Celebrating Jim Kielsmeier’s Service
More than 200 dauntless souls ― educators, youth, friends, politicians, board members, colleagues ― navigated their way to the Minnesota History Center in downtown St. Paul. Amidst the glittering lights of the season, celebrants gathered to honor the man who founded in NYLC in 1983, and now is transitioning to broader work supporting service-learning in the policy arena and globally.
Whether starting a nonprofit council of experiential camps in the early 1980s, advocating for supportive state and federal legislation in the 1990s, developing service-learning curricula and model programs, or spearheading research efforts, Jim has had an impact on education that reaches far beyond his original classrooms of middle and high school students in Washington, D.C. in 1973.
“His life has always been connected with larger civil and social justice movements,” said NYLC Board Chair Jim Scheibel.
And his work “spreads across the nation and to all people,” noted NYLC Youth Advisory Council mentor EllaKate Wagner. The scope of this impact was represented both by those in attendance, some of whom had traveled from the coasts, and by those who phoned from places as far-reaching as the Middle East to be part of the event.
Calling the evening the “toughest and sweetest” of his life, Jim said “The most important lessons in life are less taught than caught,” citing his early experience serving as an Army Infantry platoon leader and community relations officer in Korea during the 1960s, developing an English language tutoring program that transformed the relationship between GIs, their tutees, and ― as a result ― their communities. These results spurred Jim on to pilot the idea of driving service-learning into K-12 settings in the U.S.
But, “There’s lots more dreaming that needs to be done at NYLC,” said Jim, as he accepted the sustained standing ovation from his friends and colleagues.
Photo: Pajnucci Vue presents Jim Kielsmeier with a traditional Hmong necklace.
