Youth programs as powerful settings for social and emotional learning | Natalie Rusk
Channel: Extension Center for Youth Development Training and Events
Date: 2015-07-17

Youth development programs are uniquely positioned to support social and emotional learning; young people engage in real-world projects, work in teams, take on meaningful roles, face challenges, and experience the accompanying emotional ups and downs. This symposium , featuring Reed Larson, Lisa Bouillion Diaz and Natalie Rusk focused on promoting social and emotional learning in youth program settings, and strategies experienced leaders use to facilitate development of skills such as strategic thinking and emotional management.

Natalie Rusk is a researcher and developer at the MIT Media Lab, specializing in designing programs that build on young people’s ideas and interests. She is one of the creators of the Scratch programming languageand is co-founder of theComputer Clubhouse after-school program. She researches adolescents' learning about emotions as part of the Pathways Research Project at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her PhD in child development at Tufts University.