Course List

This course provides an introduction to the field of positive youth development (PYD) including an overview of key theory and practice principles that enhance the profession of youth work. This course is designed to provide a foundation of basic knowledge and skills that students will need to be successful in any course in the IDEA Youth Development programs.

The course will discuss the principles and methods of program design, implementation, and evaluation of youth programs. This course will focus on hands-on tools of conducting evidence-based planning and evaluating the performance and delivery process of a program. Students will develop knowledge through participating in a community-based project involving the practical application of program design and evaluation methods. The goal is to prepare students for research supported planning and evaluation of programs that aim at positive youth development.

This course introduces students to the development, administration and management of youth programs and youth-serving organizations with special focus being on the roles and responsibilities of administrators and managers.

This course examines various federal and state policies that affect developmental opportunities for youth. Students will examine how and why such policies are constructed. We will explore how various policies contribute to or undermine positive youth development outcomes.

This course uses a strength-based or asset-based approach to community youth development and encompasses individual development (i.e. positive youth development) and adolescents’ interrelationships with their environments. Emphasis is placed on research, theory, and practice applied to communities throughout the U.S. Students will explore existing models, read theoretical and applied literature, and examine current community efforts as a basis for understanding community youth development.

This is a basic grant development and management course that introduces students to the grant-getting process and provides an overview of what happens after a project is funded. The following topics are part of the course: researching funding sources, generating cutting edge ideas, assessing needs, planning a project, establishing credibility, formulating a sustainable budget, designing an evaluation plan, managing the funded project, and disseminating project results. Course objectives are to establish grant development basics, to identify sources of funding information, examine the essential components of a proposal, increase comfort with grant proposal writing, and explore best practices for program management.

Development of technology in the last century has changed our geographical and physical perception of the world, challenged our ideas about social norms, affected the process of our identity formation, and altered our social location and interaction with others. Focusing particularly on the family and the youth both in the U.S. and outside, this course aims to help graduate students better understand the interconnectedness of technology and youth/family. The class debunks many common myths (for instance, that youth today have no sense of privacy online or the traditional idea that the family is negatively affected by digital technology) while helping students understand the relationship between the human and technology. Designed both for theorists and practitioners, this approach ultimately allows enrolled students to formulate constructive and realistic strategies to enrich the life of a family or a youth in a society heavily dependent on technology. Topics of the course include identity formation, privacy, race, class, gender, subculture, risky behavior, policing, education, globalization, health, and policies. The class offers basic technical skills for future practitioners, including using Twitter for professional purposes, assessing a Google resume, editing a video clip, and creating a personal website.

This course helps youth development professionals understand what optimal mental health in youth is and how it can be promoted. Students learn about current theories and research related to optimal mental health and how promoting positive development is both similar to and different from preventing negative outcomes. Students learn to assess a given youth development program in terms of its potential to promote positive mental health.

This course explores the etiology of adolescent deviance using a positive, cross-national/crosscultural perspective. Course content includes implications of theory, empirical research, current prevention programs and needs assessments. The course offers a look at deviance from different perspectives as well as a comparison of normative and non-normative development of youth.

This course helps youth development professionals understand and evaluate research reports to reduce anxiety about applying research results and theories to practice. Specific emphasis is on research and theory reports related to youth development.