Tag: youthdevelopment

Clemson youth development researcher and Associate Professor Dr. Ed Bowers has always had a natural curiosity about other people and cultures, particularly why people do what they do.

“I’ve always been interested in how people think and act in different environments and situations, and how the cultural context they live in can influence their beliefs and behaviors,” he says.

That curiosity is taking him all over the world. Over the course of his career so far, he’s visited more a dozen countries and taught in Dublin as part of an international service program, experiencing different cultures and perspectives wherever he goes.

When he visits a new place, he pays close attention to things most travelers are not likely to typically consider, such as what strengths young people need to develop in order to succeed, and how they may differ from what success may look like at home.

“It’s a habit at this point. People and our motivations are more complex than you might think,” he says. “For example, if you’re living in a remote area without ready access to core services such as education, health care or transportation, you’re going to see different measures of success than someone who is living in a major urban center.”

Dr. Bowers carries that curiosity to his research, which asks similar questions, but through a focus on positive youth development, and how youth-adult relationships can influence what goes right in the lives of children and adolescents. His work helps us figure out what every parent asks themselves at some point – why did my child do that? And do they have the characteristics and support they need to be successful in life?

His research also focuses on the strengths of youth, instead of negative behaviors. Bowers says this is because even though there is a widespread belief that the teen years are marked by ‘storm and stress,’ most teenagers are actually doing relatively well.

“Youth do make bad decisions, and there are reasons for that, but they also give to charities, care about people, and have sympathy and empathy for others,” he says. “Teenagers can contribute in positive ways to their communities. Building on these youth strengths rather than focusing on their deficits is a more effective way to promote thriving in young people.”

In 2015, Dr. Bowers and several of his academic colleagues explored measures that can help define positive skills and growth in a book they edited together about promoting positive youth development. The book shares a model that people working in positive youth development commonly use to measure a child’s strengths, called the Five Cs – competence, confidence, caring, compassion and character.

Dr. Bowers helped contribute to that model by examining youth responses from across the country to create a measure focused on what a thriving teenager looks like in a community, asking questions about skills or things that they do that demonstrate success.

Character, for example, can be measured by doing the right thing, having integrity and valuing diversity. Caring, on the other hand, is assessed by whether or not the teenager is bothered by seeing bad things happen to people, or if they want to step in and help.

Dr. Bowers is now working with colleagues in other universities and community organizations to apply that model to youth in other countries and environments, so they can determine how measures of success may need to be adjusted, depending on where and how youth live.

“For example, when measuring competence, a First Nations teenager living in a remote area in Canada’s Northwest Territories needs to have certain skills to succeed that would make no sense to a suburban kid in Boston,” he says. “We’re drilling deeper into the measures to find out exactly what skills are necessary in their specific contexts, to ensure the model can adapt to reflect their unique situations.”

How does one find out what measures work for certain groups of people? According to Dr. Bowers, the first step is asking them. Right now, he’s working with Maasai Mara University in Kenya, Oregon State University, and the University of South Carolina on a Templeton World Charity Foundation funded project to develop a new tool that youth workers will be able use to assess character strengths among Kenyan youth. The project is one of only 14 funded from over 150 applications spanning 55 countries around the globe, and involves interviews with 60 youth and 15 adults to get a sense of what measures are most important for youth living in different environments.

“Within Nairobi, there are teenagers living more traditional lives and street kids who are working towards very different ideas of success,” he says. “The challenge is to develop a model that can be tailored to specifically measure what skills and supports they need to be successful in their specific context of their shared community.”

The instrument they develop will be tested on a sample of 450 youths to establish its validity, relevance and ease of use. Dr. Bowers says the impact of this new tool will be far-reaching.

“This project is not just building a tool for one community,” he says. “It’s also building capacity for youth workers and scholars to conduct high quality research and become a hub for youth development in that area of the African continent.”

Dr. Bowers is also using other opportunities to identify new avenues for applied research to benefit young people. In June he traveled to Senegal with a group of Clemson student-athletes and staff on a school construction project organized by buildOn, a non-profit organization that constructs a new school every two days in some of the economically poorest countries around the world. Now he’s working with YDL program graduate and buildOn Community Engagement Manager Aled Hollingworth to apply their experiences to the development of innovative service-learning opportunities. Next fall, Dr. Bowers also plans to co-teach an international virtual exchange course with a colleague in Vietnam. The course will bring together students from Clemson with students at Ho Chi Minh City Open University to explore the role of digital media in the lives of young people from different cultures.

He says that projects like the Kenyan initiative, service-learning study abroad experiences like the Senegal trip, and virtual exchanges are key to gathering the input needed to tailor youth development measurement tools for global communities. These experiences are equally important for students looking to enter the youth development field.

“Finding ways to get students out in these different cultures conducting field work is the best way to build their skills to see development from a systems perspective, extend our reach, and continue to build capacity in communities they visit,” he says. “Exchanges can also make a big difference, by connecting youth development students from other countries with our students to engage in discussions about best practices, and then identify ways to best promote thriving in diverse communities. Our goal is to encourage positive youth development in a global society.”

Clemson’s Recreational Therapy (RT) Club, led by students in the university’s recreational therapy program, are working with the Clemson Adaptive Sport and Recreation Lab and Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital to help junior wheelchair basketball teams compete in the upstate.

The group raised the money needed to host a competition this weekend in Spartanburg, where you’ll be able to see the top junior wheelchair basketball teams from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama compete in the 2^nd Annual Clemson Classic Wheelchair Basketball Tournament at the Upward Star Center (9768 Warren H Abernathy Hwy).

Youth between the ages of 5 to 18 are playing in this two-day southeast regional tournament, which is organized by the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) and the Rollin’ Tigers, South Carolina’s only junior wheelchair basketball team. The tournament gives participating wheelchair athletes an opportunity to be part of a team and play in a competitive environment.

RT Club President Hannah Wells says that they began thinking about running the tournament three years ago, and have been working towards it ever since.

“The Rollin’ Tigers is the only wheelchair basketball team in the entire state of South Carolina. It’s awesome that we have a local team, but there are only a few tournaments that they can go to each season – and none of them are local,” she says. “This tournament is an awesome opportunity for these athletes to compete on their own turf. Their families and friends can support them without having to overcome the barriers of traveling far and paying high costs associated with traveling.”

The club has played a lead role in planning the tournament with its sponsors, community members and event partners, and is providing around 15 club members to work each day of the event. They raised the money needed to host the event by applying for grants from several Clemson University campus organizations and by using funds raised through a recreational therapy conference they organize every year, including a silent auction designed to specifically generate money for the competition.

Jeff Townsend, the Rollin’ Tigers coach and Lecturer in Clemson’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management department, says that the tournament wouldn’t be possible without the club’s support.

“Hosting a regional competition requires manpower, community support and money,” he says. “These students were able to provide all three, and as a result, are creating an exciting opportunity for these young athletes to demonstrate and improve their skills in a competitive environment.”

Jasmine Townsend, an assistant professor at Clemson University and tournament director, says that she’s excited about being able to support expanding opportunities for these athletes to compete.

“This tournament gives these athletes an opportunity to a be part of a team and play a competitive sport,” she says. “They’re getting rare access to typical youth sport opportunities that are often available to other athletes in the area.”

Wells and her club members are proud to have played a role in creating opportunity for these athletes. Now, she says, they need people to come to the event and show their support.

“These kids are cute – all kids are – but they’re also competitive athletes,” she says. “Our ultimate goal is to have adaptive sports like this normalized and readily available for people with different disabilities, and for them to be perceived just like any other youth sport.”

And, she adds, the event is free, making it a good way to spend the day as a family.

“Bring your kiddos, your pals, your significant others, and your neighbors and enjoy a free day of watching a super cool sport.”

For more information about the tournament, contact Jeff Townsend at townse7@clemson.edu.

At first glance, Haley Plumley and Lauren Grubbs may not have a lot in common, other than their age (they’re both 12 years old). They also live in different states – Haley lives in Florida and Lauren in North Carolina – and have different connections to Clemson.

If you look a little deeper, however, you’ll see that they share a similar determination, and a strongly-held belief that despite their age, they have the power to change the world – a belief they’re proving by working to raise awareness of the plight of tigers in the wild.

Lauren and Haley got involved in different ways. Lauren writes letters that get attention. She was learning how to write persuasive letters as part of a 5^th grade class project, when she decided to write Clemson University President Jim Clements about the need for the university to lead an effort to save tigers in the wild.

“About 70 kids in Lauren’s school sent persuasive letters to complete the project assignment, but she was the only student who received a personalized response back,” says her mother, Katie Grubbs. “She’s been writing letters ever since. It’s fascinating to see who replies and who doesn’t, and the confidence and influence she’s grown in the process.”

Clements asked Dr. Brett Wright, Director of the Tigers United University Consortium, to respond on his behalf to Lauren’s letter. The Consortium is devoted to tiger conservation and consists of four land-grant, tiger mascot universities working collaboratively on this issue – Clemson University, Auburn University, Louisiana State University and the University of Missouri. Katie says Dr. Wright’s response to Lauren’s letter was written in a way that she could understand and provided useful information about the Consortium, its goals and its work.

Haley, on the other hand, was working on a community service project for school and wanted to find a unique way for a kid to further a cause she could believe in, support and help. Last year, she learned about the Tigers United University Consortium at Clemson through her Dad, who played football for Clemson between 1990-94 and remains an active supporter. Haley overheard her Dad talking about a donation he had made to the consortium and their need for help, and realized she’d found her project.

“Over the last few years, Haley had been asking me how kids can get involved in an issue, and what they can do that would really help,” said Julie Plumley, Haley’s mother. “When she heard about the consortium and that it’s something many people don’t yet know about, she realized she could spread the word and really make a difference.”

Her idea was to create an educational program for elementary-aged children about the need for tiger conservation, including how they can help, so they could share that information with their friends and families and get involved.

This idea started to become reality this past spring as a unique learning opportunity for Clemson University’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management students. Associate Professor Gwynn Powell, who teaches a Youth Development in Camp course, saw an opportunity for her students to combine public service with developmental pedagogy.

“Our class was developing activities for elementary school aged children participating in the City of Clemson’s annual spring break day camp,” says Dr. Powell. “The tiger conservation program was a great project, because it challenged them to develop a curriculum that combined academic content with recreational activities.”

Dr. Powell tasked her students with creating potential programs and activities for an elementary school education program to teach tiger conservation to students in grades first through fifth grade. Given their experience with the consortium and its work, Haley and Lauren were asked to vet the class’s ideas in a ‘Shark Tank’ evaluation setting.

Holly Carlisle, one of the students that presented to Haley and Lauren, said the process was a meaningful learning experience, and that the judges provided useful feedback.

“I was really motivated to work hard because our work was for more than a class assignment,” she says. “We tested our work with children, so we know we’re designing something meaningful for them. I hope the program can be used around the world to help children see the importance of tiger conservation.”

Fellow student Caroline Self agrees, and appreciated Haley and Lauren’s (often blunt) feedback.

“Those kids did not cut us any slack!” she says. “It was helpful to hear from them, because this assignment challenged us to target specific activities for specific grades, so we had to really understand the developmental difference in the ages to strike the right balance.”

The program is now being refined with input from elementary school teachers. Haley and Lauren’s schools agreed to pilot the program when it’s ready.

Consortium Director Brett Wright says Haley and Lauren are proving that anyone can have a significant impact on the world, regardless of your age.

“These girls are two of the savviest, most invested and dedicated people I’ve come across,” he says. “They know they can make a difference, and they’re putting in some serious work to spread the message about tiger conservation, and how dire the situation has become.

He says their involvement also gives him hope for the tiger’s future.

“We chant ‘Go Tigers’ on a daily basis, but not many know the truth about the animal we hold so dear – and how close they are to extinction,” he says. “Lauren and Haley are giving us an important tool we can use to raise awareness, and hopefully bring more people to the cause. Without that help, tigers as we know it may become extinct in their lifetime.”

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Tigers United Week runs from September 3 to 7 in Clemson. The consortium’s universities are all raising awareness of tiger conservation through through several activities, including a Scarcity Scavenger Hunt with a grand cash prize and an information booth while Clemson tailgates for Saturday’s game, with an opportunity to meet Clemson’s First Lady Beth Clements and her daughter, Grace. The week culminates with a launch of a new, 30-second video about the consortium’s mission during the Clemson home football game on Saturday afternoon. More information about Tigers United Week and its activities can be found on the Tigers United blog.

You can also support Tigers United by texting CUtigers to 41444.