This episode features a conversation with three of the principal developers of the recently released Portrait of a Thriving Youth. Priscilla Little, Winsome Waite, and Shereen El Mallah were part of a design team formed by Youth-Nex: The University of Virginia Center for Effective Youth Development and the producer of the Lessons in Adolescence podcast, to craft a document akin to the growing number of Portraits of a Graduate being used in school systems around the country. The Portrait of a Thriving Youth extends this model beyond just the educational realm to encompass a range of assets and capacities that adults in multiple venues can help young people develop. 

In part one of their conversation, Priscilla, Winsome, Shereen, and Jason talk about the reasons and motivations behind developing the Portrait of a Thriving Youth and it’s connection with other Portrait efforts in school systems and communities throughout the country, the process of developing the portrait through a cross-disciplinary design team and the ways the design team worked to capture youth input and feedback, and how the design team approached defining foundational terms like Youth and Thriving as well as why the team focused on adolescence.

In part two, they talk about the influences of relationships, environments, and systems on all the factors of development during this time period. They then dive into the six specific domains within the Portrait, the components of each of those domains, the features that cut across different domains, and the tools and resources attached to the Portrait that help educators, youth workers, and other adults create the environments to help youth thrive. They also discuss the potential benefit of the Portrait for the education and youth spaces over time.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Portrait of a Thriving Youth
  • Portrait Resource for Educators
  • Portrait Self-Assessment
• Youth-Nex: The University of Virginia Center for Effective Youth Development
  • Youth Advisory Council
• Science of Learning & Development Alliance
  • Planning Tool for Developing a System for Thriving and Learning
• “The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth,” National Academies for Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Consensus Study Report, 2019.
• The Portrait Model: Building Coherence in School and Systems Redesign, Getting Smart

This episode features a conversation with Jessica Greenawalt, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Arthur Project, a New York City-based nonprofit mentoring program focused on students in middle school. The Arthur Project taps into the professional pipeline of social workers to provide middle schoolers with professional, not volunteer, mentors. 

In part one of their conversation, Jessica and Jason talk about how The Arthur Project got started, why it chose to focus on middle school-aged youth, the types of communities and schools the organization works in, the background of the students engaged in the program and how they come to participate in it, how and why clinical social workers-in-training are drawn to and sign up to be a mentor in the program, the additional training The Arthur Project provides them in positive youth development, and how the organization is both impacting students now and building a workforce pipeline of talented social workers dedicated to youth and community empowerment in the future.

In part two, they dive into the design of the Arthur Project’s therapeutic mentoring program, including how the mentors and students get matched, and how the programming evolved from individual mentoring relationships to also include group sessions with youth afterschool, and community service, recreational and cultural activities on weekends. They also discuss the results The Arthur Project is seeing, including the powerful concept of mattering and some of the advantages The Arthur Project sees with shorter-term relationships between mentor and mentees with intentional pass-offs. They then talk about the Arthur Project’s future plans to strategically scale its model in multiple ways.

Additional Readings and Resources

• The Arthur Project
  • Mentoring programming
  • Bachelor and Master of Social Work students as mentors
  • “Mattering”
  • Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
• New York City Community Schools
• “The Mentoring Effect”

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Kathryn Mills, associate professor at the University of Oregon and Director of the Developing Brain in Context Lab. Kate and her colleagues examine how social environments influence the development of social cognition during the transition into adolescence using a blend of methods, including behavioral observation and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. 

In part one of their conversation, Kate and Jason talk about the Developing Brain in Context Lab at the University of Oregon, what it does, the people who work there, and its evolving research interests, the concept of co-created developmental science - the engagement of community partners directly in the research process - the unique features of brain development during adolescence versus other periods of human development, and how the brain is both getting more efficient and stronger during this time period.

In part two, they talk about what’s happening in the brain when educators and youth workers and parents witness some of the hallmark developmental behaviors in adolescents like identity formation and agency, what kinds of learning approaches and environments are necessary to best foster positive brain development among youth, the considerable variability of changes in the developing brains in adolescents and the intersection of those changes in the brain with all of the changes that are happening in educational and youth development settings at the same time, the current research on the effects of technology and social media on adolescent brain development as well as the connection of developing social cognition and mental health, and the specific research interests of the Lab going forward.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Developing Brain in Context Lab
  • Published research
  • Current research projects
• “BrainAGE as a Measure of Maturation During Early Adolescence,” Lucy Whitmore, Sarah Weston, and Kathryn Mills, Imaging Neuroscience (2023) 1: 1–21
• “Co-Creating Developmental Science,” Lucy Whitmore and Kathryn Mills, Infant and Child Development, October 26, 2021.
• Equity-Centered Community Design (ECCD)™️, Creative Reaction Lab
• The Blakemore Lab
• Center for Open Science
• Oxford Internet Institute

This episode features a conversation with Jason Sacks, President of Positive Coaching Alliance. For more than 25 years, PCA has worked to instill research and best practice in positive youth development into youth sports. There are more than 30 million young people participating in youth sports in the United States, although there are significant differences in access across communities, which is why a big part of PCA’s work is to advocate for greater equity in youth sports. PCA also offers training and resources to coaches, officials, parents, and youth to overcome the significant gaps in knowledge and capacity around positive youth development in youth sports. 

In part one of their conversation, Jason and Jason talk about the origins of PCA and its founder, Jim Thompson, who began the program out of Stanford University more than 25 years ago, the state of youth sports today for more than 30 million young people, including issues of equitable access, the pressures of winning cultures on youth and adults alike, the gap in training for coaches and the evidence-based workshops and resources PCA has developed and delivers to build knowledge and capacity of coaches in positive youth development.

In part two, they talk about the range of content PCA offers in its training and resources for a variety of audiences, including not just coaches but also officials, parents, and youth athletes themselves, the work PCA is doing to assess and provide solutions for local communities to provide greater access to positive youth sports experiences, articularly in under-resourced communities, the partnerships PCA engages in - from community organizations, to school districts, to large, national youth sports associations, the results PCA is seeing in changes in behavior among adults, the sense of confidence and self-worth among youth, and for communities, how many young people stick with positive youth sports programs over time. They also talk about connecting positive youth sports experiences to other important outcomes we care about for youth, such as engagement in school, attendance, and even academic performance. And they discuss PCA’s plan to scale to reach seven million coaches over the next five years through advocacy, technology, and more partnerships. 

Additional Readings and Resources

• Positive Coaching Alliance
  • Jim Thompson
  • Training & Workshops
  • Partnerships
  • Results & Impact
• Good Morning America segment: “Parenting playbook on how to handle bullying”
• Northwestern University Masters of Sports Administration Program

This episode features a conversation with Susan Rivers, Executive Director and Chief Scientist at iThrive Games. Through programs and partnerships, iThrive uses gaming and game design to promote social and emotional learning and positive youth development.

In part one of their conversation, Susan and Jason talk about the founding of iThrive games, the aspects of gaming and game design that directly impact the learning and development of young people, the importance and utility of play in adolescent development, and how schools, especially middle schools, don’t make enough time and space for it, and iThrive’s core co-design approach that undergirds all of its program offerings that enable adolescents to be full participants in the game design process.

In part two, they talk about the large suite of game-based curriculum products that iThrive offers for free that weave together social and emotional learning and youth development and how these offerings can help teachers tap into the developmental needs of adolescents to engage them in learning core academic content. They talk about how iThrive connects the game development experience with social issues that young people care about, how iThrive works with a variety of partners to bring the co-design process into their own offerings for young people, and the impact that iThrive is seeing among youth. Susan also shares how iThrive deals with concerns and push back from educators, parents and others on the impact of technology and gaming on young people, and what iThrive is planning to work on in the future with new partners and in new communities.

Additional Readings and Resources

• iThrive Games
  • Co-Design Approach
  • Curriculum
  • Game Design Studio Toolkit
  • Disaster Mind
• Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
  • Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goldman
• Social Psychology
• Cadence Ford
• History Co:Lab

This episode features a conversation with Jean Eddy, CEO and President of American Student Assistance®. ASA is a national nonprofit changing the way kids learn about careers and prepare for their futures through equitable access to career readiness information and experiences. ASA helps middle and high school students to know themselves—their strengths and their interests—and understand their education and career options so that they can make informed decisions. The organization fulfills its mission – in schools and beyond the classroom—by providing free digital experiences directly to millions of students, and through advocacy, impact investing, thought leadership, and philanthropic support for educators, intermediaries, and others. ASA fosters a generation of confident, crisis-proof young people who are ready for whatever path comes next after high school.

Jean is also the author of the new book, Crisis-Proofing Today’s Learners: Reimagining Career Education to Prepare Kids for Tomorrow's World. It’s a post-pandemic take on teaching and learning, advocating for approaches that build adaptive skills from a broader array of educational choices.

In part one, Jean and Jason talk about how the current world in which youth are living influenced her thinking and reasons for writing the book, the people and partners she relied upon to share knowledge on what’s effective in career education for adolescents, the importance of helping young people develop the skill of adaptability given the ever-changing world and marketplace of careers, examples from around the world where education is centered on self-discovery, and what employers, educators, parents can do to help young people develop their own pathways to career.

In part two they talk about how to ensure the time young people are already dedicating to the digital space is maximized for their long-term benefit, the interest in skills-based hiring among employers, the interest among Gen Z youth in pathways to employment outside the typical higher education experience, and the challenges for both of them to make alternative pathways more mainstream. They look at where career education fits within the school day, what ASA is doing to directly help young people gain skills and experiences to identify and forge their pathways, and to influence systems across the country that can better institutionalize career education for all young people, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with special needs.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Crisis-Proofing Today's Learners: Reimagining Career Education to Prepare Kids for Tomorrow's World
• American Student Assistance
• AMLE/ ASA Career Exploration Resource Center Exploration Lab at district in Massachusetts
• Launch Pad, Cajon Valley Union School District
• Rethinking Middle Grades initiative in Delaware
• Ender
• Episode 26: Lessons with Julie Lammers & Dr. Rahul Choudaha 
• Nancy Deutsch, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Linda K. Bunker Professor of Education Director, Youth-Nex, University of Virginia
• Lisette Nieves, Distinguished Clinical Professor, New York University

This episode features a conversation with Stephanie Malia Krauss, author of the youth development-focused books Making It and her most recent release Whole Child, Whole Life. Stephanie has broad experience as an educator, school leader, youth worker, researcher, writer, and advocate. Having had a challenging educational experience herself as a young person, including dropping out of school after the eighth grade, Stephanie works to help adults who educate, develop and care for adolescents to better understand the array of factors that drive their growth and behavior so that adults can best prepare and support them along their developmental journey.

In part one of our conversation, Stephanie and Jason talk about her motivations for writing her book, her approach to capturing and translating the volumes of research on adolescent learning and development in an accessible way for all readers while keeping true to the rigor of the research, and how youth are nestled within demographic and determinant profiles that help define who they are and can help adults best understand and support them.

In part two, they talk about the meat of the book, namely the ten practices that adults do for kids to help them thrive, importantly starting with mental health, and including such factors as embracing culture and identities, nurturing social health through relationships and nudging social wealth through community support. They also talk about the centrality of belonging and what thriving actually looks like when you see it. And we learn about what Stephanie is doing now to get this knowledge out to those who need it.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Stephanie Malia Krauss
  • Wholechildwholelife.com
  • Whole Child, Whole Life: 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, and Thrive
  • Making It: What Today's Kids Need for Tomorrow's World
• Teach for America
• Opportunity Youth
• Forum for Youth Investment
• Jobs for the Future 
• Social and emotional learning
• Episode 1: Lessons with Dr. Joanna Lee Williams
• Search Institute 
• CERES Institute for Children and Youth
  • Professor Jonathan Zaff

The Season 4 opener features a conversation with Dr. Alaina Johnson, a clinical psychologist and a mother of three creatively-driven boys. Alaina is the author of the book Parenting Talent: The Grown-Up’s Guide to Understanding and Supporting Creatively-Driven Teens and Tweens and she is the head of a practice by the same name specializing in coaching others and speaking and advising on the topic. The combination of Alaina’s professional background in psychology and personal experience with her three, creatively-driven boys, has enabled her to connect the dots between the science of adolescent development and the experience of young adolescents with certain creative talents, which, importantly, are not just innate traits that, some kids have just been lucky to be born with. 

In part one of their conversation, Alaina and Jason talk about her inspirations for writing the book, which include her own creatively-driven boys as well as a noticeable gap in information for parents like her to know how to understand and support them, what talent really means and the level of effort it requires among youth to actualize it, how the developmental changes in early adolescence affect youth in the creative arts in specific ways, including the development of identity and dealing with the many emotions that stem from vulnerability, and the evolution of young people’s awareness of their own ability to affect the world and their place in it.

In part two, they talk about how parents and families can engage with creative teens and tweens in the most supportive and effective ways, including when and how to communicate, keeping pace with their rapid development to be in sync with what they need at their age and stage of development, and some of the particular issues the current generation of youth are faced with. We also talk about Alaina’s next steps in helping others understand and support their own creative teens and tweens at home.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Parenting Talent: The Grown-Up’s Guide to Understanding and Supporting Creatively-Driven Teens and Tweens
  • Parenting Talent
• Haimovitz, Kyla, and Carol S. Dweck. “What Predicts Children’s Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-Sets?Not Their Parents’ Views of Intelligence but Their Parents’ Views of Failure.” Psychological Science 27, no. 6 (2016): 859–869.
• Jensen, Frances E. The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2016.
• Center for Parent and Teen Communication
  • Episode 29: Lessons with Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg and Dr. Jillian Baker

This episode features a conversation with Barbara Sipe, Jeanine Turner, and Amir Elsayed from the Richmond, Virginia-based nonprofit NextUp RVA. Barbara is President & CEO of NextUp, an organization that partners with schools, the district, the city, and the community to connect middle schoolers with quality out-of-school-time opportunities across the city of Richmond, as well as provide capacity-building and support for providers of expanded learning programs. Jeanine is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Programs for NextUp, and Amir is Senior Manager of Program Services. The level of effort in infrastructure and relationship-building required to provide equitable access to quality out-of-school time programs at a large scale is complex and intensive, and also essential to drive learning and development outcomes for young adolescents.

In Part two of their conversation, Barbara, Jeanine, Amir and Jason talk about how NextUp tracks data to ensure quality of programming at scale, the impact that the organization is seeing among the students it serves, including early cohorts that are now graduating from high school, how NextUp and its partners have worked to be responsive to student needs in this moment in time, and what the organization is planning next to expand its value to the young and families of the city of Richmond.

Additional Readings and Resources

• NextUpRVA
  • Network of program providers
  • Provider professional development offerings
  • Richmond middle school partners
  • Youth Program Finder
  • Program outcomes
• Richmond Public Schools
• Wallace Foundation Afterschool resources
• CitySpan
• David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality

This episode features a conversation with Barbara Sipe, Jeanine Turner, and Amir Elsayed from the Richmond, Virginia-based nonprofit NextUp RVA. Barbara is President & CEO of NextUp, an organization that partners with schools, the district, the city, and the community to connect middle schoolers with quality out-of-school-time opportunities across the city of Richmond, as well as provide capacity-building and support for providers of expanded learning programs. Jeanine is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Programs for NextUp and Amir is Senior Manager of Program Services. The level of effort in infrastructure and relationship-building required to provide equitable access to quality out-of-school time programs at a large scale is complex and intensive, and also essential to drive learning and development outcomes for young adolescents.

In part one of their conversation, Barbara, Jeanine, Amir and Jason talk about the origins and evolution of NextUpRVA and why middle school has been their focus from the very start, the array of partners the organization organizes and coordinates to make out-of-school opportunities available to students, the mechanisms to help young people make good choices in engaging in programs that are a good fit for their interests and needs, and the support NextUp offers to program providers to boost their capacity to serve young people.

Additional Readings and Resources

• NextUpRVA
  • Network of program providers
  • Provider professional development offerings
  • Richmond middle school partners
  • Youth Program Finder
  • Program outcomes
• Richmond Public Schools
• Wallace Foundation Afterschool resources
• CitySpan
• David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality