New Developments after Dobie visit
1. The after school program will cut after Explore UT at Dobie (something about politics?, according to Lee).
2. When asked what ALA needs from us, the PRP group, Lee responded bluntly with the statement that there is really no need for us.
New approach
As we have focused much of our attention in the last weeks on the Explore UT endeavor, we need to return to our roots, aka the theory of positive youth development. Even though I have enjoyed the "hands-on" activities on planning for Explore UT and the curriculum to prepare for the big day, I have many times questioned the applicability of this time-consuming, planning process to our role as policy students- especially since we had to sell the idea first to skeptical ALA staff. Well since there is "no need for us" at ALA right now I think we should go back to the literature and put it in the context of Austin. I will try to put a flowchart within the week to put all of our past readings into a picture. The problem for me is that I am not a theory person, but I found the 4-H study article titled "Positive Youth Development, Participation in Community Youth Development Programs, and Community Contributions of Fifth-Grade Adolescents : Findings From the First Wave Of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development" to be an excellent resource. Excuse my incoherent thoughts; they will be all mapped out after I put this flowchart together.
