Remembering Stella Raudenbush

Dear Colleagues,

With great sadness, we need to inform you that Stella Raudenbush, one of NYLC's Senior Fellows, died this weekend at the age of 59. She collapsed suddenly while teaching a dance class on Saturday, May 21.

Over the past few days, as we've thought about Stella, we recalled a 1994 telephone interview. She had applied for the job of Executive Director at the Michigan K-12 Service-Learning Center, a central hub of NYLC's National Service-Learning Initiative. The initiative was designed to further the acceptance and integration of service-learning into schools across the country. Even over the phone, you could sense Stella's smile as she spoke about the things that mattered to her the most: children, learning, and community. The more she spoke, the more evident it became that this woman was an exuberant lover of people and of life, a very wise scholar. We knew then that the service-learning field had stumbled upon a rare and wonderful thing.

From that time on, Stella was a member the NYLC family. Of course, she got the job. Over the years, she was not only central to the National Service-Learning Initiative , but also to our National Service-Learning Cooperative and Service-Learning Diversity/Equity Project. In 1996, with the Michigan K-12 Service-Learning Center, she served as the local host of The National Service-Learning Conference in Detroit. For the past 10 years, she and McClellan Hall organized The Gathering of Elders at that annual conference, and we recently published their book, "Wisdom Teachings: Lessons Learned from Gathering of Elders." She was both a friend and a colleague, and will be missed tremendously by all of us at NYLC.

Of course, Stella's work went far beyond NYLC. Hers was a life-long commitment to social justice. While attending Cardinal Cushing College in Brookline, Mass, she helped organize the first hospital workers union in Massachusetts. After graduating in 1967, she spent 10 years as a social worker in Roxbury, Mass., where she led battles for welfare rights. Later, she led the Parents Support and Action Center in Cambridge, Mass., and facilitated school de-segregation in Weston, Mass. In the 1980s, she began directing service-learning programs for undergraduates, first at Michigan State and later at the University of Michigan. She has been a leader in the field ever since.

Just prior to her untimely death, the University of Chicago announced Stella's appointment as director of an ambitious new urban education program.

In lieu of flowers, contributions are being accepted for the Stella Raudenbush Memorial Fund to assist University of Michigan undergraduates from Detroit. Gifts can be made online at www.soe.umich.edu/alumnidevelopment or sent to the Raudenbush Fund c/o Steve Bates, University of Michigan, School of Education, RM 1123, 610 East University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Checks should be made payable to the University of Michigan with the notation that the gift is for the Raudenbush Fund.

All of us at NYLC miss Stella, but know that she remains an inspiration to all those whose lives she touched.

Sincerely,

Jim Kielsmeier
President and CEO
Wokie Weah
Senior Program Director