Interview with Kathy Havens Payne, Director of Education Leadership, State Farm&reg

Kathy Havens Payne is the Senior Director of Education Leadership with State Farm Insurance Companies. State Farm has been an avid supporter of NYLC since 2002 when Kathy and several of her colleagues attended The National Service-Learning Conference in Seattle. Kathy taught special education at the high school level for 12 years and currently sits on the Board of Directors for NYLC, Youth Service America, and the National Service-Learning Partnership.

The following is an excerpt from her interview with NYLC. Click here to read the entire interview. 

What is your hope for the service-learning field?

I'm not sure that the service-learning community yet understands the power that they have. This world of education right now is one of standards-based reform and of trying to get all kids able to take state tests so that they can demonstrate that they can go on to the world of work and onto college. And, a lot of times the service-learning field behaves as if they are something extra that you do, instead of the solution to this problem that teachers are wrestling with. If I’m a classroom teacher right now, I’m trying to figure out how do I get all my kids engaged in this math lesson — I mean my slow learners, my kids that are flying above the bar, and the kids who are right there in the middle. And, if someone doesn’t tell me that service-learning can do that for me, I may look at it as something nice to do, extra to do, but right now I have to focus on teaching everybody that 2+2=4.

My personal wish for the service-learning field is that they embed themselves in the national conversation around getting all of our kids well-educated, and demonstrate that service-learning is that solution. If the only way I’m allowed to talk about service-learning is to talk about how it engages students civically, then if I have a class where I’m teaching math — as much as I might like my kids to be engaged in the community — I’m not going to see that as something for me. So, there needs to be highway to the future for kids and for teachers, and there needs to be multiple on-ramps that get me me into service-learning. I may come in through the civic engagement door, or I may come in through the academic achievement door, or I may come in through the community engagement door, but show me how service-learning is going to meet the needs that I have right now. I think the field has to be far more aggressive in telling that story.