With ongoing underrepresentation of women in STEM fields, it is necessary to explore ways to maintain girls' STEM interest throughout elementary and middle school. This study is situated within the context of Designs in STEM (pseudonym), an out-of-school program that engages urban youth in authentic STEM experiences. Participants were 30 girls…

This qualitative study documents urban youth participation in a community-based out-of-school youth writing program that cultivated participants' dialogues, identities, and writings. The study documents participants' perspectives as contributors and beneficiaries of a neighborhood revitalization effort. Analysis of excerpts from breakout sessions,…

Black male adolescents face unique barriers in schools that may contribute to racial disparities in educational outcomes. Their social-cognitive strengths, however, influence their confidence to be academically successful despite these barriers. This study explored whether racial academic stereotypes and racial centrality were associated with and…

In this article the authors explore the relationship between concepts of identity and the purpose, process, and products of youth media arts organizations. Since the explicit mission of these organizations is to work with adolescents to explore and represent identities, the authors develop our understanding of how organizations conceptualize…

WITHIN THE DEFINITION OF RURAL YOUTH ARE FOUND YOUNG PEOPLE FROM FARMS, MIGRANT STREAMS, SMALL COMMUNITIES, AND ISOLATED HILLS IN APPALACHIA. YET, A COMMONALITY FOUND IS THAT THEY ARE YOUTH AND AS SUCH THEY SHOULD BE DEALT WITH AS TOTAL PERSONS AND NOT AS GROUPS. GOOD EMPLOYMENT PREPARATION PROGRAMS, SUCH AS THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S…

The field of moral development has moved toward an identity-based model suggesting that moral action stems not only from moral reasoning but from a desire to act in ways consistent with one's self-concept. Moral identity, in turn, is rooted in social relationships. This idea, that one's sense of self drives moral behavior and that this identity is…

An evaluation of the International Youth Leadership Institute (IYLI), summarized in this IUME Brief, helps fill the gaps in knowledge about how youth programs help Blacks and Latinos negotiate their adolescence and attempt to form an integrated sense of self. IYLI, founded in 1989, is an academic leadership development program for Black and Latino…

The Southwest Regional Laboratory conducted a 1-year outcome evaluation of the 4-H After School Activity Program (4-H ASAP) in Los Angeles (California). The 4-H ASAP is designed to meet the needs of children aged 7 to 13 who live in urban public housing communities. The program creates a nurturing environment that offers a positive alternative to…

Mentoring is now a very popular, but loosely defined, feature of many programs for youth. The heart of mentoring is the relationship between the youth and the mentor, but little is actually known about this relationship. Mentoring should not be limited to at-risk youth, since many average students or underachievers from stable backgrounds may…

This program serves a population of disaffected, underachieving inner-city youth of junior high and high school age who are known to the Family and/or Criminal courts and are at least two years retarded in reading. In most cases, the first efforts of the center are said to be directed to the provision of remedial reading services, and toward…