Youth Development Insight

By Nancy Hegland Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have many types of mentors who supported my growth and development as a youth development professional. One was assigned when I started a new position, however most have just naturally evolved as we connected as colleagues. Recently, we started a new mentor program for new 4-H Extension educators, who were matched with colleagues who have been in their roles for at least five years and are willing to commit to the relationship for at least a year. As my colleagues and I developed the program, we asked ourselves how it could be successful, as well as how much structure and guidance we should provide. While there have been informal mentors, supervisors and colleagues to provide advice to new staff, we believed it was essential to provide a more formal structured program that outlined expectations and roles for both the mentor and mentees. A recent article, Exploring Early Career Extension Agent’s Perceptions of Their Mentors...

By Nicole Pokorney My professional leave to tackle the topic of access and equity for youth in the outdoors has been quite a journey. I set off without knowing my destination, with a handwritten, unfinished map. Along the way I found myself bushwhacking through tough readings, venturing off on side trails to more information, and stopping at places of awe. The tangled web of trails finally converged for me when I came across a sign at the entrance to the woods that read,  “Connections in nature, with each other, with art, with the universe...WE ARE ALL CONNECTED.” This simple sign seemed to condense my hours of research and reading into a theme - the imperative need for connections to nature, to each other, and to the land. Connections to nature. In my last blog post , I stressed the need to connect youth to nature in ways that best fit their learning styles, passions and hobbies. Today I’d go further to argue that everyone needs to be connected to nature, and that every program,...

By Nicole Pokorney In her 2014 blog, Professional development is money in the bank for youth-serving organizations , Nancy Hegland outlines the many benefits of providing professional development to employees, such as improved program quality, increased job satisfaction and reduced stress. Her blog also describes the need for creative delivery methods. Trish Sheehan describes similar benefits in her 2018 blog, Take care of your program and your professional self . Trish continues, “ Dorie Clarke suggests professional development takes on three main forms: learning, connecting and creating. Identifying what you need to gain or improve on in each of the three areas helps you to advance your work and establish your profession.” In response to the U of M Extension Center for Youth Development's identified priority of promoting learning and hands-on activities in the outdoors for youth and families, and the increasing need for addressing inclusivity and diversity in outdoor education p...

By Nicole Pokorney Wouldn’t it be great if we told job interviewees that professional development would be required? Wouldn't it be great if organizations invested in funding exactly the right support for each employee at every stage of their career? At the beginning of each year, many of us make a plan of work that includes professional development. Sometimes we choose a conference or a training for no better reason than its familiarity. Many times the knowledge and materials we gain just get filed away or even worse -- thrown away. That is not a sign of good professional development. True professional development meets the needs of the employee in the context of their career stage and organization in which they work. For the employee, it takes time to reflect on your own passions and skills, your job position and the organization’s mission. Rennekamp and Nall explained the problem. “Participation in professional development opportunities is seldom done to meet a specific ...

By Samantha Grant One day I would like to write a book that someone other than my mom would read. Until that dream comes true, I review writing for a number of academic publications. Those who can’t write, review! The picture shown here is me struggling through reviewing a journal article. Note to authors: This is not the response you are trying to elicit. Also note that I did not accept this submission. I did, however, give the author some focused feedback because I always try to find the value. I know that for many of you, writing is a chore that you hate as much as I hate vacuuming. I'll never love cleaning my carpets, but if you give me a five-point list, I might scan through it. So in that spirit, here's a short list of writing problems I often see as a reviewer and how to fix them. Problem: Lack of organization Organization matters most and is the hardest to fix. I can forgive wonky verb tenses and less-than-eloquent transitions because editing those problems ...

By Trisha Sheehan The author Angela Duckworth defines grit as passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. She explains it is the ability to persist, to have direction and commitment to something. Perseverance is the ability to continue to work hard even through challenges or failure. Duckworth, the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance , developed the Grit Scale . She names four assets that people with grit share. Interest We look to interest first. We develop passion by enjoying what we do. There will be pieces of our work we don’t enjoy as much but for those who have grit they truly love what they do. Practice Those who have grit intentionally grow their capacity to practice. Perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do work better than we did yesterday or the day before that. We want to improve and not just settle for mediocracy. Purpose Purpose grows our passion. Knowing and understanding the work we do is important to you but ...

By Trisha Sheehan We've all heard that it's important to take care of ourselves. Often times we think of that from a personal perspective: We take care of our health. We take a vacation to relax and refresh ourselves. But do you take care of yourself professionally? Professional development is a chance to enhance the skills of newer staff or those who are more experienced. For a youth worker, professional development can be training, education or support.

By Amber Shanahan I read a wonderful article in our local paper last week about the resurgence of front-yard patios; the idea is that positioning yourself in the front yard rather than the back generates an atmosphere of camaraderie and community. Learning environments can be seen in the same way. Online learning platforms take the back yard approach. They can be meaningful and convenient for busy professionals and offer lots of privacy. They can also feel isolating. Cohort learning environments, on the other hand, take the front yard approach.

By Karyn Santl At the recent National Extension Conference on Volunteerism, Jones Loflin  gave a keynote speech in which he asked, "How will you grow it when you return home?" Jones speaks globally about innovative yet practical solutions to workplace challenges. An author whose books include "Always Growing" , Jones made me think about leadership and how to move change forward - even in small ways. He said, "To be an effective leader, think like a gardener." I'm not much of a gardener, but his message stuck with me.

By Nancy Hegland During this past year, I have watched my three kids being coached by adults in a variety of settings. Whether it was sports, music or showing livestock, these coaches invested their knowledge in my children’s growth and development. This summer, I’m paying more attention to my children’s coaching than most mothers do because I’ve recently taken a course called Coaching for Excellence .

By Nancy Hegland “You don’t climb mountains without a team, you don’t climb mountains without being fit, you don’t climb mountains without being prepared and you don’t climb mountains without balancing the risks and rewards. And you never climb a mountain on accident – it has to be intentional”.  Mark Udall, former U.S. Senator from Colorado, now working with Outward Bound . Turning the calendar to 2016 causes me to reflect on the past year and make efforts to do some things better and with more intentionality.

By Jennifer Skuza There is something so rewarding about seeing your name in print as an author. You may think about youth continuously, do the work every day, hone your practice and even conduct applied research but even so, when you publish, you receive validation from peers that shows your work contributes to the field of youth development.

By Nancy Hegland High-quality youth development programs rely on staff and volunteers to deliver programs that meet an identified need in the community. To do their work well, youth workers need high-quality professional development. But options are sometimes limited by funding, time and availability. We need to overcome these obstacles to ensure that youth workers get the professional development they need to keep programs valuable to the communities they serve. Research has shown that it pays off in the form of : staff retention improved health and safety reduced stress leadership succession improved program quality reduced hiring and orientation costs improved job satisfaction faster more successful organizational change Professional development also tends to improve teamwork, increase networks and improve work outcomes. As the need for professional development has increased, delivery methods have changed dramatically. There are traditional conferences, workshops, an...

By Nicole Pokorney The more I research and study the facets of teaching, the more I am aware that we as educators don't always apply the same methods of reflection on ourselves as we do to the youth we serve. Do we study to be scholarly teachers? Do we understand the scholarship of teaching as it pertains to our professional development and promotion? Do we take the time to dive deep into reflection to become experts in our teaching? Over the last few years, I have been studying the art of teaching and reflective practice as a nonformal educator. In his book, Becoming a Reflective Teacher, Robert J. Marzano and his team from the Marzano Research Laboratory compare the development of an expert teacher to that of an athlete. "Just as athletes wanting to improve their skills must identify personal strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and engage in focused practice to meet those goals, teachers must also examine their practices, set growth goals, and use focused practice...

Much of our everyday life is done by habit. In 2006 a Duke researcher found that more than 40% of our everyday actions are habits , not decisions. How can we use knowledge about our work habits to make programs and organizations better? We are what we do. Our programs are what we as leaders do. A habit is fairly easy to understand with a few minutes of reflection; we all have them! I challenge you, the champions of youth programs; use your habits to make your program better. Youth programs throughout Minnesota have champions that strive to provide high-quality experiences for our learners. We are succeeding and we also have room to become better. Charles Duhigg, in The Power of Habit , said, "Champions don't do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking...They follow the habits they've learned." Duhigg's description of how a habit works is a great place to start learning about their power. Maintaining a habit is ea...

By Margo Herman What is coaching? The variety of contexts and definitions people have for it is surprising. Coaching has surfaced in a surprising number of conversations in the past few weeks: A colleague shared how she sees coaching as guiding employees on performance plans for poor performance. I recently coached colleagues toward high-quality youth programming by using the Discovery Process, following a YPQA observation at a 4-H youth camp. This week, at a county fair judging event, I coached a staff member on the Youth Program Quality Assessment "YPQA on a Stick" tool. We are planning a professional development session for the Collaborative Leadership Fellows cohort next month in Rochester for fellows to learn how to coach and be coached for personal growth and goal setting. A program conference planning team that I am on is considering including a coaching workshop under the theme "balancing professional and personal life." The following defin...

By Mark Haugen Leadership isn't only about action; it is a perspective through which we see the world. Leadership shapes our thoughts, strategies, actions and commitments. In my last blog post , I compared the roles of manager and leader and questioned if you can be both for your program. I believe the answer is yes. Leadership and management are not opposites, but more like two eyes that provide binocular vision. If you allow the two perspectives, management and leadership, to shape your vision you will be able to achieve a higher level of understanding of your program. Similar to how two eyes provide depth perception, a high-level leader and manager can address a topic with a significant depth of understanding. How do we assure that we see things "with both eyes open"? According to Kouzes and Posner, 75 percent of people expect their leaders to be forward thinking, but executives spend only 3 percent of their time thinking about the future! How do we set aside th...

By Nicole Pokorney Identifying your teaching philosophy -- your style, teaching goals, how you assess learning -- can have myriad benefits. A class I'm taking this spring has introduced me to the concept of the teaching philosophy. In my 20 years as a non-formal educator, I have thought a lot about how and why I teach, but I have now fully experienced the power of documenting and sharing that philosophy. Why should non-formal educators understand and develop their own teaching philosophy? Barbara Bowers, a nursing professor at University of Wisconsin - Madison, in a Chronicle of Higher Education article says, ". . . the purpose of the teaching statement is to be self-reflective, to identify where you might need some help from others, or you might need to do a little more work on your own to improve, and to look at which of your strategies are effective and which ones aren't." The purpose of a teaching philosophy is both summative and formative, according to ...

By Mark Haugen Time is like money. If you don't invest it properly, you will not receive the return you are looking for. How do we in youth development organizations decide where to spend our limited time, to get the return we need? I see two ways to go about it: Shall we be managers of groups, events, volunteer programs, finances and day-to-day activities? Or should we focus our efforts, as leaders, supporting evolution and growth of programs as a chief motivating officer? If you reviewed how you spend your time, would it show you to be a manager or a leader? Both managers and leaders support teams of people to achieve their goals. Like many of you, I often feel like a firefighter putting out fires, with a daily barrage of emails, lining up details and prepping for the next meeting or event. I ask myself, "Is this what I should be doing?" Holly Caracappa, on the popular blog Leadership Freak , summarizes the two roles in the workforce and how both are needed....

In my experience, most youth work professionals are constantly scrutinizing their own work. But how willing are we to allow others to do so? Could coaching be a key to developing satisfaction for professionals in our field? In a recent report, Dana Fusco explores "the tension between a trial-by-fire approach to training [of youth work professionals] versus the overtraining that can lead to the 'anesthesia of the expert' or the loss of the 'heart.'" She concludes that knowledge and knowing are positioned "not as end products but as processes within the learning journey that require ongoing visitation." I found an interesting complement to Dana's report in an article in the New Yorker , where surgeon Atul Gawande explores the use of coaches in professional fields, after realizing that while many professional athletes use coaches to help them be the best that they can be, doctors don't. As Gawande discovers, coaching as a concept for amateur...