National Service-Learning Conference Culminates

As decisions over federal budget cuts loomed last week, leaders of the service-learning movement and former leaders of the civil rights movement’s voices intertwined at the end of the National Service-Learning Conference in Atlanta, calling for participants to help service-learning grow.

“This is our movement; this is our time!” said Corporation for National and Community Service C.E.O. Patrick Corvington, who had messages for all members of the audience:  “Teachers, demonstrate your impact; talk to other teachers. Administrators, keep believing and investing. Youth, find what motivates you and pursue it.”

In advocating for a shift to more service-learning in mainstream education, he said that the ABCs need to move from an emphasis on “attendance, behavior, and course completion” to “altruism, belief, and connectedness.”

He quoted Education Secretary Arne Duncan in calling education the “civil rights issue of our time.”

Atlanta provided the context for those comparisons throughout the conference, and civil rights leader and former Education Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Dorothy Cotton also addressed the audience Friday. Having worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. for 23 years, she said she worries that people will think they cannot pursue his dream of the “beloved community” without him. She urged the audience that it’s important to be “motivated by the zeitgeist of this time.”

One such motivated educator and writer — Naomi Tutu, who is Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s daughter and a longtime participant in the National Service-Learning Conference — received the Stellar Award for exercising those passions. Alongside NYLC staffer Maya Beecham, Tutu – in turn – honored former NYLC Vice President Wokie Weah, who recently accepted a position as president of a new Minneapolis-based foundation. Calling Weah a “quiet warrior in our midst,” Beecham offered a moving spoken word tribute, highlighting Weah’s compassion, love, strong will, and vision.

The tributes shifted to an emphasis on youth and teachers that evening, when attendees gathered at Atlanta’s famous Georgia Aquarium for the State Farm® Awards Celebration. As whale sharks and dolphins cavorted in tanks that rimmed the room, NYLC, State Farm, and Youth Service America recognized those who have made significant contributions to the advancement of service-learning across the country. (For more information, visit our awards page.)

The conference wrapped up with Saturday programming that included morning immersion sessions and a day-long World Forum held at the nearby Carter Library, featuring regional panels of presenters from around the world.

Next year’s National Service-Learning Conference returns to Minneapolis, April 11-14. Check nylc.org for updates and deadlines.

Photo: Dorothy Cotton giving the keynote at Friday's plenary session