Seminar central
All approved seminars require at least 45 hours of work and earn one credit.
Students are expected to be active in various seminar groups throughout their time in the YDL program. One seminar credit represents at least 45 hours of work. You register for CI 5960 with the grading option of S/N (pass-fail). You must take 4 seminar credits over your time in the program.
Philosophy of the seminar
The purpose of the seminar is to provide you with the opportunity for self-directed learning. Seminars allow you to pick a topic that you are interested in and explore it in a way that works best for you. Topics of past seminars have varied completely according to people’s interests and passions. Past topics have been included: working with culturally diverse youth, spirituality and youthwork, evaluation, guiding girls, racism and white privilege, glbt youth, reading circles and many more.
How do I create a seminar and get approval?
Once a person or group of people commits to an idea, they write up a proposal for the seminar and give it to Jerry Stein for approval. Use the Seminar Planning Sheet to help create your proposal, available by selecting the links below. The best way to send your proposal to Dr. Stein is by email: stein035@umn.edu. Once your proposal is approved please contact YDL graduate assistant Jenna Sethi at sethi007@umn.edu. She will post your seminar on the YDL Seminar Portal and send out an email to all active YDL students The general format for a proposal includes: the learning outcomes (the purpose of the seminar), the format of the seminar (salon, study circle, public seminar, etc.), the reporting method (how you will know when you’re done/show what was learned), a reading list (if applicable), as well as the times and meeting places and a list of the participants of the seminar.
Proposal sheet [download as a .doc or .rtf]
What does 45 hours of work look like?
45 hours of work can include any combination of how you will spend your time doing seminar work, including time spent reading, discussing, writing papers and/or journals, attending workshops and/or conferences, documenting seminar work and time, etc. How the hours should be broken down is up to the person/s creating the seminar and must be approved in conjunction with the rest of the seminar proposal.
Seminars approved for credit
A page has been created just for YDL students to help with completing seminars quickly and easily. Please access this page when you are searching for a seminar to participate in or when you have questions about how to create a seminar.
How to register for a seminar
- Contact the person leading the seminar.
- Register for CI 5960 during a scheduled course registration period.
Notes
- You always have permission to take more than one seminar at a time.
- If the web registration system does not let you register for more than one seminar credit for a given semester, contact the YDL graduate assistant for help in resolving the problem.
- You can also register for a seminar retroactively. This is the easiest way to avoid late fees when a seminar is announced after the regular course registration period.
revised August 2007
