NEACURH Regionals 2014 - Event

This past weekend I attended and presented at a conference focused on student leadership in college residential life. The Northeast Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls (NEACURH) hosted this conference in Syracuse, NY. It was a tremendous experience getting the chance to speak to and learn from over 400 other student leaders from New York, New England, and Canada. I attended sessions that looked at recruitment and retention of student leaders, student affairs professions, and attended a boardroom where over 50 presidents of Residential groups around the Northeast shared ideas and issues. 

            One great experience that I had at this conference was to actually present a program for other students. The program that I presented at NEACURH was about the Plus/Delta system. I have been utilizing as a review mechanism for the past year with the Resident Student Association and it has been extremely effective. This system is something that I first learned while working with PASA over the summer and I was not very interested in it at that time. But as I entered this school year and it was reintroduced in class, I began to use it and found it extremely helpful. It places students in a completely different mindset as they are reviewing an event or meeting. I am so glad that we discussed and have been utilizing this in class because it has split over into my professional life as RSA president and even as a presenter for a large residential life conference!

NEACURH: http://neacurh.nacurh.org

NEACURH Regional Conference: http://neacurhregionals2014.weebly.comNEACURH -

RK - Blog Post

           

Resilient Kids seems like an absolutely incredible program. It brings a unique way of thinkng, living, and exercising both body and soul to youth who would never be exposed to such a process. Yoga is something that is typically associated with young adult women, but it is a tremendous device that any person can study. Resilient Kids does precisely what I believe a youth group should do, they provide an activity for youth that they could not get elsewhere and the youth learn not only skills associated with the activity but life skills as well.

            Youth need outlets for aggression, stress, etc. and the primary way for these youth to get out these feelings is through activity. In many places this can mean recreational sports or other organized youth activities. But in some areas, there are no recreational sports. Kids may get together to play together but this is not the same as a structured, adult organized sport effort. Without the supervision of adults or authority figures, it can be extremely hard for youth to channel their stress in a healthy way. This can lead youths to make bad decisions as a coping mechanism for aggression. Resilient kids wants to stop this cycle at its source. This organization looks at providing stress management life skills to students that they can take with them and use for the rest of their lives. I am incredibly impressed by this organization and the mission is something that I believe is essential for youth.

Open House - Event

        

Every year that I have been at Rhode Island College I have helped with open house. Typically I would walk tour groups around the residential side of campus and answer their basic questions about the campus. But this year was different; I was now responsible for taking prospective students and their families through Thorp Hall to see the residence hall. This allowed for a far more intimate setting and provided me a chance to plug for Youth Development.

            Most groups heard my major and I explained that it was for people interested in working with or for students outside of a traditional classroom setting. This was good enough for most tour groups. But there was one small family, a mother and son, who were deeply interested in this. They had seen the Y-Dev table earlier in the day and the student was curious about the program. I explained to him what we study and where the focus is for after college. The student lit up at this conversation and went on to explain to me how valuable his theater company had been for him in high school. I told him that those types of programs are exactly what Youth Development is all about. The student expressed some serious interest in youth development, which was extremely exciting. The idea that a student could come to RIC specifically for Y-Dev is an amazing thing to think about!

            Elevator speeches are an obvious connection to any interaction that involves spreading the word of the Y-Dev program. These speeches are critical to garnering student interest. In my interactions with students, particularly the student I spoke of above, I was able to use what I learned from that class to encapsulate what Y-Dev is. It would have been tough to have a legitimate conversation with this prospective student if I did not have the opportunity to discuss with my fellow students the purpose of the Y-Dev experience.

http://www.ric.edu/educationalstudies/youthDevelopment.php

http://www.ric.edu/residential-life/faq.php

http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/career/content/elevatorspeech.pdf

Integrating multicultural backgrounds into education is a subject I am particularly passionate about. The idea that thousands of years of history are swept under the rug to focus solely on white history is deplorable. It is no surprise to me that many school with large minority populations struggle. Students cannot maintain an interest in an education that teaches them year after year about a culture that they do not come from. There are literally hundreds of cultures around the world that have unique literature, history, etc. but these are not taught in our school system.

            Learning about people that “look like me” is a simple thought but can be incredibly powerful for students. There is an immediate buy-in for students when they are studying a culture that they have a connection to. The education system must take stock in this and push for reform in these areas. But while the slow process of educational reform is occurring, it is the responsibility of youth workers to provide students access to these cultures. Encouraging students to explore their family background or to look for literature or history specific to their family culture can truly build an interest in education.

            The idea that nothing happened in history or literature before white men came to an area is absolutely ridiculous. The argument that there was a lack of education or written records is hard to argue. Oral tradition is something that has existed for thousands of years and was considered a legitimate form of literature for people like Homer. I hope that someday the push in education will be for a full and diverse world education and this will allow students to feel invested in their education because it relates directly to their family history.

4 Levels of Identity

            The four kinds of identity are foreclosed identity, achieved identity, diffused identity, and moratorium. These identity issues are unique and useful because they are not tied directly to any stage of life. These can be interchanged at various points of different people’s lives. These come out as a part of experience, rather than specifically because of age. A foreclosed identity is one, which involves a decision that was made without much prior thought. This identity can be thrust upon a person or done with little thought. A diffused identity is one that a person is not very committed to; they essentially do it for no reason. This identity can easily be influenced or altered by others. Moratorium is a state of identity where a person is fascinated with potential identities and studies them thoroughly. But this individual makes no commitment to doing anything. Achieved identity is the highest level of identity; this identity is thought about and committed to by an individual. This is essentially a person doing what they have learned and are interested in doing. These identity levels are necessary because they can be interchangeable at various points  in life and can be reached multiple times during a person’s life.

            Context mapping is similar to an ecomap in social work. A context map is a visual representation of a person’s relationships and activities, focusing on how they are interconnected. It is important to know how different parts of an individual’s life are connected.

Higgins Home Life: Mom, Dad, Brother

Higgins Student Life: Professors, Classmates

Higgins RA Life: Thorp Staff, Thorp Residents, All Staff

Higgins RSA Life: Alex (Advisor), E-Board Members, General Members, NRHH

Higgins Ultimate Life: Captains, Teammates, Coach Gibb, Friends in the community, Opponents, Spectators
Social Higgins: Old Friends (little contact), RIC Friends (lots of contact), Family, Co-Workers 

Higgins Work Life: Supervisors, Co-Workers, Clients, Support Staff

            

Quality>Quantity

I love that Nakkula explores the effect of students on the lives of youth workers. This connection is somewhat obvious but it is not something that people delve into very often. The focus is typically on the effect teachers can have on students but this effect is reciprocal. Nakkula draws from Mary Haywood Metz when he discusses the intrinsic value of teaching. There are few rewards outside of personal gratification with teaching; it is not a glorious profession, nor is it a high paying one. This can be applied to the work of youth development as well. Youth workers typically do not earn high wages and do not work typical hours. Their lives are centered on the youth that they work with and often the only real reward from this profession is affecting youth. But this is exactly why people are interested in this field. No one enters youth work to make money or gain notoriety; they do so in order to benefit the youth that they work with.

            

Youth workers often must deal with the disengagement of students despite the work that was put into a certain activity. Sometimes students simply will not be interested in a lesson. This is something that can be very difficult for teacher and youth workers. This same thing can happen as a Resident Assistant, we can work extremely hard to put on an event for students but sometimes they simply do not come. My friend and co-worker once told me that it does not matter how many people are engaged in something, the important thing is that those whoa re engaged enjoy themselves and gain something from the experience. This is a belief that I have carried with me for years and is something that applies to youth work. While a worker will always try to affect all their students, it is unlikely for this to happen. But if some students gain something sustainable from an experience, a youth worker has succeeded.