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SERVICE-LEARNING ADVANCES
Spring 2009
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In this Issue:
- Service-Learning Policy Update
- Tips for Service-Learning Success: Going Green
- Service-Learning in the News
- Get Connected: New from the Partnership
- Information for Action: Journal for Research on Service-Learning for Children and Youth, spotlight on Teacher Education
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| SERVICE-LEARNING POLICY UPDATE |
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President Obama Signs Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act: Historic Legislation Expands Opportunities for Youth to Learn and Serve
On April 21, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which will dramatically expand national service opportunities. It increases authorized federal funding for service-learning from $43 million to $97 million and includes reforms to streamline and improve operations.
At the signing ceremony, the president spoke directly to the need to give more students the opportunity to serve as part of their education and reiterated his call to expand service-learning opportunities for young people.
- Watch President Obama make service-learning history.
- Read the White House Blog for the Administration's report on the signing event.
Among other things, the law creates Youth Engagement Zones, competitive grants for local school-community partnerships that commit to engage a majority of K-12 youth—with an emphasis on engaging all high school students—in a comprehensive continuum of service-learning opportunities in school and community-based programs.
The idea was proposed, conceptualized and developed by service-learning advocates during a service-learning forum hosted by the National Service-Learning Partnership on March 10, 2008 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. The Partnership provided ongoing leadership for the development process, including working group meetings, strategy sessions at the National Youth Leadership Council’s 2008 National Service-Learning Conference, conference calls and online discussions.
The Serve America Act also includes a “small state minimum” to ensure every state has adequate resources to provide service-learning. It creates Campuses of Service, recognizing colleges and universities that make a substantive commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. It also authorizes a semester of service and summer of service programming to help ensure that young people have year-round opportunities to learn through service across the nation.
- Read a summary of Serve America’s Service-Learning Highlights
Educators are encouraged by new provisions that encourage more strategic consultation between the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Education as well as by the increased emphasis on ongoing professional development based on nationally accepted service-learning practice standards.
The National Service-Learning Partnership was among the small crowd of supporters invited to witness President Obama sign The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. Also represented in the audience was Service-Learning United, the broad-based advocacy coalition of more than 100 local, state, and national organizations committed to advancing public policy for service-learning. The National Service-Learning Partnership convenes and administers Service-Learning United with generous support from the State Farm Insurance Companies Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
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| TIPS FOR SERVICE-LEARNING SUCCESS: GOING GREEN |
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Service-Learning and Environment Education: Rules of (a Green) Thumb
Vince Meldrum, an expert in environment education, offers these tips for educators seeking to integrating environmental themes and service-learning.
1) The environment is whatever is happening outside the building. You don’t have to go to a forest or a national park to find an environment to study. The best projects often come from examining whatever is growing right outside the front door.
2) Don’t be shy about contacting environmental nonprofits. From the smallest communities to the largest cities, environmental nonprofits are everywhere. No matter where you live, someone is addressing environmental concerns. Environmental organizations will almost always be ready, able, and willing to help—they’re in business of educating the public!
3) Good environmental education is service-learning. If you’re intimidated about taking on environmental issues, remember that environmental education is supposed to teach us about the biosphere, make us think about humans’ interaction with it, and motive and excite us to do something to make that interaction better. That definition, in a nutshell, is service-learning. You have the tools to teach environmental education—all you have to do is start digging!
Learn more about Earth Force, a partner of the National Service-Learning Exchange.
Visit NSLP Connections to connect to access FREE lesson plans, project descriptions, and other resources provided by Ana Soler of FrontRange Earth Force.
Earth Month Tips: It’s More than Just a Day
The Academy for Educational Development's Conservation team offers these ideas for an eco-friendly workplace, which can also be great inspiration for a service-learning activities in your school or community.
- Bring lunch in reusable containers.
- Switch from disposable to reusable cutlery.
- Turn computers off before going home.
- Turn off lights in unoccupied areas.
- Use compact fluorescent bulbs.
- Prevent vampire energy by unplugging devices that are in stand-by
mode: TVs, copiers, microwaves, phone chargers, printers, and radios. - Set printer to double-side printing by default.
- Walk, jog, carpool, or take public transportation.
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| SERVICE-LEARNING IN THE NEWS |
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Global Youth Service Day
On April 24 and 25, millions of young people from all over the world recognized a need in their community and worked to tackle it.
On his USA Today blog, Youth Service America President & CEO Steve Culbertson uses the event--now in its 21st year--to remind readers that young people are already involved in service. "Engaging youth in service is not merely to offer them a glimpse at how they can change the world in 20 years," he writes, "but also to encourage them to find solutions today."
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Read the blog and the Michelle Obama article that inspired Steve's blog. -
Watch brief videos of service-learning solutions in action.
Service-Learning News Headlines
Let us know if your local media recently featured your service-learning work. Email a weblink or PDF copy of your news story to nslp@aed.org with "SL NEWS" in the subject lines of your message.
Visit the Partnership's Online Newsroom to access more news stories and commentary from around the country.
Make this news work for you! Pass the news along to colleagues and potential partners to build awareness of service-learning in your school or community. |
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| GET CONNECTED: NEW FROM THE PARTNERSHIP |
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Webinar Opportunity: The Charismatic Organization with Shirley Sagawa
Just as charismatic people attract followers, charismatic organizations draw donors and champions. Learn how to restructure your organization to become more charismatic—and more effective.
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Download registration information and register by Monday, May 11, 2009.
2009 Grand Prize Submission for the 2009 We Are a Solution: Youth Changing the World through Service-Learning Multimedia Showcase
Everyday in schools and communities across the country—and in fact, the world—young people are daring to make a difference by using the skills and information learned in the classroom to create solutions to important community problems. With support from the State Farm® Companies Foundation, the National Service-Learning Partnership at the Academy for Educational Development is shining a bold spotlight on the many ways in which young people are changing the world through the We are a Solution: Youth Changing the World through Service-Learning Multimedia Showcase.
Congratulations to the 2009 Multimedia Showcase Grand Prize Entries:
“Through service-learning, young people take what we learn in the classroom and put it in action to create change in our communities. “ said high school senior Lisa Frank, who is a member of the Partnership’s Board of Directors. “This Multimedia Showcase gives us a much-needed forum where we can express what service-learning means to us, to our schools, and to our communities in our own words.”
“Young people are the most effective and persuasive spokespeople for service-learning, “ said NSLP Executive Director Nelda Brown. “We believe the videos, photo essays, and PowerPoint presentations submitted for the Multimedia Showcase helps us capture and harness the power of the first-hand stories and testimonies of youth engaged in service-learning. This online collection of success stories will be an important tool to help us advocate for service-learning using vivid pictures and real voices.”
Read the full press release.
Be a Solution: the 2009 National Learn & Serve Challenge: October 5-11, 2009
Mark your calendars: the 2009 National Learn & Serve Challenge is coming! Let’s continue to build the momentum for service-learning in schools and communities nationwide. Join your peers from around the country for a concentrated week of special events and community outreach activities designed to raise awareness and build support for service-learning.
- Watch this two-minute video to learn more about the Challenge and how it can help you spread the word about service-learning in your own school or community
- Email nslp@aed.org to sign up to receive Challenge updates and opportunities
- Email nslp@aed.org to add your school or organization’s name to the list of Proud Partners
How many people participated in the 2008 National Learn & Serve Challenge? Click here to find out.
Last year, more than 14 governors, chief state school officers and state policymakers endorsed service-learning during the Challenge. Click here to see many of the proclamations and resolutions issued during the Challenge.
Did you know the U.S. House of Representatives recognized the importance of service-learning and Learn and Serve America last fall? Click here to learn more about it. |
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| INFORMATION FOR ACTION: SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHER EDUCATION |
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The Partnership is pleased to announce the release of Information for Action: A Journal for Research on Service-Learning for Children and Youth, Volume I, Number 2.
The Journal is a peer-reviewed publication that features relevant, methodologically sound studies of service-learning impacts and examples of innovative instruction written by experts, scholars, practitioners, and youth.
- Click here to access the Journal.
Subscribe to the Journal. Just $8 for four issues a year and a compliementary year-end compilation. Single issues available for $5 and year-end compilation for $20. Online subscriptions will begin May 26. In the meantime, enjoy free access to the Journal until then.
Check out this month's featured article: Nuestros Ninos: Preparing Pre-Service Teachers to Educate Latino Migrant Children and Youth through Service-Learning by Rubén P. Viramontez Anguiano, Ph.D., CFLE, José P. Salinas, Ed.D., and Walter Garcia Kawamoto, Ph.D.
This article presents important insights to teacher preparation programs concerning service-learning for pre-service teachers who work with Latino migrant families. These insights are critical when considering best practices to meet the educational and developmental needs of the children in these families through servicelearning.
- Download Nuestros Ninos now.
- Learn more about the winner of the 2009 State Farm Award for Service-Learning Excellence in Teacher Education
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Do you have a suggestion, recommendation, or idea? Submissions to Service-Learning Advances can be sent to nslp@aed.org.
This Service-Learning Advances is supported with funding
from the State Farm Companies Foundation.
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