Vanguard Youth

Vision

The purpose of this group is to empower the youth with a sense of personal mission and enable them to move forward with that mission by:
(1) Teaching service-oriented leadership
(2) Giving them the modes/means of individual communication
as they find value in their own unique mission
(3) Creating an environment of respect, decency, trust, and confidence
(4) Encouraging faith in personal source of truth

Mentor’s Code of Honor
No student will be pressured or even asked to accept any mentor’s core faith. We are going to create an environment where faith in God and faith in Christ are openly discussed and linked to personal education and mission. No one will feel that they need to be apologetic
about their belief.
We will strive to provide:
outside positive influences; an inspiring peer environment allowing them to feel confidence in themselves; caring mentors; and opportunities to grow in faith and testimony.
We seek to:
allow all participants to feel free to develop uniquely; challenge them to develop their personal inner strength, and encourage them to strengthen their faith in Christ as we show connections between personal beliefs/religion and education; encourage an increased sense of responsibility for own actions in their home (also with regards to work ethic); and provide a setting free of demeaning or harmful criticism.
The youth and leaders in this group will adhere to high moral standards, dress modestly, use clean language, show respect towards mentors, visiting instructors and each other, abiding by the principles found within the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet
available through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We will be meeting at a specified five hour block each week. This group is intended to be a transition-to-scholar/practice scholar group for youth ages 12 and up. We limit it to approximately 10 youth. My goal in this group is to create an inspiring environment with elements of personal challenge, positive peer encouragement, and inspiring mentors that will motivate our youth to be passionate for the Scholar phase referred to in the Thomas Jefferson Education educational philosophy. I also want to expose them to the "five environments of learning": tutorial, lecture, mentor, simulations, and coaching, and give them the opportunity to experience the practice-scholar phase.

We have the class set up to allow them to progress at their own speed and volition through three levels of scholarship, which we have dubbed, "Apprentice", "Journeyman", and "Master". For many of the classes, we have a set of "inspirements" suggested to them to help them both come to class better prepared to engage in a discussion about it, and to allow them to pursue areas of interest beyond what our limited class time allotment will allow.

We also feel that it is important to include elements of faith in God and religion in this group. We treat this like a LDS private school, where people of other faiths are invited to attend. No student will be pressured or even asked to accept any mentor's core faith. However, we are going to encourage an environment where faith in God and faith in Christ are openly discussed and linked to personal education and mission. No one will feel that they need to be apologetic about their belief.

Parent's vision: Outside positive influences, inspiring peer environment, impactful experience, grow in faith and testimony, free to develop uniquely, challenging/develop inner strength, strengthen faith in Christ (show connections between personal beliefs/religion and education, caring mentors, increased responsibility for own actions in their home (also with regards to work ethic), environment to instill confidence in themselves, free of demeaning or harmful criticism.

Mission statement:

We will engage in a respectful and inspiring peer environment
that will not only help us grow in our faith, but will help us feel free to develop our unique strengths as well as a passion for learning that will allow us to better ourselves,
our families, our communities, and, ultimately, the world.
We, the Vanguard Youth, accept the challenge to move forward in our pursuit

of right and truth.

Each week we will begin with a devotional, which will include a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, quote and a brief, seminary-like lesson based on the Bible and Book of Mormon.

(The first three will be conducted and assigned by the youth). The scriptures will reinforce the central issue/principle we are talking about that month. The lessons will also rotate through or include: heroes in the scriptures, memorized scripture challenges, scripture chases, and object lessons.

Each of the following categories of classes will be held each week. The order on some of the classes are subject to change, based on the activities planned:

Monthly set-up:

Geo Geniuses: The idea behind this class is to get the youth familiar enough with the world that they will not only be able to easily recognize the location of many of the countries and major cities of the world, but they will have a feeling of some of the cultures within each continent/country. They will be filling a "passport" and be participating in Geography Bee challenges to keep their knowledge and interest sharp.

1st week: Overview of particular continent–will introduce a new continent with maps/activities, feature a country or culture, etc.

2nd week: Ancient history about some aspect of that continent

3rd week: Youth/Mentors projects: the youth will be encouraged to come with some kind of project to reflect what they have learned or want to learn more about a country or the whole continent. In their folders we will have list of ideas for them, like drawing a physical feature map, highlighting a country of interest with a story, guest, food dish, 10 words in a language from that country, a report, picture of flag, dance...whatever! It could be a scribble of the shape of Africa on a piece of paper with "Africa" printed on it. The focus of this part of the class is "Inspire, not Require" and I really believe they will catch on the vision of this part.

4th week: Modern history about that continent. We encourage the youth to come with snippets from the news about the continent of focus for that month and we record them on video camera as an ongoing "Vanguard World in a Minute--documentary", to be shown at the end of the year "cultural dinner" for our families we will be hosting. We will also have our Geography Bees at this time. The youth will be on two teams that they will remain on throughout the year. Each team will earn points each month and they will be cumulative through the year. The questions are provided by the youth onto index cards based on information presented during the previous three weeks.

Face to Face with Einstein: the study of Math/Science/Logic: The first two weeks we will focus on living math and biographies of those who contributed to these areas...ideas from "A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe", "String, Straight Edge, and Shadow" and "Mathematicians are People, too" volumes I and II. We also be play a lot of math games. One of these weeks we will also be working on what we call "Synergy of the Mind": group projects that introduce or reinforce math/science skills. The final week we will have our Face-to-face with Einstein project where each of the youth will take a turn immersing us in a science project or concept. They each have one month out of the eight (some months we have twoyouth do it). Weplay "Scum", a board/card game I have that actually centers on the food chain which we will play if we ever have time :). We will honor who is at the top of the food chain at the end of the year . (Maybe with a steak :)?)

Service=Success: Service Projects and Business mentoring

1st week will be an ongoing, world changing project.

2nd week: discuss some business concept/play business game led by business mentors, who work with the youth in starting their own unique business plan and will follow through to help them succeed, or, if they fail or change their mind, give them the tools to start again. We will also be teaching basic budgeting skills, like those in Dave Ramsey's books, Janine Bolon's, and Junior Achievement.

3rd week: each youth has one chance over the course of a year to lead us in a service project. These will help satisfy church and scouting requirements, as well. These will many times be local, which is an important concept–to be able to reach out to those in our very community who are in need.

4th week: visit experts or field trips to areas of business to find out how they operate or have guest speakers come.

Leadership Academy: this is the heart of Vanguard Youth. The concept of this class is to teach underlying components to a successful society based on the basic tenets taught and studied by the founding fathers: the right to life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness, right to worship God, the role of the citizen, the role of the government, common decency, individual responsibility to care for family and community, all men are created equal, and the issue of trading freedom for security. Eventually we will tie in these concepts as found and preserved in the Constitution.

We will also focus on a specific principle that was a foundation of our country, found in "A 5,000 Year Leap", the Catechism for the US Constitution from 1828, and the concept of "Natural Law" by Cicero that I have studied. These include common decency, individual responsibility to care for family and community, all men are created equal, we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness , and the issue of trading freedom for security.

1st week: Art class: we focus on pieces of art from the "Picturing America"series (which we actually use throughout the other classes as well), and do an art lesson associated with that. We will also explore different mediums of art and ways art has been used to affect our heritage. We are also going to coordinate occasional field trips to art museums.

2nd week: we will utilize the precepts found in the "Start Something" packet (free) found on the internet and originating with Tiger Woods. (Order one for your family and check it out!) Wel have many activities with this class that encourage personal development, character building, and responsibility to the community around us. We have also been fortunate enough to have a mentor teach us about diversity this week.

3rd week: simulations and biographies

4th week We will be discussing books that tie into the principle, and are interesting and thought-provoking. This year to start on a more basic, easier level we are reading "The Door in the Wall", "Chasing Vermeer", "The Red Scarf Girl", "Little Britches", "The Seven Wonders of Sassafrass Springs", "The Giver", "The Whipping Boy", and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", "City of Ember".

In addition to the weekly classes, we hold monthly or bi-monthly optional activities. These activities are not exclusive, and we open it up for the youth to invite friends from their local communities to join them as well for these positive peer environment evenings. Part of this intent is to eliminate any feelings of elitism that could arise from too strong of a specific peer environment.

1. movie nights featuring media entertainment that reinforce the principle we are studying that month. We encourage parental supervision over these movies.

2.family nights where the youth coordinate and organize a fun family-centered activity that enables them to interact with different ages and provide activities to suit a broad range of individuals. Then our youth will play host that night, and help them learn even further how to lose themselves through service.

3. game nights where the youth can get together and play those games that reinforce what we are learning so well but just take extra time, like Risk, Settlers of Catan, Monopoly.

4. outdoor activities: hikes, outdoor explore /experiences etc. (Like snowshoeing in the winter...)

We will also have an optional "Baptisms for the Dead" group going once a month, for those who would like to participate.

Each youth has a Tome outlining the above with the "inspirements" that we expect or hope to have the youth complete with each class. Some classes have no "inspirements", and some have consistent "inspirements", with others lying somewhere between those two extremes.