14th Annual Institute – Reaffirming Youth Impact

Post written by: Learn and Serve – Michigan Team

Last week more than 350 higher education and K-12 teachers, administrators, students, and others came together at The 14^th Annual Institute: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement. The Institute is a two-day event recognizing the achievements Michigan has made in service-learning and sharing new ideas and information from the field.

This year’s Institute offered a lot of great opportunities for young people to get involved. Students from local schools in the Traverse City area were invited to join participants at day one’s Opening Plenary as Sam Singh, of Public Policy Associates, talked about his travels around the world and what he learned from his time abroad. After the session the youth participated in a youth-only networking and informational workshop with Sam. They learned how to take meaningful action and how to sustain the work they do for their own causes.

Michigan Community Service Commissioner and Superintendent of the Traverse Bay Intermediate School District Michael Hill spoke at day one’s Lunch Plenary about investing in young people to strengthen our communities. Mike spoke to the crowd not just as someone dedicated to strengthening service in Michigan, but as an educator. Specifically he discussed how relationships between students and teachers fill the gaps in educational policies and help our students achieve greatness.

We also introduced a Youth Track to this year’s Institute, which provided opportunities for young people to learn about everything from leadership styles, to social media strategy, to how to plan meaningful action. Learn and Serve – Michigan’s AmeriCorps*VISTA, Robyn Stegman had the opportunity to spend time with the Youth Track where the young people participating showed dedication and a willingness to learn. The Youth Track was certainly a great addition to the conference and the presence of young faces and bright ideas enhanced the Institute’s experience for all.

This year two of Learn and Serve – Michigan’s Service-Learning Youth Council members lead a workshop on the achievement gap. Youth, as well as adults, attended this session that helped identify the issue and provide great ways young people can get involved to tackle the achievement gap. It was a powerful workshop and will hopefully pave the way to more youth-led sessions at future Institute conferences.

As part of day one’s evening festivities, Learn and Serve – Michigan recognized individuals and programs accomplishing great things in service-learning from across the state. It was a great time to show the world the wonderful work our grantees are doing. During the ceremony awards were given to:

• An Innovative Program Award were given to the Detroit Service Learning Academy for their school’s commitment to excellence in Service-Learning
• An Innovative Program Award was also given to the Environmental Studies Program at Onaway Area Schools.
• A Student Award was given to Ella Kate Wagner from Belding High School who has been active in service-learning since middle school.
• A K-12 Teacher/Practitioner Award was given to Sue Wilson an educator and service-learning champion in Clarkston Community Schools.

To find out more about these wonderful programs click here.

These are only a few highlights from a wonderful two days spent with people from across the state who share our commitment to service-learning. We can only hope the excitement and energy of this year’s Institute resonates beyond two days and charges Michigan with a commitment to service-learning and the amazing impact it has on our youth.

Michigan’s Dropout Crisis

Post written by: Learn and Serve – Michigan Team

This week Learn and Serve – Michigan has been doing a week-long focus on the dropout crisis on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We have been sharing resources, information, facts, and solutions, in an effort to spotlight the problem and express how service-learning can be one solution to turn this problem around.

Make no mistake, it is a dropout crisis. Every 29 seconds a teen drops out of school. That means nearly 7,000 students drop out each day totaling 1 million students a year. Nearly one third of our public high school students fail to graduate.

The crisis takes a toll here in Michigan. Diplomas Count in 2008 calculated the high school graduation rate for Detroit to be 37.5%, one of the lowest rates in the nation. Michigan has the worst rate nationally for graduating black males, only 34.6%, compared to the national average of 48.2%. We need to find a solution.

But these rates don’t convey the true nature of this problem as high school dropouts have a long uphill battle that plays out over their lifetime. According to the Silent Epidemic, dropouts are more likely than high school graduates to be unemployed, in poor health, living in poverty, on public assistance, and single parents who have children who drop out of school. Every year high school dropouts will earn $9,200 less than high school graduates, missing out on $1 million dollars over their lifetime.

Studies show the lifetime cost for each youth who drops out of school ranges from $1.7 to $2.3 million as a result of the life of crime and drugs dropouts tend to lead. Not only that, but we would reap $45 billion extra in tax revenue and reduced costs of health, crime, and welfare payments simply if the number of dropouts in the Untied States was cut in half.

To Learn and Serve - Michigan these thoughts are troubling. It is difficult to think of people as liabilities to the community instead of assets. It is hard to imagine we are producing so many high school-age youth who will not see the opportunities they deserve. This crisis has to make us rethink the way we are preparing our youth, valuing our youth, and helping them become the future leaders of our community. By engaging and educating them we can help their communities understand they are assets instead of people who drain on their community.

I encourage you follow us for the rest of this week as we look for solutions to this problem and ways to help our youth become the beacons of light instead of the dark underbelly of our community.

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