As study abroad education becomes increasingly common, so does the need to understand how different outreach opportunities alter the study abroad experience. To determine how outreach program design links to perceptions of personal growth, we surveyed 72 college students who participated in different youth outreach activities while studying…

Purpose: Service-learning (SL) is a widely accepted pedagogy that can enrich the learning experience for students in higher education while they apply their skills in a meaningful community service. This research is part of a larger project that aimed to motivate educational achievement among youths living in a priority neighborhood through SL.…

South African university students (n = 18; aged 21-28) participated in the LifeMatters train-the-trainer (TTT) workshop. Ten trained participants (n = 10; aged 21-23) then implemented the program as youth facilitators at three local schools. The study aimed to describe changes in participants resulting from the TTT and implementation experience.…

Service-learning are structured experiences where students gain awareness and knowledge as it relates to civic responsibility, one of a few high-impact practices identified by the AAC&U. To help assess this practice, we utilized a directed content analysis approach of the final written reflections of undergraduate recreation students who…

Vibrant social connections and robust community involvement are part of what makes a strong America. Yet, among our nation's young people, there are relatively low levels of community engagement. Research shows that service learning is an established method to bring youth closer to their communities while also promoting positive youth development…

We present a case study of a multi-year, academic civic engagement (ACE) collaboration in a computer science capstone course. ACE projects in computer science provide an avenue for students to apply software development concepts to real-world projects with actual clients, and can offer meaningful engagement with ethical issues. The typical…

Day camps are a powerful context for youth development. The American Camp Association and Leave No Trace have been integral in supporting youth development by identifying outcomes associated with participation in outdoor recreation. Recreation majors in the programming class used the camp as a service-learning component of the class that offered…

Leadership programs and services have burgeoned over the past decade to encourage greater representation in leadership among girls and teens. Yet, little is known about the prevalence and type of girls' leadership programs or services adopted in secondary schools, whether they are perceived as important or effective by school counselors, or what…

To engage more youth in service, we require further research on the characteristics of youth who serve, particularly disadvantaged youth with limited access to formal service opportunities. This study investigated the positive youth development characteristics of New Zealand youth who decided to mentor younger peers in the Stars program for the…

Adventure-based learning is used by behavioral health providers to connect clients to therapeutic activities outside traditional settings. These approaches often aim to build internal and external assets that support positive youth development. Here we evaluate the impact of an experiential learning curriculum on youth development and identify…

Community-partnered research presents unique opportunities for personal and professional development among social work practitioners, researchers, and students. It is a vehicle for promoting social work values, generating and sharing knowledge, and connecting research to practice. Findings from these types of partnerships can be instructive for…

Pre-service teachers rarely receive training on how best to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) high school students. We tested whether participating in LGBTQ-focused service-based learning or LGBTQ-focused didactic training improved pre-service teachers' knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and skills for serving LGBTQ…

"Effects of a Targeted Art Program on Social Emotional Learning in Students with Emotional Behavioral Disorders" will address the topics of Social Emotional Learning and Emotional Behavioral Disorder, as well as various structures for targeted arts programming. Using a qualitative research approach, the effects of one specific targeted…

This study examined differences in participants' perceptions of their Character Development, Leadership, and Environmental Service prior to and immediately following participation in a North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) course using the NCOBS Course Impression Survey (NCOBCIS). The three-fold purpose of this study was to confirm the…

The current field of Israel engagement has been significantly challenged by young North American Jews' reported alienation from contemporary Israel. Literature in the last decade has addressed this challenge in depth, offering a wide variety of theoretical analyses and recommendations for program development. The present study is the first to…