Education Theory, Education 

Designing Student Leadership Programs is the result of workshops I conducted for a number of years to prepare adults working with youth leaders. It is set up as a guidebook to be used within staffs or as part of discussions as your program or school evaluates or establishes your youth leadership program. This guidebook is based on my belief that youth deserve as much attention, preparation, celebration, and the resources to become leaders, as are dedicated to preparing business, political, and community leaders. As a guidebook, there are pages that consist of lists of ideas and/or statements that have been gathered and tested in various youth leadership programs. There also are pages that consist of provocative questions to consider when establishing a program or evaluating your existing efforts. Obviously, the most effective way to use this book is with a group of people (adults and youth) rather than having only one person design your program. Throughout the book are "Notes" pages to use for jotting down ideas and issues to consider. I strongly encourage using this book as you would a notebook...writing on the pages and keeping track of ideas. Often when undertaking a project -- and establishing a strong youth leadership program is a project -- we write our thoughts down or talk about them with others, but neglect to take action because the ideas somehow get lost. Using this book to gather all of the issues into one place can assist with streamlining your efforts. Midway into the book, you will find brief outlines of two leadership models to use with youth. To fully understand their usefulness with your program, I encourage you to read the supporting materials for both (The Social Change Model of Leadership and The Leadership Challenge). These models were selected because, from my experience working with teens, they seem to connect easily with both these approaches. Youth leadership behaviors tend to be community- oriented, often emphasizing fairne - from Amzon