I worked at the YMCA at Castille Elementary. The site serves students from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade. I helped out in the Kindergarten-First Grade group majority of the time. One of the first theories I see present at the YMCA Castille site is academic improvement. According to Expanded Learning & Afterschool: Opportunities for Student Success, “When youth like their afterschool program, they show improvement in the classroom (Kataoka). When youth report positive afterschool experiences, teachers report gains in the classroom” (pg 3). I observed this before at the site. The students were entering the program after school. One of the students was walking alongside their teacher. The staff greeted the teacher. The teacher said hello and wanted to give an update on the student’s improvement in class. She explained that she could tell that the Y was benefitting the student and helping improve their academics. The student was turning in assignments on time which was a struggle beforehand. From my observation, I could tell that the teacher, student, YMCA Staff, and the parents were all working together as a team to improve the student’s academics. It sounded like this wasn’t the first update that had taken place. This showed me that this student has support in all areas ensuring their needs are being met and improvement is taking place. . I have noticed that the site has structure that they enforce with goals. According to Huang, “Goals are clear, rigorous, and supported across the program in structure and content” (pg 2). Based off of my observations, I would say that their program has set goals. As you walk into their classroom, the staff have put up posters with their goals and standards of the program. In the kindergarten-first grade classroom the staff had the students write up a list of rules/goals. They set up this list on the wall to remind the students the proper way to act in the classroom as well as the goals of the program. Looking back at when I was going through the process of getting cleared to volunteer, I noticed they focus a lot on quality leadership. Even just as a volunteer, I had to read and agree to the standards of their program. I had to agree to uphold their standards and goals of the YMCA. At first I thought it was kind of ridiculous for volunteers to agree to uphold their standards of quality leadership. After thinking about it, it makes sense that everyone who participates in the YMCA, whether an employee or volunteer, upholding the program standards is important. Another theory I’ve seen that needs improvement line up with the positive youth development (PYD) practice that states “creating a supportive environment that has high expectations and allows students to engage with their program”. One thing I feel about this program that needs improvement is just an overall engagement from students. The students do not seem connected with the program. I think by showing the students their support for them and also holding high expectation would show them that their program cares and is there for them. The students seem to just show up to program and not have a connection with the staff or program in a while. The activities done in the YMCA that I volunteer at all fall under structured voluntary activities. The activities are structured and run by an adult in an out-of-school environment. An example of this is when we had an activity in our classroom that involved dinosaurs. One of the students is a big dinosaur fan. Because of his motivation to do the activity and his interest in the subject, the student was eager and had initiative to be the activity helper. While this was not during the school day, this activity sparked in interest in this student. In the fieldwork site I am at, the staff use a lot of “if-then” statements. In the kindergarten/first grade classroom, the students use these statements every day. We were reading a book the other day and it talked about the weather. One example was the staff member said, “if it is sunny outside, then what might you see?” The students each rose their hands and said, “I would see the sun”. When we were working on an addition problem, the staff member said, “if 2+3+5, then 3+2=5”. We discussed how no matter the order of the math sentence, the answer was still the same. We also had an issue the other week regarding two students not following directions during a fire drill. The staff explained that if students are not listening and following direction, then they could possibly get hurt. The staff explained the importance of listening and following directions always, especially during fire drills. . Lastly, I have observed the students using interpersonal skills in program. When the students get into disputes with each other they are encouraged to communicate and use the situations as a learning experience for the future. One time two students were fighting over the glue sticks. One of the students was actually helping the other student by giving them glue but they misunderstood and thought they were stealing the glue from him. After encouraging them to communicate, the situation was handled and they were able to collaborate together by passing out the rest of the glue to everyone. The students are constantly encouraged to communicate and collaborate together in program. I believe the program does a great job of using the situations that come up as a learning opportunity and a chance to implement these skills. I do not believe that they plan situations to happen so that they can teach a lesson. I believe these situations just happen and the staff use them as an opportunity to correct behavior and teach these skills. In the program I used to work for, they would use lesson plans to teach certain enrichment activities that used collaboration and problem solving to teach some of these SEL skills. I have not observed lessons being taught to these students at my fieldwork.