Suchergebnisse

The 4-H youth development organization understands and has recognized residential camping as one of the major modes of program delivery. Primary benefactors of the residential camping program are those youth who serve as camp counselors. Not only are they recipients of the educational program, but also supervise and teach younger campers (Garst & Johnson, 2005; McNeely, 2004). As a result of their experience, camp counselors learn about and develop leadership and life skills (Thomas, 1996; Purcell, 1996). The residential camping experience allows youth to serve as volunteers through their role as camp counselors. In addition to the benefits earned from their volunteer role, residential camping provides youth camp counselors the opportunity to gain leadership skills (Arnold, 2003) as well as add to the camp structure, planning, and implementation (Hines & Riley, 2005).

Global education is becoming increasingly important in
higher education institutions in the United States. Concurrently, service-learning is
another educational activity becoming more popular in higher education institutions.
Very little research has been done on the impact on the community from a
service-learning perspective, especially as a part of a study abroad. The purpose of
this study was to explore the impacts of a short-term service-learning study abroad
program on the community partners (organizations) where students completed
service-learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders of
organizations in Ireland who hosted students from the University of Florida during a
study abroad program. Data were interpreted using Enos and Morton's (2003) campus and
community partnerships framework. Results revealed both transactional and
transformational outcomes. Long-term impacts included cultural exchanges, the skill
level of students, and moving partnerships forward. Recommendations for practice and
research are provided.

The 4-H Citizenship Project offers the opportunity to help 4-H members relate all of their 4-H projects and experiences to the world around them. The 4-H Citizenship manuals will serve as a guide for 4-H Citizenship experiences. To be truly meaningful to the real-life needs and interests of your group, the contribution of volunteer leaders is essential. Each person, neighborhood, and community has individual needs that you can help your group identify. This 23-page major revision of Unit VI covers the "My Government" project. Written by John Rutledge, Joy C. Jordan, and Dale Pracht and published by the UF/IFAS Extension 4-H Youth Development program. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/4h020

A statewide community club evaluation (youth self-report), empirically testing a logic model of factors influencing youth life skill development is described. Results supported that the way adult volunteers manage and mentor youth and explained how 4-H program features (e.g., youth sense of belonging, safety, and support) influence life skill development. Youth engagement in activities was also linked with life skills and organizational supports were linked with youth engagement in the model. Future directions based on the findings to be discussed include: (1) examining volunteer competencies to build upon in training; (2) use of SEM to understand the larger picture of youth programs; and (3) what the results tell us about: (a) creating quality club environments for youth; (b) providing youth with caring adult support systems; and (c) developing life and career skills through subject-matter topics.

Universities are increasingly working to better prepare
students for success in the workforce and increasingly advocating high-impact learning
experiences. This case study explores the short-term impacts on students who
participated in a short-term service-learning study abroad program in Ireland through a
lens of Transformative Learning Theory. Data collection consisted of (a) a
pre-participation interview, (b) a follow-up interview, and (c) participant observation.
We found evidence of all four tenets of Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory: (a)
refining meaning schema, (b) learning new schema, (c) transforming schemes, and (d)
transforming perspectives. Emergent subthemes related to service-learning or personal
growth were discovered within each of these tenets. We concluded that while this program
was not intentionally designed with Transformative Learning Theory as a means to deliver
an educational curriculum, there are transformational learning aspects inherent to study
abroad as well as service-learning. Based on this study, we offer recommendations for
best practices for facilitating service-learning study abroad programs and for future
research.