Clayton Sipiora

The WildWoods Foundation A case study.

This paper was a very engaging process, as it was written about an organization I referenced many times in the Youth Development Leadership program, The WildWoods Foundation. I have been profoundly involved and loosely involved with the organization for over five years, and I have a deep affinity for the organization and its work for Los Angeles youth. This paper and others had me deconstruct the organization, pulling apart the espoused concepts, practices, and goals.

During my exploration of the core concepts of the WildWoods Foundation and discussions with staff and the Executive Director, I created a formal framework for the organization presented in the paper. This was a transformational moment for me within the YDL program; I took things I had learned while working there, picked up in discussions and training, and even presented the lessons and formalized them, but had not had the education or the language to create an informed discussion or exploration of the organization and its processes. I now had the knowledge and a language to explain the concepts I knew and understood as an experienced youth development professional. I could now explain the “how” more confidently and competently, using concepts learned in this course.

In the paper, I recommended creating a more solid and strategic funding source; creating more financial resources would allow WildWoods to retain staff and create an invested and returning group of educators. While the leadership at WildWoods did not approach the problem as I had suggested, the organization partnered with the LA STEM Collective to create a network of non-profits and has accomplished this goal.

This paper was not one of the most vigorous and in-depth pieces produced during my time in the YDL program; the discussion and investigation of the organization were relatively superficial. I was tempered in my writing by personal feelings of connection to the organization, not appreciating how a constructive deconstruction and analysis would only be beneficial to strengthening the organization. This and the other paper in YDP 8000, “Youth Friendly Communities,” have influenced how I view communities and organizations serving youth.

Since writing this paper, I have interviewed for several jobs. During each interview, I used the ideas presented in the paper while discussing programs and the organization with potential employers. Breaking down what the leadership wants to accomplish in the organization and how those implementing the mission and goals accomplish these benchmarks has given me a clear insight into the organization.

Equipping Quality Youth Development Professionals, Blindfold Walk

This paper/project challenged me and had me working through and thinking through activities I had led, why I had chosen them, and what made them successful. It was not enough to say an activity was successful; bringing in theory, reasoning, and methodology to explain the activity and its use was necessary to complete the paper.

This activity is why I enrolled in the Youth Development Leadership program. I wanted to create a curriculum for outdoor educators and have the knowledge and theory behind why activities were chosen and implemented. While writing this paper, I found myself frustrated because the activity I was describing, blindfold walk, was an activity I had led possibly a hundred times but explaining it in writing felt very foreign. This stretched and pushed me to flush out the activity; while I had done similar descriptions in translating in-person activities to virtual ones, they had not been as intense and in-depth.

Having led this activity during the paper development was one of my favorite memories while working as the Assistant Director at camp. This is one of the few times I was able to lead the office and not just interact with the youth but also lead them in an activity. Hindsight being 20/20, this should have been a wake-up call for me; being in the office all day and focusing on the facility and dining hall management created a negative environment for me personally and professionally.

Since writing the E-QYP, I have changed jobs and taken on more freelance work where I have had the pleasure of doing teambuilding activities. After one teambuilding day with a group of high schoolers, I reflected on the day and began writing out activities, categorizing them, and creating a list of games that could be used. This has also given me a written record of what has worked well with groups and what can be improved.

Logic model for the Elings Science and Math Camp

For this assignment, I was instructed to develop a logic model for a program or organization I was involved with, develop the program concept, account for the inputs and assumptions, and list the short, medium, and long-term goals (of the program). Since the program I was basing my logic model on was recently developed, a new curriculum had been written to expand on an existing one. I had assumed there would be an existing or at least a rough sketch of a logic model.

The program that had been developed was an outdoor science school, a week-long program that taught STEM/STEAM concepts to youth and was central to fundraising for the organization. A revelation I had while developing this logic model was that this was not the first organization I had worked for that had not mapped out the landscape of their program; they knew, or assumed, it worked and continued presenting the program. This class and YDP 8040 Assessment and Evaluation of Youth Programs helped me to look at how to measure and dig into a program and understand the how, what, and why a program has success or not.

Developing the logic model was initially daunting, but then it was easy to work through. Taking aspects of the program I knew, digging into the reasonings and intended outcomes, and then translating them into the chart was a very engaging process that I repeated for other programs at my camp. I learned by sharing this with my program lead, and superiors was that they were disinterested in the outcomes and more interested in the financial opportunities this may create.

Perfect is an idea we work for, and in a perfect world, youth programs, like the one the logic model was created for, would be developed for the sake of the recipient, as Oscar Wilde said, “Art for Art’s sake.” Developing the logic model illustrated that there must be champions of making a program better, continuing to develop them for those receiving them, and appreciating how an organization must continue to create revenue.

The logic model created was a good first step, an introduction to developing the idea of a program and what is set out to be accomplished. The artifact tracks the program and develops what happens and what results are expected; without evaluation, this is only theoretical. In developing my teambuilding programs and involvement in nature-based programming progresses, I now have the skill to develop a logic model and present these to individuals and organizations.

Motivation Paper: Camp Whittier, the Place of Ever-Changing Leadership and Direction.

Reflecting on this paper/artifact feels very uncomfortable, and I wrote this shortly after a management change occurred. At the time, we had seven staff not in leadership roles, facility, and dining hall staff, and I interviewed four.

The X Y theory of motivation, while discussed briefly, was an essential framework for the paper and the discussion of the results. Most of the staff were happy to be a part of the organization because of what they contributed to the mission and overall success of the camp. We all loved what we did for the youth and people who attended the camp, and I include myself in this statement.

This paper was written shortly after a leadership change had occurred; a new camp director was brought in rather abruptly and unceremoniously, replacing the old director, who believed strongly in the X theory that staff only work for a paycheck and are not self-motivated. The new director seemed to be more of the Y theory, only to show he was more Laissez-faire in his staff management.

When I wrote this paper, I had high hopes that the camp and the job would be more accessible and that we would rise out of a slump that had been apparent since I had started at the location. Over the next nine months, four staff either quit, transferred, or resigned from their position. A common thread was that even though they had wanted to stay and loved their job, the organization's management had made their job untenable.

This paper, the series of events that followed, and reflecting on it taught a very important lesson. While people are self-motivated to accel at their job, the administration must trust their employees' intrinsic motivations and give them the support they need to succeed.

Case Study of BioEcological Systems

This was one of the least loved artifacts I created in the YDL program; this artifact made me push and feel uncomfortable by interviewing a friend about their child and discussing parenting and familial choices. Had I been able to interview a family with whom I had a strictly professional relationship, the project would have been much easier.

The artifact had me look at choices and relationships within the family, or in this case, augmented family structure. Through researching for this paper, I looked at the augmented family structure and deepened my knowledge of an unfamiliar topic.

This artifact taught me the importance of outside structures and supports, often occurring in out-of-school time programs. I learned more about the way that programs, like organizations that I have worked with, can give support not only to youth but also to the families served. While the family interviewed does not utilize many of these programs, the need is nonexistent; those families that do need and utilize these programs (can) see significant benefits.

Equipped with the knowledge from this artifact, I can advocate for programs and organizations to develop organizational relationships that include parents and their youth. Programs that support parents in their development, highlighting structures and systems that create uniformity and ease transitions from differing households.

Groundwork for DEI as a Leader in the Outdoor Education Industry in Southern California

This paper was written with a bit of fervor, and the class fueled me to rethink how organizations were run and what could be done to improve them. My mode of change was to encourage more pieces of staff training, and this would encourage learning and development in individuals, ultimately changing the face and the whole of the outdoor education industry.

The writing quality did not match the passion for the topic, and the paper was intensely retroactively edited.

The paper made me think about an industry I care for dearly and look deep into the current systemic issues. I used an organization I was familiar with as the model, but the issues of race and exclusion of non-able-bodied individuals are apparent in many outdoor education organizations.

This specific artifact will exist just as an artifact, a work to remind me that change is necessary in the industry and is possible. Creating the artifact illustrates how change is possible, a pathway to create similar changes in other organizations and youth-serving institutions.

Evaluation of the Elings Science and Math Camp

Poster: The Elings Science and Math Camp Evaluation

This artifact, an evaluation plan for the Elings Science and Math Camp, took me into lines of thinking about connecting youth with nature and outcomes and ways of measuring those connections that had not been considered before. While I had read studies and papers on the topic, writing an actual evaluation plan, taking theoretical (to me) concepts, and transforming them into a plan was a labor of love.

It is worth noting that at the start of the class, I was working for the organization where I wrote the evaluation plan, and at the end of the class, I was no longer employed by them. This was a lesson for me in knowing an organization and appreciating its motivations, growth, developing quality instruction, and proving that results were not pressing.

Learning how to write an evaluation taught me an appreciation for evaluations and a better understanding of the modes and methods in papers. While currently unable to fully understand the math and process evaluation results on my own, I do understand aspects of them better.

Currently situated in a new organization that values the quality of instruction and is connected to its goals and mission, I would like to use the NR-6 (nature relatedness scale) and evaluate programs. Taking the developed plan and adapting its core to a new organization is an exciting prospect.

Critical Analysis: Understanding why Culture and Race Limit Outdoor Time, in relation to Outdoor Educators

This paper took my experiences as an outdoor educator and took a direct and nuanced look at how I related and presented programming to the youth in my care. Taking from the class the importance of time in nature for youth and juxtaposing how many people face barriers to entry based on race and socio-economic status.

A profound moment occurred during this class or YDP 8060: Youth Development in the Context of a Global and Diverse Society. While leading foster youth on a summer day camp program to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, many caregivers asked if the kids would be safe; my assumption was fear of the natural elements, flora, and fauna. Only later was the realization that the caregivers worried that their Latino youth were entering a white space, less governed than a museum or manufactured location.

This paper was the continuation of steps to learn from and about the barriers and limitations faced by youth in my care. In the section about getting youth outdoors, I discussed the issues presented to Los Angeles, now living in Santa Barbara, just 90 miles north; the barriers to entry are different yet related. This artifact provides me with a framework to build upon and concepts to keep in mind when developing plans and solutions for breaking down barriers to access for all.

I have continued to work with youth in the outdoors, developing strategies for access that are culturally responsive and appreciative. While continuing with the goal of accessibility for all, this personal mission has grown to include non-able-bodied individuals.

Artifact and reflection will be added on completion of the assignment.

Leadership and Cultural Changes at Camp Whittier

Hindsight is always 20/20, or so they say. This paper made me look at the organization I worked for and evaluate the camp's leadership. Comparing two directors, I considered how both managed and evaluated the staff and what those management styles looked like, compared them, and analyzed them. A more helpful evaluation would have to evaluate the leader of the whole organization.

The camp's leadership discussed positives, but they were overshadowed by how the CEO directed the organization. An important lesson is reiterated in the reflection of this artifact; an organization is impacted from the top down. No matter the empowerment and bringing in staff to make decisions and improvements to the camp can counteract top-down decisions that undermine these staff-based improvements.

I now have a more critical eye, understanding, and appreciation for quality leaders. The ability to better recognize competent and quality direction is an essential and powerful tool. The HARD goals that Murphy explains in his book by the same name is a tool that can be utilized in small and larger scale leadership roles.