NYLC and Minnesota Campus Compact Partner in Field Hearing on Service-Learning

Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum joined a diverse gathering of nearly 100 service-learning practitioners for a morning of tree-planting and service-learning testimonies Thursday, April 16 at the NYLC offices in St. Paul, Minn.

NYLC and Minnesota Campus Compact convened their state and local partners to advocate for an increase in the Learn and Serve America budget, anticipating the work McCollum will do on the Budget and Appropriations Committees. While President Obama is primed to sign the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act this week, the funding provisions of the law still need to be appropriated. The Learn and Serve funding, which supports service-learning in K-12 settings, has decreased to $32 million since its 1995 high of $43 million.

As Michelle Kamenov, Service-Learning Specialist from the Minnesota Department of Education pointed out, “Beyond its inclusion in the Serve America Act, service-learning needs to become a key strategy of the U.S. Department of Education and a core pedagogy supported by national education policy.” With the Elementary and Secondary School Act, commonly known as the No Child Left Behind Act, comes up for reauthorization this congressional session, service-learning supporters also will be pushing for its inclusion there.

Rep. McCollum, referring to her former work as a social studies teacher, acknowledged that volunteering and informal service-learning has long been a part of the curriculum. “Now, as we face financial turmoil, we are in a unique opportunity to grow as a nation,” she said. “Service-learning is also at a crucial turning point to grow, as this strategy can address urgent issues.”

NYLC CEO and founder Jim Kielsmeier hearkened back to the last time nonmilitary national service received such a boost: in 1933, with the creation of the National Civilian Conservation Corps. He said that while all can celebrate the likely increase in Americorps and VISTA funding, without early exposure to service-learning, young people are less likely to opt for national service — a notion that is born out in research.

“Trying to build greater national service capacity without strengthening service-learning among our youngest citizens is like a major league baseball team without a farm system, or a bridge without a foundation,” he said.

Those foundations are under construction at Webster Elementary School in St. Paul, part of Rep. McCollum’s Fourth District. Principal Lori Simon, described how their school, now a service-learning magnet, drives service-learning across its curriculum.

In this election year, the third-graders studied the democratic process and partnered with the St. Paul League of Women Voters to register parents to vote. The kindergarten class has been involved with community elders. Sixth-graders have been preparing students for state testing by mentoring to improve reading skills and vocabulary. Other Webster students have been developing interactive books for Children’s Hospital patients.

Higher education institutions often serve as service-learning partners to these K-12 settings, in addition to incorporating service-learning as a teaching strategy in their own curricula. Julie Plaut — Director of Academic Initiatives at the national office of Campus Compact, soon to become the Executive Director of Minnesota Campus Compact — addressed the “three essential reasons” to support service-learning from a higher education perspective. She cited its contribution to the core missions of higher education institutions in promoting academics; its role in creating engaged citizens; and its capacity to address urgent public issues.

Similar examples came from a higher education set of panelists representing St. Catherine’s College, the University of Minnesota, Metropolitan State University and Concordia College.

But perhaps the highlight of the day was the tree-planting honoring Sens. Kennedy, Durenberger, and Wellstone, along with Rep. McCollum — all of whom have or will play significant parts in the bipartisan advancement of federal legislation supporting service-learning.

As Mike Huck, an intergenerational consultant with the United Way and Search Institute said: “We are planting trees in a year when our leaders say, ‘Yes, we can.’ This is a ‘Yes, we can’ event.’”

Kielsmeier echoed that sentiment as he shoveled dirt around a crabapple’s trunk. “No person stands so tall as when they stoop to plant a tree under whose shade they will not sit,” he said.