Caitlyn Blankenship's YDEV MA

 What's Care Got to do With it? Tell us a story about a time in your life when you needed and received care. What did this look and feel like? How did SYSTEMS play a role in your story--how were institutions caring or uncaring? I recall a time in my life when I was going to college, living on my own and working two part-time jobs (still kind of my life but I have more stability now). During this time, it was my first semester back to Johnson and Wales University after taking some time off, and I had to work myself out of academic probation if I didn't want to be kicked out of college. On this particular day, I had two examines and I had gotten ready early so I would have extra time to study and prepare. I forgot something in my car, which I always leave unlocked, so I left my second floor apartment to grab what I needed and toss my backpack in the passenger seat so I wouldn't forget it later. I walked back upstairs, everything ready for me to use my extra time to study wh...

 Social Justice Youth Development (SJYD) What is social justice youth development (SJYD) as described by Clemons, Ginwright and Cammarota? What does SJYD mean to you? From the readings I have a better understanding of SJYD as a style of engaging and empowering youth to participate in democracy and create/be the change they want to see in the world. SJYD is youth led and as the adult, you are the facilitator and sometimes mentor, rather than the formal educator or teacher. This work is formed through mutual respect - treating youth as equal instead of "less than" adults. I relate much of this with the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs I run, while we are not quite in the stage where all our sites are participating in SJYD work, quality STEM programs harbor a similar value and style. In STEM we encourage our youth to answer their own questions through research and experimentation. Our programs allow adults to learn along side their group, rather than know a...

 Play The Creative Underclass: Youth, Race and the Gentrifying City [Chapter 3- Chillaxin] (Tyler Denmead) (Re)Fashioning Gender Play on the Kindergarten Stage: The Complexities of Shifting Diverse Identities from the Margins to the Social Center (Haeny Yoon) Resonances/ Questions/Critiques: Reflecting on the readings from this week has led me to asking myself many questions in an effort to create a more equitable and just STEM program and model. Both readings have inspired me to ask these questions: Is "play"/free time/chillaxin something that should be worked into our schedules, especially in summer camp where we have kids all day? And how do we do this? Do the materials we provide, the roles we assign or other practices degrade our youth into singular identities? I love the "transformation from 'troubled youth' into 'creative youth'" narrative, what can we model that similar. How do we create our own data collection and impact tracking/evaluatio...

Identity: Power, Privilege and Intersectionality How does whiteness and white supremacy culture impact the youth and educational spaces that you inhabit? What does it look like? Feel like in your body and movements? How does it sound? Taste? Slip by or call out? There are SO many ways whiteness and white supremacy culture impacts youth and educational spaces around me. For the purpose of my reflection here and the one that is on my mind the most; I will focus on the characteristic of "Progress is Bigger/More and Quantity over Quality" ( White Supremacy Culture Characteristics [website] (Tema Okun)). Whether working with youth from a community organizational stand point or an OST program, I find myself constantly frustrated with the bigger is better idealism that forces us to focus on quantity rather than the true impact and quality of programs. "An organization that assumes the goal is to grow - add staff, add projects, or serve more people regardless of how well they c...

Why do we do what we do?  To my surprise, social justice youth development was NOT my dominant ideology. However, because civic youth development was not available under our options, I chose my second most dominant, being social justice youth development. I checked out the three websites given and selected the first mission, summary etc. that stood out to me. First was http://www.ariseducation.org/ , ARISE, the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education. I was especially curious for this program because I have a couple of student who are members. One of the first quotes that struck me was, " ARISE combines leadership training with community organizing to mobilize Southeast Asian and other Rhode Island youth of color for education justice." This resonated with me because, I also believe in youth leadership and serving BIPOC youth. "Education justice" also lingers because it is something that I wrote about recently when thinking about my values and identi...

Exploring Your Practice How have dominant culture and ideology informed my perception of self and others? How can I utilize my lived experiences to better serve youth and the larger community? I have recently been struggling with what it means to be a white, privileged woman in a position of power as it relates to working with youth in Rhode Island; especially BIPOC youth and even adults. Having grown up in a very diverse community, even recognizing that I am white and have power, has been a journey in itself. As the video Power of Privilege and Oppression touches on, white is so much the norm of our society that it is invisible, thus bringing this invisible thing to light has been both challenging and rewarding. It was difficult for me in my work to learn that the black youth who did not already know me, were afraid of me. During this past summer, for the first time in my life, I was met with crippling fear and hostility from youth and their families for being white. Fear so strong, ...