Adopting Service-Learning District-Wide Requires Youth and Adult Buy-In

By: Lana Peterson and Amanda Larson

To successfully implement service-learning district-wide, each school should be equipped with trained teachers, administrators, and community partners.  However, at the core of any district-wide initiative should be the reason for its existence — the youth. On Nov. 19, 2011 the National Youth Leadership Council staff trained teams of 130 high school youth and their adult mentors in North Carolina who are a part of the Guilford County Schools Service-Learning Ambassadors. This training focused on service-learning basics and creating action plans to help bring service-learning into schools throughout the rest of the school year.

The training team consisted of both youth and adult staff from NYLC and the school district. Tyler Hardin, one of the youth trainers from North Carolina, felt that “Guilford County Schools Service-Learning Ambassadors are eager to implement the eight K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice in their schools after attending the training. Ambassadors enjoyed interactive games and service-learning group activities, but the most interesting part of the day was being able to share with one another what service-learning projects they think would be most successful in their schools."

The day was filled with energizing team-building games, and interactive activities for the youth to understand the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice. Participants were challenged to  explore the 5-step model for implementing their projects — investigate, plan, act, reflect, and demonstrate — and forge youth-adult partnerships to prepare for a year of working together. 

Several Guilford County students shared project examples from their service-learning efforts the previous school year. Darnella Reeder, high school student, shared her powerful experience of participating in Project Ignition. After surviving a terrible car crash, Reeder joined with her peers to create a service-learning campaign for safe driving, including efforts to reduce texting while driving. Hardin also shared a student-made video of three service-learning projects from across the district. These examples provided models of ideas and inspiration for the newly trained Ambassadors before they embarked on creating their own plans of action.

The day culminated with break-outs into regional school groups to learn more about the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and devise plans to take action and involve more students in these efforts. NYLC currently works to improve high-quality service-learning at all levels, from individuals to districts to larger systems. For information on trainings, please contact Elizabeth Koenig at the information listed above.