YDEV Elevator Speech

What is Youth Development? Well, Youth Development is informal education to young people through STEAM, social issues, recreational fun, through purposeful play, and through caring for the young people. By doing so youth workers will be able to teach young people lessons that they normally will not learn in a typical classroom setting. Youth Development is seen through care and purposeful play because we show that we care for the young people by being there when they need and helping them with what they need, if we can help, and purposeful play comes in and is seen as a way for children to still learn, but in a playful manner. For example, we turn a lesson that would come off as not being interesting and making it interesting by adding in a lesson that engages the children and helps them learn the lesson. Youth Development is complex and there is not a specific manner of how it works, youth work is different wherever you see it happening, it works because young people and youth workers work together to create an environment where learning happens.

Event #2 - Santa's Workshop

On the 2nd of December my work held an event called Santa's Workshop. This is a yearly event that they have in order to raise money for their financial aid program. In this event families attend and do crafts with their children, eat some food, and children can sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. This year the event was held at the Champlin Lodge which is a building at the Kent County YMCA that actually looks like a place Santa would work in. The whole building was decorated to look like Santa's workshop and the children loved it. The children would come dressed up to sit on Santa's lap, the children could make gingerbread houses, and create letters to Santa that would go in a mailbox that would magically ship them straight to Santa's house. Every year this event brings in hundreds of families and it is one of the largest events the YMCA holds each year. It was a pleasure being part of it and helping children make letters to Santa, seeing their faces light up when they slipped the letter into the mailbox was priceless.

Event #1 - Group Advising

For my first event I went to group advising to help out the new YDEV majors pick their classes and make sure that they are taking professors that experienced YDEV majors know will do a good job teaching. This was my first time attending a group advising session and it was enjoyable. I met a bunch of new people and I helped a few people with their concentration classes. I'm glad that the group advising started out with an ice breaker to get to know everyone, it made it easier to walk up to people I didn't know and talk to them about their classes and who not to take and who to take. Being there took me out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed it a lot, the structure of the advising was intimate and it was easy to make connections. I would definitely attend another group advising next semester and next time I will be even more engaged and helpful because now I know what to expect and I won't be as nervous as I was this time around.