Developing Today's Youth Leaders to be Tomorrow's College Graduates
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Date
2019-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
The LiFEsports Youth Leadership Academy (YLA), first implemented in 2013, is designed to support high school youth who participated in the LiFEsports summer camp to achieve entrance and graduation into college and/or post-secondary educational opportunities. After five years of program implementation, two Ohio State faculty members worked with program staff to design and implement a series of focus groups to gather feedback from mentors, activity facilitators, and the youth themselves about the impact of the program, opportunities for program improvements, and program successes. This poster will present the findings from these program evaluation focus groups and how program staff utilized this data to enhance the overall YLA logic model and add additional program design features. Strategies also will be shared for aligning key community partners to focused impact areas within the logic model and program design.
Description
Since 2013, the Learning in Fitness and Education through Sports (LiFEsports) Initiative at Ohio State has implemented a curriculum-based leadership program for youth ages 14-18. This program emerged because youth who attended the traditional LiFEsports summer camp (ages 9-14) wanted to "give back" and "stay involved" after they had aged out of the traditional camp. Given their interest and the program's desire to support these students’ to achieve college graduation or other post-secondary educational opportunities, the LiFEsports Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) was developed. The YLA was designed to expand upon the social skills taught at the LiFEsports summer camp and clinics (i.e., self-control, effort, teamwork, and social responsibility) by providing high school youth with additional educational experiences that will help them gain 21st century skills such as leadership, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Additionally, the program strives to prepare youth with the knowledge and skills to be active in their community (citizenship). Over the last five years, the YLA included educational opportunities such as guest speakers, college access education, one-on-one mentoring, financial literacy and college tours and visits. At the conclusion of the 2017-2018 program, two Ohio State faculty members worked with program staff to design and implement a series of focus groups to illicit feedback from mentors, activity facilitators, and the youth themselves as to the impact of the program, opportunities for program improvements, and program successes. This poster will present the findings from these focus groups and how program staff utilized this data to enhance the overall YLA logic model and add additional program design features, such as youth-led committees, academic supports, and career exploration with community partners, to further the program impact on youth. Additionally, strategies will be shared for aligning key community partners to focused impact areas within the logic model and program design.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Rebecca Wade-Mdivanian, director of operations, LiFEsports, OSU Extension, wade-mdivanian.1@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Stephen Moore, program manager, LiFEsports, OSU Extension; Dawn Anderson-Butcher, professor, Ohio State College of Social Work; Jerome Davis, director of staff professional development, Ohio State Department of Athletics; Alicia Bunger, associate professor, Ohio State College of Social Work
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Rebecca Wade-Mdivanian, director of operations, LiFEsports, OSU Extension, wade-mdivanian.1@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Stephen Moore, program manager, LiFEsports, OSU Extension; Dawn Anderson-Butcher, professor, Ohio State College of Social Work; Jerome Davis, director of staff professional development, Ohio State Department of Athletics; Alicia Bunger, associate professor, Ohio State College of Social Work
Keywords
youth development, program evaluation, leadership development, college and career readiness
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 7 (2019).