Hello there! We are Samantha Holquist, Quiana Lewis Wallace, and Deja Logan, researchers at Child Trends, an independent research organization committed to enhancing the well-being of children and youth. As community-engaged researchers, we partner with youth as co-researchers across many of our projects. Because youth typically do not learn how to conduct research in schools, much of our work focuses on providing training to youth on how to conduct research as well as supporting their short- and long-term career development and growth. We’re excited to share four hot tips for nurturing the growth of youth researchers.
Hot Tips
1. Identify youths’ career aspirations at the beginning of the project. When onboarding youth to the work, meet with them one-on-one to explore their interests, desired skill sets, and future career goals. These personalized insights enable you to customize training sessions in ways that align with the needs and goals of youth researchers throughout the project duration.
2. Integrate career planning into project training sessions. Clearly explain to youth how the skills they are learning will benefit them both in the project and their future careers. Take time to highlight the transferable and marketable skills they are gaining and describe how they can articulate these skills on their resumes. For example, when teaching youth how to conduct interviews, underline how this skill can support them in developing relationships, gathering information, and organizing many different ideas quickly.
3. Co-create norms and expectations with youth at the beginning of the project. For some youth, engaging in a professional environment might be a new experience. It’s crucial, therefore, to dedicate at least 30 minutes during the initial group meeting to collaboratively establish norms and expectations for how youth and adults should show up in the workspace. Examples of norms and expectations include: “Honor everyone’s unique experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds,” “Arrive on time,” and “Foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels comfortable and respected.”
4. Remind yourself that youth are continuously evolving. As youth explore what it’s like to be a researcher and begin to understand more about themselves, their career aspirations may evolve. It is important to regularly check-in with youth about their needs and goals, and adjust plans accordingly. In our projects, we ask youth to complete “confessionals” after each meeting where they share their thoughts on how the meeting went for them, how it supported their growth, and how we can improve in the future to better meet their needs. We review these reflections each week and use them to make adjustments to our collective work.
Rad Resource
Checkout Youth.gov’s career exploration and skill development resource for tools to help you support youth in exploring their interests and skills!
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I LOVE this post and especially the actions in number 2: ‘Integrate career planning into project training sessions.’
There are so many ways this is helpful to those you’re working with AND it (slowly) helps them realize that career development is an ongoing action that thru can take for being in control of our own professional development.