Capstone Project Ideas

The first idea that came to mind was work that I've already been doing with how after-school programs can help disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. A working group through RIAN which includes myself, has done a lot of work and had discussions around this and I think it could be interesting to write it all down.

When we looked at evaluation tools and I thought more deeply at the RIPQA I had the idea to dissect the way we engage young people in the tool and if it could be done better which I think could be really cool to try out in the Spring and give maybe a set of recommendations based on me trying out a new method.

I'm also about to (with my BLBC professors' approval) do a research-to-action paper about how to provide impactful after-school programming to refugee and newly arrived youth which I'm implementing at my work right now with a partnership with DORCAS. 

I also remember in Victoria's class we read Tema Okun's "White Supremacy Culture" which I was previously familiar with and I wrote in my blog about the idea of this text being used as an evaluation tool for organizations. Victoria and I talked about the power dynamics that are typically present in educational/ foundation observations that are all tangled up in white supremacy (perfectionism, one right way, objectivity etc.) and how this might flip the script. 

So yeah lots of ideas. I think I'm gravitating towards one of the first two but really wherever I feel I have the most support is where I'll go.

 

Damaged-Centered Research in Nonprofits

When I started reading Tuck's Letter to Communities and the description of damaged-centered learning, what came up for me immediately was the way that we see non-profits a lot of times talk about how they need funding because they work with an "at-risk" population or youth "in-need". Using buzzwords like low-income, BIPOC, and inner-city. I hear youth-serving organizations talk about how they've swooped in and saved the day and that their main goal is to "keep them off the drugs and from getting pregnant" (an actual quote from a former boss). And I think Tuck talks about this when it comes to research really well. This idea that the way we (researchers, youth workers, community workers, etc.) talk about the community we're focused on is often in a way that shows all the negative things they've gone through, and while these are important and should be addressed I think it often generalizes and makes assumptions from an outsider perspective and takes away from the community. 

Questions Tuck asks in their letter that I'll be taking with me

"What will be the outcomes and effects of this research in and on our communities?

Are we certain that the benefits will outweigh the costs?

What questions might we ask ourselves before we allow researcher entry?" pg. 410

Words new to my vocabulary

pathologizing analyses pg. 415

Depathologizing pg. 417

 

Educational Journey Map

I took this time to create my own journey map and reflect on my story.

From pre-k to about 2nd grade my experience was very positive. I enjoyed learning, I had great teachers, made friends easily, and the spaces I was in were fun and creative. In 3rd grade, I was put into a “gifted and talented” program. I say this in quotes because I really have no idea what qualified me for this program. I never thought about myself as any smarter or better than other students in class. I loved to read, I used to read to my dog, and we got to read “bigger” books and do special projects. We (there were four of us) would leave class during reading time and work with the reading specialist.

Sometime in 4th grade was my first bad experience in school. For some reason, could’ve been distracted, I didn’t finish an assignment in class that day and had to stay after school with my teacher to finish it. She was a good teacher, not the warm and fuzzy kind but good. I didn’t think much of it she never made me feel like I was in trouble until my mom came to pick me up and she was not happy with me saying that this was “embarrassing” when up until that point I hadn’t felt embarrassed at all. Maybe she thought I was in actual trouble at school and not that I just needed to finish up an assignment but then again who keeps a kid after school over one assignment. 

At the end of 4th grade, we moved to a new town, we had moved a lot when I was in elementary school but always in the same town. So I started 5th grade (middle school) in a new town with all new people where a grade has about 30 students total. They didn’t get a lot of new kids so I was very much so every student-focused. I didn’t realize it until much later in life but I was farther behind than everyone else academically. I hadn’t learned a lot of the math they already knew. Also during this year, my dad was diagnosed with melanoma cancer and my parents were clearly very distracted going back and forth to Boston to really be there for me to adjust. This is no hate on my parents at all they had a lot going on and I don’t think they felt they needed to worry about me because I had always been a good student. I think middle school is tough for everyone who just wants to be liked and I so badly wanted to be liked. I wanted to fit in more than anything, I wanted attention, and I started to struggle academically. I had started to experience teachers that weren’t so nice, and that didn’t take the time to be kind to me so I stopped trying so hard and they began to care less and less. I also think this is where my mental health began to come forward.

In high school I was able to get involved more, I was on the swim team (I had always been on a swim team but this was the first school team I was on), and I joined the marching band which means my elective period was also in the band. Being able to spend time with other people my age in the band was great, I formed new friendships quickly with all the hours we spent during, after school, and on the weekends. I really felt like I had a group of people and a passion. I also started my first job in after school during this time and really enjoyed working with youth. 

My mom is a teacher, most of her siblings are teachers, and a lot of my friends in high school were going to be teachers, so what did I decide to study in college? Teaching. The first year I didn’t really think anything of it, you mostly take gen. Eds, which is basically like taking another year of high school. But as we got more into education classes I was like “this is not my vibe” it felt like the same bad experiences I had with middle school, not making real connections with youth. And while yes I could’ve been the change I needed a space where I could foster and build on those skills. So I took a YDEV class and found my people. I switched my major, took a victory lap (extra year to finish undergrad), graduated, and entered the field.

 

My Youth Work Journey

*insert an image of my work-in-progress journey map drawing here!*

There are six key points in my journey as a youth worker that I think of

The first thing that starts my now 13-year career in youth work, is the Little Compton After School Club at the Community Center. I was 14 and did I need a job between the band, swim practices, and school work? Probably not but here we are. It was your average after-school club program in a small town. We would meet the students at the school and spend time at the playground, then walk up to the community center (like I said small town everything's close), have a snack, do some homework than do some crafts/activities. 

At my high school, you have to do some kind of senior project, the parameters were pretty vague, so I worked with my middle school band teacher to teach a small group of elementary school students to play the trumpet. It happened after school so while it was more of a teaching space it still felt separate from the school day and me being a new face there I think allowed the students to see it as such. 

Then, as I've talked about before, I went to RIC for education but ended up in YDEV which was definitely a big milestone in connecting the dots in my journey as a youth worker and showed me the possibilities of what I could do. In my last year of undergrad when we do our internships, I didn't have any local connections to organizations, a lot of my peers were currently working or knew of places where they could intern so it took me a lot longer to find something. I had only had experience working with elementary and middle school students so the first few places I checked out were for K-5 places and I didn't love any of them. I remember talking to Rachael and her suggesting this position for New Urban Arts at a high school and thinking how completely out of my comfort zone that was. But I checked it out anyways and for some reason, it stuck. So for a year, I got to know what it was like to work with high school students in a school.

I didn't know what I was going to do after I graduated with a BA, I still didn't know a lot about working in the YDEV field and NUA didn't have anything open at the time so I went back to my summer college job of making sandwiches for rich people at a beach club. Until Rachael* reached out and sent me a job description for a position she thought I'd be great at for Riverzedge Arts. Riverside was my first full-time youth work job and while there were a lot of things that were not great about the position and the organization it will always hold space for me that way.

I came to a point where I felt it was my time to leave Riverzedge and started looking for positions, this was during a time when COVID had been in our lives for over a year now but it was still affecting looking for jobs that I could support myself on that I would also actually enjoy doing. Luckily it perfectly aligned with when New Urban Arts were looking for a new Site Director for their programs at Central High School where I had interned my senior year in my BA. The most full circle moment I could experience and am very grateful for this job which has led me to get my MA in Youth Development.

*if you couldn't tell I owe A LOT to Rachael for guiding me to great positions twice so far