Bringing A Youth Perspective to Capitol Hill

I never imagined that I would be invited to a Capitol Hill Briefing as a junior in high school and then to be there as a panelist, presenting and answering questions about the success of service-learning in Guilford County Schools was an experience that I will never forget. When we arrived in Washington, D.C. we went directly to the Senate offices to speak with Senator Kay Hagan from North Carolina, and it was a delight to meet with her. We shared candid dialogue with her about some of the many service-learning projects in Guilford County. She was very pleased with the work we are doing in our school system and was looking forward to the variety of projects we have working on this coming year.

When I walked through the Capitol doors, doors that many famous politicians had walked through years before, it made me think how fortunate I was to be able to represent Guilford County Schools. The opportunity to tell students, parents, educators, business leaders, and congressional representatives about how service-learning has made an impact on me, my peers, my school, and community was inspiring and just plain awesome!

One special service-learning project that Weaver Academy, a performing and visual arts high school, does annually is our Very Special Arts Festival where we bring the performing and visual arts to Gateway Education Center, a school for the mentally and physically disabled. This project involves our entire school and we make it an interactive experience for the students at Gateway. It’s a service-learning project that we look forward to each year, where we prepare different activities to perform with the students and upon our return to Weaver we reflect and think of new and even better ideas for the next year. 

The briefing was a huge success and I know the attendees walked away with a better sense of what service-learning is all about and how to implement it in their schools and communities. I know Guilford County Schools will continue to strive to make service-learning an important part of a student’s educational experience, which benefits not only the student but the entire community!

Read more the Capitol Hill Briefing news story or watch the video.