NYLC Partners with Obama Service-Learning Elementary

After more than a year of researching, planning, and piloting service-learning school-wide, the Saint Paul School Board made it official on May 19, 2009 — Webster Magnet Elementary changed its name to Barack and Michelle Obama Service-Learning Elementary. To help strengthen and expand the school’s new vision, Obama Service-Learning Elementary and NYLC have established a strong and wide-ranging partnership.

The school is a lead member of NYLC’s Generator School Network, a community of educators and schools committed to best practices in service-learning. Schools in the Network become real-world laboratories of service-learning, serving both as centers for helping students transform communities and as models to help other schools build successful service-learning programs.

As principal Lori Simon said: “Service-learning resonated with me, so I did a lot of research. I looked for other elementary schools with a service-learning focus … I got very excited.”

The 2008-2009 school year was a pilot year that included staff development; a community needs assessment; the formation of Club Leadership (an after school program); and the implementation of service-learning at every grade level. For example, third-grade civics students partnered with the League of Women Voters to register parents to vote and held a school-wide mock election. Fifth-grade science students looked at water quality and conservation in the school’s back yard — part of the Mississippi Watershed — with community partners such as the Minnesota Science Museum, and the Saint Paul Public Works Department.

NYLC’s Bernard Gill Legacy Project was a crucial component of the school’s summer Club Leadership, a three-week intensive experience designed to strengthen the leadership capabilities of 40 students in grades four through six. This unique and highly collaborative program incorporated components of DreamScape: Life Vision Mapping from Project M Curriculum with NYLC’s service-learning approach, including a “walkabout” of the community to map assets and needs. Students’ reflections were captured in Writeabout, a school-based newsletter growing out of the experience.

O’Shay Turner, a summer program student, was initially not enthusiastic but quickly came around. “Service-learning is great. I like being seen as a leader and getting out in the neighborhood,” he said.

Cashondra Wilks, another student who was initially unsure, likes the sense of community she has in the school and the variety of activities. She looked carefully at the neighborhood buildings and discovered hidden assets, like the Summit University Planning Council. “We learn every day and look at things in new ways,” she said.

“[Service-learning] is a wonderful opportunity for leadership. Kids have time to reflect about being leaders at Webster [sic] and in the greater community … They have time to ask themselves what visions for their futures do they want to create? We hope that the school will be a catalyst for other leadership in the community,” said Simon.

For more information about how to join NYLC’s Generator School Network, visit http://gsn.nylc.org/.