A History of Service-Learning

Written by: Julia Sewell

At seven years old, I was introduced into a world that has now become my source of light, passion and inspiration. Service-Learning entered my life at an early age, when I began to see the many issues that affected my inner city community of north Minneapolis, Minnesota. I noticed the disparities that existed among our inner city youth. I began to volunteer my time and my service and realized these actions were the things that made my heart throb and pump.

Following my heart, I began making lunches for the homeless, volunteering at soup kitchens, and then began writing and performing poetry on these issues and reading about the issues my community faced. From here, I was invited to attend the National Youth Leadership Training in Sandstone, Minnesota, at the age of 14. This training is held every year by the National Youth Leadership Council and is designed to bring the top youth leaders together for a week-long training on youth leadership, service-learning, and prominent social issues. At this camp, I learned the true meanings of service-learning and how I, as a young agent of change, could fully and effectively utilize it.

After attending this training, doors began to open up nationally and internationally. I became involved in an international leadership program called Youth Leaders International (YLI). This program brought together top leaders from across the world to delve into creating effective youth leadership strategies in our home countries. I represented the U.S. and was able to travel to France and Great Britain to discuss major social change and leadership issues with my counterparts. Following this, I was selected to be on the National Youth Leadership Council's Youth Advisory Board, the State Farm Youth Advisory Board, as well as the Youth Partnership Team for America's Promise Alliance. Through my participation with these boards, I had the opportunity to assist in granting $5 million to service-learning projects across the U.S. and Canada, I was able to travel and perform at service-learning conferences, and acted as a consultant to major national organizations. All of this was done before I was 18-years-old. I had found, at a young age, my passion. Working with and for young people was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

At the age of 15, I began motivational speaking and spoken word performing. Through this endeavor, I have traveled the globe, giving engaging and life-changing presentations on a variety of topics (i.e. poverty, service-learning, educational reform, domestic abuse, youth voice). I recently started my own not-for-profit, E.M.P.I.R.E., which is an organization that allows young people from around the country to use their voice and arts as a motivation to their own communities.

Service-learning, to me, is the examining of the issues that affects one's community and then creating a youth led project to address these particular issues. Service-learning has truly transformed my life because it has helped me to realize my specific art and how I can utilize it to truly navigate and more so motivate local, national, and international change.

I am now a 22-year-old college graduate of Augsburg College. I am currently doing a year of service in Detroit through the City Year program. Following this, I have plans to do research on resilience in Jamaica through the Fulbright Program and then to pursue my speaking, performing and training full time. Long term, I have plans to obtain my PhD in educational psychology and urban schooling.

For more information about the work that I do or the services I provide, please feel free to look at my following websites: www.sewellspeaks.com or www.empireproductions.org.

See Julia Sewell’s work below:

Also, for more information about service-learning and available projects including this, please check out www.nylc.org.

Community Records – A community partner with a beat

Written by: Justin Fenwick, CRL3C

As a community partner, we are eager to work with service-learning programs. Community Records L3C (CRL3C) focuses on building communities through music. The built-in learning goals of a service-learning program fit well into the educational outcomes and connections to community issues we strive to make while taking individuals through the creative process.

Our Healthy Habitats project with the Willow Run School system through Learn and Serve - Bright Futures was a prime example. Our project involved Elementary, Middle, and High School students. (This includes gifted students, advanced placed students along with regular education students). The goal was to help the students develop awareness that they can impact the community and environment around them.

By focusing on a creek in the Huron River Watershed, the students investigated to find out what was needed to make it "healthy," including a process of taking water samples. CRL3C helped the students put music to their learning. By encouraging students to use their creativity in music, they begin to develop the internal power and skills needed to change the world. This works well with any issue that is tangible to a student, like the rivers in their own back yard. Music and songwriting provides a creative process that allows youth to better express themselves and learn from the project at hand.

“Creativity is more than a component of coping; it is a facet of our inner selves that enables us to develop perspective & flexibility, both of which help us to be more resilient. As I have watched my children grow, I have seen first-hand how creative expression can give kids a voice to articulate their emotions as well as a way to lose themselves in the act of creation.”

- Kenneth Ginsburg, MD from Building Resilience in Children & Teens
(American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006)

The ability to collectively write, record, and share music pairs responsibility and learning with fun.

CRL3C has partnered on other service-learning projects; including topics of community gardening and the respect of animals. We use music as a tool to better reach youth and give them voice into a community, often for the first time.

CRL3C is a social mission organization that builds local community, inspiring and creating relationships by bringing together diverse populations through collaborative participation in music & music education. This includes songwriting and music production, artistic collaborations, supporting local music, consulting using the creative process, and a deep commitment to community involvement and events. We create relationships with people, organizations, and communities to produce creative solutions to social barriers using art. We promote positivity in music workshops, producing music that is suitable for young people and families.

"We support you creating the most beautiful image of your world."

CRL3C can be reached at (734) 213-2733 or info@crl3c.org.

Grand Blanc Poetry Garden

By: Learn and Serve – Michigan Team

Situated between the upper and lower elementary was a plain patch of grass. Well…sometimes there wasn’t even grass. The students and teachers at the elementary schools wanted to turn the space into a place their community would want to spend time in, but the right idea hadn’t been proposed. While attending a professional development on service-learning one of the teachers hatched an idea. The plain patch of grass could be a poetry garden and it could be integrated it into their literature curriculum!

Today the garden is thriving and features trees, benches, and podiums where the children’s poetry is displayed. It has become a place of inspiration. They have a strong sense of pride and ownership of the garden. Their strong connection with the garden remains long after they have moved on to middle school and compels them to keep coming back to see how their garden grows. It holds memories for them and pride that their poetry was recognized in such a powerful way.

An authentic audience is always a motivating force for learning. It gives them relevance for their writing exercises. They know their poetry can have an effect on the world outside of the classroom. The poetry garden has become a place of creativity. They have turned a patch of grass into a wonderful learning environment.

You can hear the story of Grand Blanc Community School’s Poetry Garden below:

Read about additional service-learning projects at Grand Blanc – including their Michigan Native Garden – in the Michigan Community Service Commission’s December 2009 e-newsletter: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs090/1102444973205/archive/1102849297554.html.