EVENT #1 RIC Open House

For my first event, I attended the open house at Rhode Island College on November 12th. It was an awesome opportunity to refine my elevator speech for selling the program as a high school graduates intended major or as new information to adults and other young people presenting it as an option for the first time ever. As I am reminded that our BA program is the only one available in the northeast, I thought it interesting to insert in my speech. I wanted to go because I get so many questions from family members and friends like, "so what will you have a degree in when you graduate, again?" or "What can you do with Youth Development?" It almost seems ignorant of them to ask, but in most cases, it hasn't been heard of enough. In relation to course themes, I would say this event allowed me to practice advocating for the youth at a different level. I say that from the perspective of how I want to do work in the field as I've started to develop working with United Way. I acted as an advocate that day to recruit the next cohorts of youth workers and grow the field. Without skilled individuals working with them in their programs and helping them realize their strengths and building on those, they have less of a chance to flourish. That extra support outside of the academic environment and away from home is where youth workers practice. Giving the youth voice and choice, building better relationships, and learning to be an advocate WITH them starts when you get to college and make that decision and in professional development opportunities.  There was a slow turn out by our table at the event, and we got a few names interested in the program so it was a mildly successful platform for getting the major out as a new brand.