The Youth Development Leadership (YDL) program at Clemson University has been a life changing experience that has challenged me to simultaneously reflect upon my previous work as a youth development professional and explore where I envision my career proceeding.  I am greatly appreciative of the effort of the professors I have learned from, and the cohort members I have partnered with in this journey.

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The program has affirmed my belief, that youth are not problems to be fixed, but resources to be tapped into.  In order to provide youth the best opportunity at success we need to provide them with organized, research based programs and services that are evaluated on a regular basis. In addition to the programs that we prepare, we also must develop and consistently evaluate, caring professionals who are making the decision to work with young people.

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The program has also reinforced my belief that as youth development leaders, we must strive to appreciate the role that parents/guardians play in their youths' lives, and to develop programs and services to support them. As I progressed through this program, I frequently recalled my experiences facilitating parent groups throughout my career. These experiences, coupled with the research conducted for the Youth Development in the Family Context course, led to the development of the family engagement program that I developed for the course (listed as Increasing Family Involement under the Planning and Evaluation heading above).  I am eager integrate this program into my organization in the near future.

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In addition to spending time with youth professionally, I also have three children of my own. The YDL program has also caused me to reflect on my own parenting style, and I am thankful that the two year program will benefit my personal life as well.  In Youth Development in the Family Context,  we learned about the manner in which “Triangles” are incredibly influential in the formation and maintenance of family relationships. This caused me to be aware of the triangles in my family, and to work to avoid the division and discord that can occur in families if not addressed.

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I am looking forward to developing programs more intentionally and implementing program evaluation more consistently into the programs that I work with.  I am particularly proud to implement the evaluation that I designed for MissionSAFE's Summer of Leadership and Service (listed as Evaluating MissionSAFE Summer under the Youth Development heading above) as it will mark the first time the organization has completed a comprehensive evaluation of any of its programs. In my role as Development Director, I am looking forward to using the results of this evaluation to discuss the successes of the program with potential funders and partners. I believe that an open minded approach to evaluation is the key to long term program success.