed and prepared?
2. How do we help the youth overcome the voting booth anxieties?
3. How is health care going to change when a new candidate goes into office?

Understanding Youth

In Chapter 2 of Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators by Nakkula and Toshalis identity and context mapping is discussed. When a person thinks of how they define them self they think of what characteristics define them. Such as,  school, work and home life. This is what is demonstrated in context mapping. An individuals' identity is changing due to the context that an individual is in during that point in time. An example of this in my life would be when I am in school I am a student but when I am at my internship I am a teachers assistant and I am a leader. In the reading Julian's bathroom graffiti experience, Julian was asked by Mitch to make a list of the spaces and relationships in his life. The list was made in hope of opening his eyes on what the things surrounding him are demanding from him. This would be my context map, these are the aspects of my life that are demanding of me.

The four identities are as followed:

1. Foreclosed identity: is defined without any prior life experiences, for instance following in parents footsteps due to what the parents want.
2. Diffused identity: is defined as changing their identity in regard to their surroundings. Beliefs could be constantly changing while trying to fit in with others.
3. Identity moratorium: is defined as using this period for testing out new ideas. Through testing an individual would find out what works for them and what does not.
4. Achieved identity: is when an individual gathers their past, present and future experiences to find their constant path and identity.

The Youth and You

In my Ideology Quiz I found that my "sign" is Critical Youth Development. When reading up about the critical youth development I found that it is when youth are shown to be just as important than the adults. Youth have an important role in the world; for instance they have the same contribution opportunity as the adults of this world do. If I were working in a youth setting I would work best helping the youth focus on their impact on the community and culture. In order to get the most of their opportunities youth need to feel comfortable in their surroundings so they can be open about their opinions.