Our Process
What does SOUL stand for?
(SOUL stands for) Self Organized Useful Learning edventures (SOUL edventures).
Our SOUL Process is grounded in the understanding that we best construct our learning by using our resilience and Web of Support to open new windows of knowledge, along with more doors to opportunity. Agora College is a place where each learner engages in constructing the education they need to become a competent lifelong Web Weaver who sees in Full Color.
The certification process balances the tension between self-organized learning, structured coursework, and WebUp-inars from IYD leadership. All learning will be based upon the IYD framework of metrics and measures and be supported by professionals of your choosing who will Anchor each of your SOUL contracts.
Your learning will require a great deal of communication (journaling, video or sound recordings, blogging, note-taking, reviewing, and commenting) and regular conversations with your Anchors and other members of the IYD learning community.
With a Focus on Youth Development, Personal Growth, and Social Evolution, Agora College's Certificate in Youth/Anchor Development believes that we can become the author of our own lives by maximizing the tangible and intangible resources available to us.
In our certification process, you will intentionally construct your own edventures toward self-authoring and be a model and guide for others.
Portfolio
Your Professional portfolio is essential to showcase your knowledge and competence in IYD to outside agencies, clients, employers, and colleagues.
- It will showcase your SOUL edventures and their outcomes.
- It will serve as a collection of your learning and letters from your Anchors describing what you learned and practiced.
Using the SOUL™ Process
Agora College gets to the SOUL of youth and Anchor development.
You will explore the nine measurable metrics of Integrative Youth Development™ and use them in working with individuals, PH-family™, and community transformation and evolution.
We will work alongside you to conceptualize, develop, plan and complete a series of Self Organized Useful Learning edventures (SOUL edventures).
Application in the Community You Serve
Applied experiential learning (Edventures) is our SOUL process's beginning and end. All learners will have accomplishments and life experiences that they value and have informed their worldview.
Each edventure will have at least one hand's on real-life learning for you to validate the lesson, adapt it to your practice, and improve it if needed.
Real-world learning, internships, and other experiences outside of books, papers, and online learning, are essential to your certification to be a Youth Developmental Ecologist.