Peer Mentor Jan Schuster Receives Carnahan Award

NYLC congratulates National Service-Learning Exchange Peer Mentor Jan Schuster who received the Governor Carnahan Service and Volunteer Award from the Missouri Community Service Commission on June 4, 2004. Each year, the award recognizes one outstanding volunteer from Missouri who demonstrates dedication, outstanding service, and volunteerism in pursuit of improving communities and changing lives.

For more than 13 years, Schuster has served as the Service-Learning Coordinator for Missouri's Kirkwood School District. A resourceful educator, she started the district's service-learning program with a Learn and Serve America grant. Though it started small, the program is now embedded throughout the district from the earliest grades to high school. She is a founding member and former chair of the Missouri Service-Learning Advisory Council, and is actively working with the state legislature on service-learning policy.

In addition to her work with the Exchange, Schuster's volunteer efforts have touched numerous organizations, including (to name just a few) the St. Louis Council of Directors of Volunteer Services, St. Louis United Way Volunteer Center Certification Committee, St. Louis Partners for Service/Service-Learning, Missouri Community Service Commission, and Missouri DESE Service-Learning.

"As a peer mentor, Jan has helped countless teachers, schools, and districts implement high-quality service-learning," says Carole Klopp, Director of the National Service-Learning Exchange and NYLC's Professional Programs and Services department. "But she is far more than a proponent of service-learning; she is a model of service. Her volunteer efforts have inspired her colleagues and students to invest themselves in their communities and make a difference in this world."