Course Descriptions
Although the current focus in Youth Studies is on undergraduate education, many courses may be taken for graduate credit.
YOST 1001: Seeing Youth, Thinking Youth: Media, Popular
Media, & Scholarship (3 cr)
After taking this class, you will be better able to notice the young
people around you in your everyday lives; wonder about them and their
lives and worlds; name, describe and analyze what you see and hear,
watch, read and look up about youth. And we suspect that while you are
doing this, you will also become more attentive to your own everyday
life and, indeed, to yourself as a youth. For some of you, this may lead
to reflecting on your life's work, on your occupational future and
vocational call.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 2101: Urban Youth & Youth Issues (4 cr; prereq
YOST 1001)
Urban youth are subjects (and objects) of interest and concern. Explore
what it is like to be a young person in a city, in the United States,
and worldwide.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 2241: Experiential Learning (4 cr; prereq YOST
1001)
Introduction to the history and theory of experiential learning and its
application in youthwork. Students gain observation, reflection, program
design, and evaluation skills grounded in experiential learning theory.
Requires 15 hours of field observation.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3001: Introduction to History & Philosophy of Youthwork
(4 cr)
An opportunity to explore the complex and often contested foundations of
an increasingly visible (if ill-defined) field of scholarship and
practice: youthwork. Where does contemporary American youthwork stand,
particularly in comparison to international perspectives on youth and
youthwork?
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3031/5031: International Youthwork (3 cr)
An introduction to the lives of young people living outside the United
States, to the immigrants and refugees now resident in this country, and
to working with and on behalf of such groups. Includes sociopolitical
analysis of globalization and its impact on young people, youthwork, and
youth policy worldwide.
(5031 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3032/5032: Adolescent & Youth Development for Youthworkers
(4 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or 2002W or 2101, and any CPsy or Psy
course)
Application of theory and research about children and adolescents,
including how findings can be used and how theories facilitate
understanding of behavior.
(5032 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3101: Introduction to Youthwork (4 cr; 1 gen Psy
course, one gen Soc course)
Historical and contemporary approaches to youthwork, the diverse
settings in which it is done, and the importance of the worker's life
experience in crafting ethical, effective practice. Ideal for students
considering a career in youthwork. Includes at least 15 hours of
concurrent field experience.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3234/5234: Youth Agencies, Organizations & Youth Service
Systems (3 cr; prereq two courses in Soc/Anth, and work
experience in a youth agency or org)
Community and governmental responses to young people as potential
problems through agencies, programs, and other organizational forms. The
purpose, structure, and activities of such forms and how these are/are
not integrated into youth service systems.
(5234 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3235/5235: Community Building, Civic Engagement & Civic
Youthwork (4 cr; prereq 1 basic course each in Pol Sci/Soc)
Reciprocities between youth development and community development can be
brought about by young people's civic engagement. Civic youthwork is a
new practice focused on such individual, social, and political change by
and for young people and their community.
(5235 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 3291/5291: Independent Study in Youth Studies (credits
arranged - max 8 cr.)
Independent reading and/or research under faculty supervision.
(5291 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4002W: Constructing Personal Models of Youth Scholarship &
Youthwork [MINOR course] (4 cr; prereq YOST 2002W)
Integrates/ends University-wide undergraduate youth studies minor.
Students analyze/reflect on youth studies minor course content,
especially those models, theories, and concepts presented in 2002.
Youth, young people, youthhood, youthwork. Models, personal responds to
youth. Occupational/vocational callings. Class discussion, written
assignments.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4196: Youthwork Internship (4 cr; prereq
Declaration of youth studies major & permission)
Youthwork is praxis and as such requires supervised field learning in
school and community-based organizations and agencies. This fieldwork
emphasizes youthwork practice in contrast to social work and
psychological/therapeutic approaches.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4301/5301: Communicating with Adolescents about Sexuality
(3 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or 2002W)
Provides participants with increased knowledge and practical skills to
communicate sensitively and effectively with adolescents and their
concerned persons about sexuality in everyday life. Focuses on healthy
sexual development (physical, emotional, ethical) and sexual diversities
while exploring a variety of adolescent sexual issues, including gender
and body image, disease, sexual violence, intimacy, and sex in
cyberspace.
(5301 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4314/5314: Theatre Activities in Youthwork & Education
(2 cr; prereq YOST 2001 or 2101)
Empowering methods of personal/creative development using experiential
learning and theater activities to enhance creativity and imagination of
youthworkers and educators. Examines new approaches to working with
youth in school and youth agency settings combined with application of
experiential learning and improvisational theater theory and praxis.
(5314 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4315/5315: Youthwork in Schools (4 cr; prereq
Introductory course in education)
Introduces educators to the craft of youthwork as a framework to
understand the life-worlds of young people and as a practice to enhance
healthy development. Addresses the artificial, often harmful, divide
young people too often create in their lives between "school" and "not
school."
(5315 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4316: Media in Youthwork (2 cr; prereq 6 cr. in
social sciences, experience in youthwork or teaching)
This course will introduce you to a new tool for working with young
people. Media production, included within the larger sphere of media
literacy education, is a way for youth to express themselves
artistically, investigate issues, become critical media consumers, and
make a civic contribution to their communities.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4317: Youthwork in Contested Spaces (3 cr; prereq
YOST 1001 or 2101, 3101 recommended)
Youth around the world are caught in organized violence with profound
consequences on their everyday lives and futures. This course explores
such violence in conflict and post-conflict societies, and the role of
youthwork under these circumstances.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4319/5319: Youth Subcultures (3 cr; prereq YOST
1001 or one basic course in Anth or Soc)
Young people's participation in schools, communities, life-styles, and
event cultures (Goth, jock, skater, gangs). Place of these in young
people's identity, friendship, and life chances.
(5319 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4321/5321: Work with Youth-Individual (2 cr;
prereq YOST 1001 or 2101)
Examination of basic assumptions underlying individual work with youth.
Attention to special issues and concerns of adolescents and of persons
who work with them in one-to-one interactions. Emphasis on youthwork in
contrast to social work, psychology, or formal education.
(5321 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4322/5322: Work with Youth-Families (2 cr; prereq
YOST 1001 or 2002W)
Theories and techniques of working with youth and their families.
Emphasis on practical methods of structural change; developing effective
communication; decision-making and problem-solving systems; winning the
family's cooperation; the role of the professional to influence healthy
family development.
(5322 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4323/5323: Work with Youth-Groups (2 cr; prereq
YOST 1001 or 2002W, and 4321)
Helps youth workers increase their knowledge and understanding of social
group work, adolescent group needs and associations, and group process;
and enhances skills in working with diverse groups of youth in the
community, group living situations, and group therapy.
(5323 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4324: Peer Helping: The Theory & Practice of Youth Helping
Youth (2 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or 2101, recommended YOST 4323 or
4321)
Experientially-based class provides practical preparation for those
interested in starting or improving a Peer Helping program in schools or
community-based organizations which involve school-aged youth helping
their peers in a variety of roles such as tutors, mentors, counselors,
conflict mediators, and educators. It focuses on basic theory and
concepts, program organizational issues, experiential student training
and the adult leadership skills required to lead such a program.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4325: Improving Everyday Youthwork: Practical Program
Evaluation (2 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or 2101, and 3234)
All youthworkers must understand the purpose, methods, and uses of
program evaluation, and how young people can co-create and use these to
develop and enhance programs and to secure funding. Evaluation is both a
political and moral imperative and must be understood in these terms.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4401/5401: Young People's Spirituality & Youthwork
(4 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or 2002W)
Exploration of spirituality and its relationship to youth work; the
healthy spiritual development of young people in their everyday lives,
and the types of youth work practices most respectful of and best able
to facilitate this. Understanding the complex terrain that is
spirituality in an increasingly pluralistic world, and the distinctions
between religion, religiosity, faith, morality, and spirituality. (5401
may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4402/5402: Youth Policy (4 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or
2002W)
Youth policy is formulated in response to youth issues, problems, and
community/public concerns. Policy can also be understood as a political
response to youth panics, as indirect youthwork, and as a community's
moral compact with its young people. Perspectives specific to each
student's interest will also be explored.
(5402 may be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4403: Indirect Youthwork: Working on Behalf of Young
People (4 cr; prereq YOST 1001 or 2101, and 3234)
Indirect youthwork with young people is work on their behalf, as in
program development and management, policy, and social and community
action--all directed at enhancing the status of young people. Introduces
skills for examining and advocating for particular sociopolitical,
economic, and cultural definitions and understandings of young people.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)
YOST 4411: Youth Research & Youth Program Evaluation (5
cr; prereq basic research methods course)
A semester-long field research practicum. Introduces basic social
science approaches to the study of youth and to evaluating youth
programs. Supervised opportunity to complete a simple youth research or
evaluation study.
(May not be taken for Graduate credit)