All Stories
The 2012 National Youth Leadership Training Launches a Year of Service
The morning of Saturday, July 21 may have been an ordinary one for most, but for the students, mentors, staff, and volunteers that participated in NYLC's National Youth Leadership Training in Sandstone, Minn., time stood still as new friends hugged goodbye and soaked in the memories from their week together.
NYLC Youth Advisory Council Member Wins Youth Service Awards
Zach Certner, age 16, has received national recognition for his service to special needs children, having won the Jefferson Awards for Public Service’s Youth Service Challenge for individual passion, as well as the Hasbro Community Action Hero Award. When he and his brother, Matthew Certner, began Special Needs Athletic Programs, Inc. (SNAP) in their hometown of Morristown, N.J., Zach supported the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in its mission to inspire youth to work together through athletics, peer mentoring activities, and educational programs. Zach now serves as the President of SNAP and has spent the past year scaling up its operations.
U.S. Senate States “Strong Support” for Service-Learning
During the past year, many educators and communities have been challenged to support service-learning given the loss in federal funds to major programs including Learn and Serve America. U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee bills released June 14 call for an overall $1.06 billion budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a 1.3% increase over 2012 levels.
Top Ten High Schools Lead Change in Teen Driver Behavior
Ten high schools in the United States and Canada have been chosen as leader schools in teen driver safety. These schools were selected by Project Ignition — a service-learning teen driver safety program sponsored by State Farm® and coordinated by the National Youth Leadership Council® — based on criteria including student participation, campaign results, and connection to learning objectives.
NYLC Welcomes New Board Members
NYLC is thrilled to announce three new members to the NYLC Board of Directors: Melissa Lasarsky, Director of Development at Lincoln Charter School in Denver, North Carolina, Riley Quinlan, student at the University of Illinois, Springfield and formerly a youth board member, and Tess Scannell, Expert for Partnerships at the U.S. Peace Corps.
Filling the Gap
By: Amanda Larson, NYLC Professional Development Manager, Youth Initiatives Lead
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” Nelson Mandela once famously stated. While policy experts, businesses, and education leaders have all weighed in on how schools should be run, the voices of young people are suspiciously absent. The question remains: how can K-12 students themselves help their schools improve and, ultimately, close the achievement gap among their peers?
Summer Webinar Series
This week marks the start of NYLC’s summer webinar series, which will feature prominent individuals and organizations from the service-learning and youth development fields. These free webinars are meant to be interactive as well as provide models for engaging youth in service, demonstrate how to mobilize larger campaigns on pressing issues that affect youth, and explore resources and grant opportunities that benefit those working on the ground in communities and schools.
Thousands Gather at Our World, Our Future
More than 1,800 people gathered in Minneapolis last week to take part in the nation’s largest conference on service-learning — the 23rd Annual National Service-Learning Conference and youthrive PeaceJam Leadership Conference. Participants included educators, school administrators, young professionals, nonprofit staff, and youth, who participated in over 150 different workshops, on- and off-site service-learning projects, and a hands-on “Serve and Celebrate” day.
International Youth Commit to Action in Minneapolis
For the last several weeks, youth from around the world have been furiously typing away at their keyboards, brainstorming ways to improve their communities, swapping ideas, and preparing to meet each other in Minneapolis to bring these ideas to life. The National Youth Leadership Council has partnered with Qatar Foundation International (QFI) to offer YALLAH: Commit to Action — an extensive eight-day training for 38 youth and their mentors from Qatar, Brazil, and various cities in the U.S.
CNCS Announces New CEO, Board of Directors
Last week, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced a new Chief Executive Officer to lead the federal agency, which engages more than 1.5 million individuals in service each year through programs including AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. Furthermore, CNCS announced the confirmation of four bipartisan leaders from the nonprofit, civic, and corporate sectors to serve on its board of directors.
