Blog #9 What will my YDEV Master’s Capstone Project be???

At the end of this semester, you are going to have a broad idea of what your YDEV Master’s Capstone Project will be.  The first step is to find something you care about and want to know more about.  Look back at the questions that you wrote in week two of this class and think about all we have done in the past two months.  What are you still curious about? Where do you want your influence to be in the world?  It can be personal.  It can be work related.  It can be creatively conceived but should be somehow tied to youth and the anchors of this program: Play, Care, identity, Social Justice/Advocacy, Leading With.  

Write a blog post about some of your possible ideas.  They can be loosely formed and broad, but start to write about possible topics. 

       
Looking back at the questions I wrote in week two, I am still curious about how I could best serve the youth at the BGC. How can I be an influence at my job and for the youth I work with. I am still not sure of the broad idea, but here are some of the possible ideas for my capstone project:

• Is there room for growth at my job?
• How can I help children and have a career doing it?
• How to make change happen when they are used to remaining stagnant.
• How to empower youth to have a strong voice
• Teaching Youth Development Professionals (YDP's) to do their job, mentoring
• How to get the job I want (director of the club) instead of the job I have (director of Pre-k Program)
• How to be the best employee I can be, leading by example.
• How to plan ahead for events and vacations instead of running from behind.

I keep trying to develop a cohesive idea that will lead to an excellent capstone project, but I need help figuring it out. I want to research something I am excited to learn more about and dive deep into rabbit holes to find my capstone. I keep saying that I want to know how to improve my workplace, but my capstone might be centered around ME and my interactions with my workplace and the youth I serve.

I am interested in youth success, policy, and procedures. I want the club to be full of happy youth who want to be there and look forward to coming each day. I want the YDPs to enjoy working with the youth, have taken professional development classes, and be trained to do their job and excel at it. I want all the best for the club. I want to make a change that will impact how the club is run from now into the future.