Mon, July 27

9:00-10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time

Introductions and Orientation: Welcome and introductions. Orientation to Summer Institute and online format.

10:00 am - noon Pacific Daylight Time

Understanding and leveraging webs of support during youth transitions across educational and career pathways (Shannon Varga)

This session introduces a webs of support framework for understanding the dynamic ecology of relationships in a young person’s life. It shows how webs of support are implicated in the educational and career pathways of youth and how this framework can be converted into specific actions to support youth during life transitions. Data from multiple relationship-focused applied research projects, including narrative interviews with youth and their mapped webs of support, will be referenced to discuss how systems, structures, and attitudes have acted as barriers or facilitators to developing supportive relationships towards their goals. The session will focus particularly on youth at heightened risk for interruptions in their education or work. Attendees will participate in small group activities to map their own webs of support as a way to become familiar with the framework and brainstorm ways to convert these insights into beneficial actions for young people in their programming.

12:00-12:30: Optional discussion forum

Tues, July 28

9:30-10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time

Optional networking forum

10:00 am - noon Pacific Daylight Time

Let’s Zoom in on Young People’s Trust: The Role of Trust in Organizations (Aisha Griffith)

In this session participants will zoom in on the role of trust within relationships between young people and adults. A study conducted with 108 youth and 25 adults at after-school programs will be used to illustrate why trust is important and how trust forms beyond “getting to know you activities.” A model for representing trust formation will be presented that can be relevant to many contexts. Through individual and group activities, participants will brainstorm ways their program can and already does have opportunities for multiple, varied affordances for young people to develop authentic, robust trust in adults in ways that are meaningful to them. When reflecting on their programs, participants will give special consideration to the role of trust for older youth within the context of the transitions to college and career.

12:00-12:30: Optional discussion forum

Wed, July 29

9:30-10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time

Optional networking forum

10:00 am - noon Pacific Daylight Time

Key ingredient of the Year Up “secret sauce”: Mentoring relationships with caring adults (Jess Britt)

Year Up is a large, national nonprofit that enables young adults to move from minimum wage to meaningful careers in just one year. A 2018 PACE study report found Year Up had the largest effects on earnings among rigorously evaluated workforce programs. Development of supportive relationships with caring adults—coaches, other Year Up staff, and internship supervisors—is a key component of the Year Up program model from outreach to outcomes. This session shares findings from Year Up’s portfolio of internal and external research and evaluation work over the last five years and how those findings have influenced changes to program practices. Through interactive activities, participants will have the opportunity to consider potential implications of Year Up’s findings in their own work. Discussion also will address tactical questions about conducting internal evaluation work as a program team member and dig into how Year Up is leveraging research and evaluation in its continued response to COVID-19.

12:00-12:30: Optional discussion forum

Thur, July 30

9:30 -10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time

Optional networking forum

10:00 am - noon Pacific Daylight Time

Mentoring urban, low-income Latinx students during the transition from high school (Bernadette Sánchez & Lidia Monjaras-Gaytan)

The purpose of this session is to learn about a) the contextual and cultural factors that influence the transition from high school among low-income, urban Latinx adolescents, b) how natural and volunteer mentors support Latinx youth in their transition to college, and c) how mentoring relationships change during the transition from high school. Our session will draw from various research projects on natural and volunteer mentoring with diverse Latinx populations, including high schoolers, Latinx students in a science mentoring program, and undocumented immigrant Latinx adolescents and young adults from a range of educational backgrounds. Needs of specific subgroups (e.g., undocumented immigrants) and various nuances (e.g., complexity of the cultural value of familism) within the Latinx population will be discussed. Discussions and small group activities will help audience members brainstorm how to use the research findings in their own programming and to develop ideas for improving the transition experience for Latinx youth.

12:00 -12:30 pm: Optional discussion forum

Fri, July 31

9:30 - 10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time

Optional networking forum

10:00 am - noon Pacific Daylight Time

Newer approaches to mentoring older adolescents (Sarah Schwartz)

This session will discuss new approaches to mentoring that aim to empower adolescents and emerging adults to recruit mentors and other supportive adults. It will focus on research from two such models, (1) Youth Initiated Mentoring, in which adolescents nominate mentors from their existing social networks, and (2) Connected Scholars, in which students are taught to recruit mentors and other forms of social capital to advance their academic and career-related goals. Participants will have the opportunity to explore how some of these strategies and principles may be incorporated into their own programs and practice, including in the context of remote learning and social distancing.

12:00 - 1:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time

Closing Session/Wrap-up :Commentary on lessons of Summer Institute. Celebration and thanks.