Mentorship-based Theater Arts Support of Positive Youth Development across STEAM

To use a human centered design process to partner with community co-designers to understand how mentorship within a developmentally positive environment supports the mediators of reflection, belonging, and meaning-making to increase neurodiverse students' self-advocacy, self-perception, self-purpose, and ultimately in service of promoting academic performance, thriving and well-being. The purpose of our project is to explore how the components of metacognition play a unique part in shaping the psychological and social landscape of young individuals with learning differences. Our study will examine how the effective application of these assets can transcend theatre arts through STEAM environments to support diverse learners with continuity throughout their learning experience.