Lessons Learned from Students Surveys in a Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) Program

The development of the (CAST) curriculum was spearheaded at Winona State University in collaboration with the National Child Protection Training Center a decade ago. By 2007, a full minor program and core curriculum were established and had been shared across the country as a model curriculum for undergraduates seeking careers as child-serving professionals. This paper will briefly review the development of the CAST curriculum, will outline two data collection projects among CAST students, will summarize the findings from these two questionnaires, and will incorporate lessons learned from students to provide other CAST and CAST-like programs with insight from our experiences.