Strengthening the Youth Development Workforce

"Youth Development is a career that focuses on Education, Social Work and Nonprofit Studies. Youth workers get to work in different fields such as after school programs, school-age child care and summer camps".
The text explain the areas that individuals often forget to focus on such as early childhood, after school programs, social and strategic support, and placement support. A lot of parents focus on working and believe that their child is getting all the learning  they need during the school day. Children and youth need to be engaged in after school programs to expand they learning, social skills and public speaking skills.
Whenever someone says to me  What is Youth Development? I simply answer, youth development is a career for individuals who do not want to become teachers, but would like to work with children and youth. While in school, we focus on gaining Education, Social Work  and Nonprofit studies skills. We are trained in different areas to be able to have a great outcome when working with children and youth.

MET High School

I had the opportunity of attending the MET High School ( Justice building) to speak about self-empowerment. I Spoke to a group of twenty girls and told them my story about overcoming bullying in middle school, and anxiety and depression in college. I also told everyone to not give up on their dreams and to never let anyone bring them down. Everyone in life goes through difficult situations and whenever we fall, the only thing left to do is to get up.
The MET

A wish Come True, Inc

     I had the opportunity of attending  A Wish Come True, Inc One Arabian Night Gala. They celebrated thirty-four years of granting wishes to children ages 3 through 18 who have a life-threatening illness and live in Rhode Island and areas of southeastern Massachusetts.I had the opportunity of meeting parents who have lost their children to cancer and now spread awareness. I also met  individuals who overcame life-threatening illnesses.

    since I will be working with children and youth, this event helped me realized that i also need to find a way to support individuals who have lost someone due to an illness or are battling an illness. 
A Wish Come True

Center for Resilience

The Center for Resilience focuses on teaching students how to take care of themselves such as learning techniques to help them fall asleep. They also learn how to take care of others. The main goal of the program is to teach students how to be mindful, to know themselves and know their surroundings.  The students also learn how to empower themselves by doing self-motivation.

The videos were very interesting because watching their testimonies reminded me of how I learned to be my own cheerleader. By the students learning how to be mindful, they change negative behaviors and turn them into positives. One of the teachers mentioned a student who is not good in math. She taught him how to motivate himself by counting with his fingers “I CAN DO THIS”.

As a result, students exercise at home the things they learned in school. When times get difficult, students learn how to not give up with the positive skills learned through The Center for Resilience. I wish I knew about programs like this when I was in middle school, it would have definitely helped with my behavior. 

Activism and the Youth Vote

  This election has been very controversial because it seems like both candidates have done bad and good things. Both candidates have done or have said things that are currently hurting them because people are refusing to vote for them. A few years back, Hillary Clinton was against immigrants, but she has now changed her mind. Even though she has changed her beliefs, people are still using those comments against her and call her a liar. Donald Trump is a great example of “it is not what you say, is how you say it”. Trump has called Puerto Ricans Mexicans and has also said that immigrants are rapist.  Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado from Venezuela was a victim of Trumps words while she was under his contract. He called her miss piggy because she gained weight during her reign. Alicia is now working with Hillary against Donald Trump.

   At this point, nothing is making me want to vote because both candidates spend most of the time arguing. Why must the election be so negative instead of sending a positive message? This election is honestly alienating me away because both candidates do not call my attention.  I certainly feel that I am more informed about the inappropriate things that both candidates have done or have said instead of the good things they would like to do if they become president. I currently feel very disappointed because I wish this election was not so negative. i also feel like they are both focusing too much on immigrants and not on youth. 

Are you voting against you family's beliefs?

What are your thoughts on both candidates?

Who do you think would a better president?

Nakkuta Ch.2

    Context mapping is figuring yourself out, learning from mistakes and what your interests are.  Context mapping also means learning friendship values and how you would like to be seen by the world. Mitch asked Julian to list the various spaces and relationships he must negotiate each day.

Foreclosed Identity: Individuals make decisions without exploring based on parents or guardian ideas.

Achieved Identity:  Individuals know their goals, values and know themselves.

Moratorium Identity:  When individuals explore without making any commitment.

Diffuse Identity: When individuals refuse to explore and become isolated.

                         Academics                             

RIC

YDEV

Graduation

Social

Community Service

Pageants

Friends

Home

Parents

Only child

Unity

Love

A PHILOSOPHY OF YOUTH WORK

Taking the ideology reminded me that I have been promoting positive youth values since 2009. I have always felt that I have the power to change the lives of individuals who believe they are not capable of accomplishing their dreams. Even though I have always felt that I could help others, I felt alone because I believed that I was the only person that wanted to help the youth. My purpose in life is to help youth and even adults to find their talents, have positive attitudes towards themselves, and learn the importance of giving back to their community. At this point in my life, I am very proud of myself for promoting positive values. I believe that everyone has a hidden talent, and my talent is to give back and motivate others to overcome their life struggles.

A question that I thought was interesting from the ideology horoscope is “How can adults and youth work together to negotiate, and make meaning of their worlds? How can they together make the world a better place for all players? I believe that adults need to learn how to respect and understand the youth because they focus on their age and not on their intelligence and interests. I believe that we can all work to make the world a better place by listening, understanding each other and respecting the values of others. 

Nakkula

1.    Defiance

2.    Adversary

3.    Pedagogies

4.    Endeavors

5.    Photosynthesis

6.    Construct

7.    Implicit theories

8.    Scaffolding

9.    Proximal development

10. Constructionist metaphor

1.    My mother

2.    My father

3.    My friend and mentor Jose

4.    High school Tack and friend coach, Coach Lipa

5.    My friends

6.    Cousin Kim

7.    Pageant directors

     My parents will always be my heroes and the reason why I push myself to do my best.  Sometimes we need other individuals to teach us a lesson so we can learn how far we can push ourselves. Someone who helped me change my life around was my High School track coach, Coach Lipa. When I joined the track team back in 2007, I was very irresponsible, did not like going to school and did not have any priorities.  Coach Lipa always gave her all when she coached my team because she wanted everyone to do their best. Coach Lipa noticed that I was not taking school or the team serious so she told me if I did not get it together, I was no longer going to be part of the team. I noticed how happy she would get seeing all her athletes in the honor roll every semester. This showed that all her athletes had discipline and it made her feel proud.  It took me a few months to get it together, but I did it. I began going to school and track practice every day. Then, I made it to the honor roll almost every semester and also got recognized for having a perfect attendance. During track practice, I worked really hard and coach Lipa noticed my dedication.  I will always be thankful for coach Lipa teaching me the importance of being respectful, dedicated and punctual. 

Hodson's TED Talk

 I believe that everyone has felt invisible at some point in their lives because I have felt invisible in many situations.  Hobsons TED talk was very interesting and it reminded me of all the awkward situations I have been through when I was in middle school and barely knew English. Hobson mentioned that when she was younger, she got invited to a birthday party and she was the only black person there.  She mentioned that instead of her mother asking how the party was, she asked, how did they treat you? When Hudson mentioned that, it instantly reminded me of when I joined the step team in middle school. I was really excited to join, but since I barely knew English, it was very hard for me to understand the instructions. Since it was hard for me to understand the instructions, a group of girls started to make fun of me and threatened to fight me after the program. Since this situation kept happening every time I went to the step team program, my mother noticed that I no longer came home happy.  I told my mother what was happening to so me so she convinced me to speak to the principals. I spoke to the principals and nothing was done. I went to the program and the girls kept threatening me so I decided to quit. When I got home, my mother asked me, did they help you? Did the girls bother you again? I told my mother what happened and she supported my decision because I was scared to be beaten up after school.  A space like YIA is a great program for youth to learn leadership skills because they learn to use their voice. YIA is an antidote to invisibility because youth learn to use their voice to defend their opinions and make sure they are heard.  The youth also learn that being different is a beautiful thing. since the students learn leadership skills, they do not feel invisible in the classroom because they feel comfortable sharing their opinions.

A World Where Youth Hold The Power

    Youth in Action is a great organization because it focuses on teaching the youth to use their voice.  It is very interesting that they have discussions about different subjects such as race, sex before marriage, faith, abortion or gay marriage. YIA students learn to have a voice and not feel intimidated when stating their opinion. The students are also taught that when sharing their opinions, they have to be respectful. The main idea of this article is to teach the youth to share their opinion in a positive way and to also involve them in decision making about the program.

     The YIA model resonates with my own experience as a youth because when I was part of the nonprofit organization Miss Rhode Island Belleza Latina, I learned how to have a voice. I used to be very shy and was always afraid to speak up. The members of the organization made sure that everyone was heard when sharing their opinions. We were also part of decision making about the organization.  They taught me to always be humble, respectful and to never be scared to share my thoughts as long as is done in a respectful way.

      The YIA focuses on teaching leadership to all their students. All youth should be heard even if they are not mature enough. Society often puts an age barrier between them and the youth. This causes a lot of young individuals to feel lost because they are not being heard.  There should be more organizations like the YIA teaching youth to use their voice and to let them speak about real life problems that are not spoken at home.  Just like the YIA, we should all learn how to point out the good behaviors that students show. Sometimes, youth workers and teachers focus on always point out the bad behaviors of some students and forget to point out the good behaviors. 

Seven Characteristics of Youth Work

   While reading the article, there were more than seven characteristics that described youth work. Some of the characteristics that I thought were very important were, being respectful, being a role model, trustworthy, reliable, positive, and consistent and willing to learn. These characteristics are very important because it helps to have better relationships with students and staff.  To create a positive environment for students, us youth workers, we have to show them that we are willing to learn from them.  When students see positive behaviors from adults, they start to practice it as well.

     When I was part of a nonprofit organization that focused on having teenagers in a positive environment, I learned a lot of things that were good and bad.  The director of the organization was very strict and made the environment feel unwelcome. The director would have a negative attitude if someone did not follow the rules or came into the program late. This used to make me feel very uncomfortable because I was afraid to speak my mind and share my thoughts.  I felt like I was not allowed to speak to the directors or any of the youth workers because they always had a negative attitude.  From this experience, I learned that you need to always have appositive attitude when working with children and teenagers.  When a youth worker has a negative attitude, it pushes the students away and it creates a negative environment.

     After joining a new nonprofit organization that focused on teaching team work, self-respect, and the importance of giving back to the community, I became a new person.  The directors and youth workers of the organization were kind, respectful, and trustworthy and were always willing to listen to our ideas.  My antisocial and anger behaviors became part of my past because I learned to be respectful, punctual and learned public speaking skills. I also learned to respect the opinion of others and most importantly, I made friends who had a positive impact in my life.  

     Now that I am older and about to graduate from college, I have a lot of respect for youth workers. Being a youth worker is hard because you have to deal with different personalities, and you have to be a role model to inspire others to do their best.  After constantly doing community service with young girls and teenage girls, I learned that they respect more when you always have a positive attitude.  Being punctual, trustworthy and always willing to learn has opened a lot of doors for me. Organizations that I have volunteered for always call me back to work with them. 

Who am I?

  Hello everyone, my name is Yinelly Ramos and I am a Senior at Rhode Island College majoring in Youth Development. I spent most of my time doing community service. My main focus is to teach young girls and teenagers the importance of self-love, teamwork, and giving back to our community. I have been involved in pageants since 2009 because they focus making a difference in the community. I am also part of the JoseArielDiaz4Autism campaign which focuses on raising funds to help organizations in other countries who help children with autism.