80 Gather in Nashville for The Third Annual Urban Service-Learning Institute

"Young people have something to teach," NYLC President and CEO Jim Kielsmeier told the 80 K-12 educators and staff from community-based organizations gathered at Nashville's Meharry Medical College. "Service-learning offers a different vision of youths, a different style of teaching and learning, and a way to value all cultures."

The group was gathered at the historically black medical school for The Third Annual Urban Service-Learning Institute, August 2-3, 2006. Over two days, attendees dug into the opportunities and challenges involved in applying service-learning to urban education. The institute featured experts on urban demographics, HIV/AIDS, and multicultural education — and the promise of young people serving as their communities' change agents.

A series of general sessions and workshops helped frame urban issues in America, including one with Nicole Webster, Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at Pennsylvania State University. Citing U.S. Census Bureau data, Webster said that despite the fact that half of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, 70 percent of urban young people attend low-performing schools and 40 percent attend high-poverty schools.

"Too often, urban communities become learning laboratories [for suburban schools]," she said, noting that service is often seen as something provided to urban youths rather than by them. An attendant danger is urban youths seeing themselves as part of the problem rather than the solution.

Attendees explored how service-learning can change the way urban youths perceive themselves. Webster’s early research shows that — if led by the young people from the community and done with appropriate resources — service-learning can increase youths'

• sense of belonging and pride,
• connections to school and community, and
• ability to manage the "adultified" behaviors (such as responsibility for family income and early parenting) that frame the lives of many urban youths.

Keynote speaker Elona Street-Stewart (pictured above ), Chair of the Saint Paul Schools Board of Education, also struck a cautionary note. She warned of the risk of imposing monocultural methodologies through philanthropy. That monoculture, she said, places a high value on success, so it's important that communities not be perceived as lacking in social capital. "We want to help young people express their gifts that are inherent," she added, reminding the audience that young people in urban settings need to know that they are whole human beings. She sees great promise in the way service-learning puts leadership in context.

In his keynote speech, Dr. James Hildreth, Director of the Center for Health Disparities at Meharry, addressed the subject of HIV/AIDS. He pointed out some frightening facts: With more than 45 million people in the world infected, and rates increasing daily, two to five million people will die of the disease annually, and more than 13 million children are already orphaned.

"Whole nations are on the brink of collapse," Hildreth added, noting that the prevalence of the disease has steadily increased. He called for engaging young people in HIV/AIDS education and prevention efforts as an important and effective strategy for reducing the prevalence of infection.

The institute also featured workshops on a range of topics, from integrating academic standards into service-learning projects to NYLC's Missionary Ideology Assessment Tool, which helps practitioners avoid imposing preconceived ideas on communities they serve. The event was preceded by a special preconference, where attendees spent a full day exploring, discussing, and learning about effective techniques for applying service-learning in urban settings.