{"id":19391,"date":"2023-03-06T08:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T08:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=19391"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:30:47","slug":"supporting-youth-development-with-sense-and-sensitivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/supporting-youth-development-with-sense-and-sensitivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Youth Development with Sense and Sensitivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Landed is an ongoing series where we ask recent graduates how things are going post-graduation. Here, we talk with Joselyn Angeles-Figueroa \u201921 about her work to support community-centric youth development nationwide.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Though she never could have imagined herself as a senior research assistant when she started college\u2014\u201cI did the thing every Mac first-year does: joined international studies because I didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do!\u201d\u2014Joselyn Angeles-Figueroa \u02bc21 has found her focus a year out from graduation at Child Trends, a Maryland-based research organization that partners with practitioners and policymakers to supplement potential solutions to issues facing children in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

In her role, Angeles-Figueroa helps conduct surveys and psychological studies to produce independent research on the state of childhood development. \u201cWe work to identify the gaps in healthcare or social service access in early childhood, like food stamps or housing supports,\u201d she says. It\u2019s a calling she\u2019s been passionate about since she first discovered her love of working with children through volunteering experiences at Mac.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one such experience, Angeles-Figueroa was placed in a low-income charter school in St. Paul, where she witnessed how socioeconomic challenges can affect children. \u201cThat recognition made me reflect on my own past growing up in Title I schools,\u201d she says. \u201cIt pushed me to continue supporting education and my communities through research.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Continuing to build on her passion for community support, Angeles-Figueroa\u2019s personal research interests <\/span>include racial and ethnic equity, criminal justice, and ethnic identity construction. She\u2019s been dedicated to supporting communities of color, especially Latin American, and<\/span> describes this as a drive nurtured by Macalester.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMacalester gave me the framework to be able to respectfully enter different communities, and not speak for them, but to support them in their advocacy,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this sensitive work, she says she’s grateful for how her education prepared her for mindful research principles when approaching different communities. \u201cWe can\u2019t be extorting people to just tell us their life stories,\u201d she says. \u201cMacalester made it so that I always approach research situations that way. I\u2019ve never had to question how to change my research\u2014that was always a foundational aspect of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Angeles-Figueroa reflected on her experiences at an October panel for sociology majors\u2014here\u2019s her advice for students from all majors:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    \u201cWork does not stop! It\u2019s important to take the time that you need if you\u2019re able before you enter the workforce.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    \u201cI was surprised by how nice people are. I had this idea that the professional world was malicious and awful, but so many professionals I\u2019ve met want to see you grow and improve.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \n
    \u201cThe Macalester network does work. The people I met there were so kind and willing to help. That sticks with you\u2014the attitude you gain from being at Mac.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    At Macalester, Joselyn Angeles-Figueroa \u201921 discovered her passion for working with kids. A year later, she\u2019s working to support community-centric youth development across the country. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":19393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-engagement","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":[{"ID":19393,"id":19393,"title":"IMG-20230205-WA0008","filename":"IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560.jpg","filesize":228719,"url":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/supporting-youth-development-with-sense-and-sensitivity\/img-20230205-wa0008\/","alt":"","author":"677","description":"","caption":"Joselyn Angeles-Figueroa \u201921 works from her home office.","name":"img-20230205-wa0008","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":19391,"date":"2023-02-07 15:51:25","modified":"2023-02-24 14:25:14","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2000,"height":1125,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560-1536x864.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2023\/02\/IMG-20230205-WA0008-e1677248697560.jpg","2048x2048-width":2000,"2048x2048-height":1125}}],"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19587,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19391\/revisions\/19587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}