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.
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