[For Candice] Have you been making your way through the articles in Emerging Adulthood? There is one particular article (I won’t publicly say which, but you can probably pick it out) whose authors seem to set up their experiment just so by identifying what to them are the most salient variables related to the behaviors of emerging adults, and then lo and behold, their surveys confirm their hypothesis. Do social scientists shy away from surprise Read more…
Last week I attended the WPTI training for social workers on workforce development. Its objectives were to connect social workers with each other in order to compare the challenges they faced connecting youth to workforce development programs, and for them to learn directly from the staff of those workforce development programs how they can better prepare their young people in care for success in them. My pen was flying almost the entire time as I tried to keep up with the conversation at my table. More on that later, but first:
Two definitions of “workforce development” from the trainer:
I like how the latter doesn’t overload the individual job seeker with all the responsibility for career success. For populations with very specific needs, it is just as important that employers be aware of those needs, and also for the community to do what it can to support its young people.
And now for the meat and potatoes: What are the challenges that you as a social worker face in trying to connect your young people to the workforce? (more…)
What’s more, as Hannah’s Story intimates, this “parent problem” will not be solved on the level of the individual, but with broad social change. If you haven’t been following the Times’ coverage of Carroll Academy, start here and here. There is a ton more in the archives, but you will want to go through the articles slowly. They are heartbreaking.
I’d planned on blogging about what I gleaned from yesterday’s annual New Yorkers for Children Vocational Conference for Youth in Foster Care, but today a couple different folks have asked me about my approach to engaging youth in the classroom, so I thought it would be helpful to write instead about how I came up with my rites of passage activity.
Good teachers come in all stripes, and my particular talent is being able to make complex ideas accessible to young people, and to do so with a modest measure of creativity. In my rites of passage workshop I use an anthropological lens to understand coming of age ceremonies and tribal rites of passage. Now I myself did not study anthropology until I got to college, but I’ve seen that is entirely within reach for high-school aged students to make use of its tools. [Warning: Very long post, so I highlight the takeaway at the very end.] (more…)
I can count on one hand (actually, one finger) how many nights of uninterrupted sleep I’ve enjoyed over the last five or so weeks. It’s been incredibly important for me to figure out how to manage this change, since usually I’m a terrific sleeper who optimally gets at least seven hours of sleep a night. In case it helps anyone else, here are some of the ways that I’ve been coping: (more…)
The highlight of any given week is easily whenever one of my advisors visits me at the Alley. You can imagine my elation when all three arrive together: magic happens! I just finished typing up the minutes to our last Minds On Fire advisory meeting and can’t help marveling at everything that we managed to talk about over a two-hour working lunch. It was even more intense than our first meeting because the main topic of Read more…
My supremely talented vocal coach, Naaz Hosseini, shares a blog post today about how her relationship to a student completely changed when she asked him about his future hopes. Her post reminds us why everyone in a teaching and youth-serving position, especially when faced with frustrating situations and the prospect of a difficult conversation, should always keep a young person’s strengths and promise front and center.
Part of my consulting work for NYU’s diversity and inclusion team allows me to learn about different mentoring opportunities across the university’s schools and divisions. Yesterday I had a terrific conversation with Leah Lattimore, Associate Director of Multicultural Programs at NYU’s Wasserman Center for Career Development, about their Mentor Network. What is really outstanding about the program is the training students and recent alumni (within a year of graduation) undergo before they get access to Read more…
“I am what I am, and intend to be it,” for which there will be no form in the world unless Jacob makes one for himself. —Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room (1922) The Waves is no doubt the most singular book on friendship in the English language, but because my copy is part of a double edition, poor Jacob’s Room went unnoticed for years. How glad I am to have finally read it. Compared to the demands of The Waves, one can positively Read more…
I am! The theme for this year is “A Decade of Emerging Adulthood: What Have We Learned? Where to Now?” Hope to see you in the fair city of Chicago in October.