University Catalogs

Twin Cities campus

This is archival data. This system was retired as of August 21, 2023 and the information on this page has not been updated since then. For current information, visit catalogs.umn.edu.

Twin Cities Campus

Youth Studies Minor

School of Social Work

College of Education and Human Development

Program Type: Undergraduate minor related to major
Requirements for this program are current for Spring 2018
Required credits in this minor: 16

The youth studies is a 16-credit undergraduate minor that addresses youth as an idea, youth as young people, youthhood as the everyday lives of young people, and the responses of communities to this population. Participants in the youth studies minor learn about and critically analyze at a beginning level the families of ideas, models, concepts, discourses, and ways of understanding, responding to, and working with young people. Participants craft their unique program from among the required designated courses to prepare for graduate training/education in the many scholarly and youth work professional fields. Participants do not become trained workers with youth nor receive any certification to do youth work in any participating field.

Program Delivery

This program is available:

via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)

Minor Requirements

Youth Studies Minor Courses

YOST 1001 - Seeing Youth, Thinking Youth: Media, Popular Media, and Scholarship [CIV] (3.0 cr)

Youth Studies Electives

Electives to be chosen in consultation with youth studies adviser.

Take exactly 13 credit(s) from the following:

· YOST 3xxx

· YOST 4xxx

View college catalog(s):
· College of Education and Human Development

View future requirement(s):
· Fall 2022
· Fall 2020
· Fall 2018

View sample plan(s):
· Youth Studies Minor

View checkpoint chart:
· Youth Studies Minor

View PDF Version:

Youth Studies Minor

Search Programs

Search University Catalogs

College of Education and Human Development

TC Undergraduate Admissions

TC Undergraduate Application

One Stop
for tuition, course registration, financial aid, academic calendars, and more

Twin Cities Campus:

YOST 1001 - Seeing Youth, Thinking Youth: Media, Popular Media, and Scholarship (CIV)

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall & Spring

This course is an invitation to meet and engage with the field of Youth Studies. This is an introductory course to a subject you already know about ? you?ve lived its content; thought about it; you may even written poems, made a video or posted a meme about this life-moment. Since you know this so well, why take a university course on it? You will leave this course better able to notice the young people around you; wonder about them and their lives; name, describe and analyze what you see and hear and read about youth. This course is about all young people. This means that we are attentive to including material about youth from diverse backgrounds, many ethnic/racial, social class, linguistic, and geographic locations or those who have a variety of physical and mental capacities, those who are ?normal? and ?typical? and those who are ?not?. Together, we will examine myths and stereotypes about youth, where they come from, and how to deconstruct them using a variety of lenses-- social, popular and news media, young adult novels, academic articles, biographies, and more. We will do this through engaging class discussions and activities. You will learn how to use critical ethnography ?in the field? where you will observe and write about youth in a variety of settings including malls, sporting events, busses, coffee shops, and music venues. We believe that an introductory college course is a space and time to reflect, analyze, and learn about what matters to you, about who you are and about the work others have done and what you want to do. In these ways, this course introduces ways of being an engaged and thoughtful student, citizen and professional, all of which require critical thinking skills and an ability to work across difference and diversity. In this course, students will develop skills in assessment, reflection/reflexivity, deconstruction, empathy and judgement; all precursors for professional decision-making in careers like youth work, policy, public health, education, communications, and other fields. We hope this course may lead to reflecting on your occupational future and vocational call.