Mapping Teens’ Journeys in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Youth Leadership Team Pilot Program

Program Evaluation
Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: Smithsonian National Museum of American History | Location: Washington, DC | Funding: Together We Thrive grant

 
 

On behalf of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, we documented teen participants’ journey of the Museum’s Youth Leadership Team pilot program, which sought to center youth voices in the planning and development as part of its National Youth Summit.

OVERVIEW

In 2024, Kera Collective was contracted by the National Museum of American History to explore teens’ experiences with and Smithsonian Affiliates educators’ reflections on the Museum’s 2023 Youth Leadership Team (YLT) pilot program. The Youth Leadership Team is a collaboration between the Museum, Smithsonian Affiliates and affiliated museums, and youth participants recruited from across the country to co-develop program content and materials for the National Youth Summit. Founded in 2011, the Museum has hosted eleven National Youth Summits during which middle school and high school students, activists, teachers, policy experts, and scholars are invited to gather to discuss connections between American history and present-day national issues. The Youth Leadership Team sought to intervene in the summit’s planning process, emphasizing co-creation and youth agency as ways to incorporate youth voices into multiple aspects of the summit. 

As the YLT pilot program entered its first year, evaluation served as a reflection tool, especially in documenting youth participants’ journey throughout the program and SI Affiliate educators’ and youth leaders’ feedback for future iterations of YLT. Ultimately, the evaluation aimed to inform the development of a sustainable Youth Leadership Team model that brings diverse teen perspectives into National Youth Summit planning.

APPROACH

To provide a holistic view of the pilot program, we designed an evaluation with three distinct but interrelated parts:

  • Journey Mapping Focus Groups: Journey mapping is a process of articulating and visualizing the process one goes through (in this case, the YLT program) to achieve a goal. We facilitated two interactive, remote focus groups with teen participants that explored their “journey” through the program, including their motivations for joining and their feelings, goals, and questions during and at the program’s end. 

  • Surveys: Teen participants completed a survey at the program’s end. This survey measured participants’ individual growth in relation to the program’s intended outcomes and gathered feedback from teen participants.  

  • Educator Reflections: We developed a reflection tool for SI Affiliate educators to reflect on their interactions with teens; the 15-minute reflection tool was shared with educators, offering new reflection questions once a month. We also facilitated a group discussion where educators shared what they learned while recruiting and supporting teen participants.

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

Overall, we found that the YLT pilot program effectively met its outcomes for teen participants, especially in building relationships with peers and Smithsonian staff. The program created space for teens to build confidence, learn from others, connect with peers across the country, and learn more about history and museum work. Relationship building was a core part of the program—teens formed trusting relationships with their fellow peers, Museum staff, and Smithsonian Affiliates educators. As a result, participants felt comfortable sharing their thoughts and felt valued as co-creators. Moreover, educators found the YLT pilot program “energizing” and “inspiring”—it was heartening to witness youth-led spaces and collaborate with enthusiastic youth leaders and other Smithsonian museums. Feedback from youth participants and SI educators also revealed specific program elements that stood out (especially in terms of supporting participants’ personal goals and the program’s intended outcomes), thus affirming and further clarifying a framework for future YLT programming. 

To learn more about the Youth Leadership Team pilot and the Youth Summits, please visit s.si.edu/nys.

Cathy Sigmond

Cathy brings many years of experience in education and experience design to her role as Head of Strategy at Kera Collective. 

Having previously worked in a variety of educational settings, Cathy is driven by her constant fascination and delight at how people make discoveries about the familiar and the unfamiliar. 

Cathy loves helping to shape experiences that spark curiosity and make a difference in people’s lives. She particularly enjoys the rapid, iterative nature of design-based research and the deep insights that come from qualitative research, especially on projects exploring interactions with the digital and built environments. 

Cathy shares her passion for experience design research widely and regularly guest lectures for graduate programs, including the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Exhibition and Experience Design Program and the Pratt Institute’s School of Information. Cathy served as the co-chair of the Museum Computer Network’s Human-Centered Design special interest group from 2018-2021.

Outside of work, you can usually find Cathy playing soccer, thrifting, or making her way through her large cookbook collection. 

Cathy’s favorite museum experiences are immersive; she will always vividly remember walking through the giant heart at the Franklin Institute, being surrounded by birds at the Peabody Essex Museum, and hearing centuries-old instruments come to life at the Museum of Musical Instruments. 

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