| E-Clips is a weekly sampling of news stories on service-learning from around the nation. If you have a news story to share, please send it to e-clips@cns.gov. E-Clips is a service of the Office of Public Affairs of the Corporation for National and Community Service. For more news, visit www.nationalservice.org. | ||||
 | Arkansas | |||
| April 17, 2005, Northwest Arkansas Times Junior high students spend Saturday serving others Hillcrest Towers residents were waited on hand and foot Saturday as they enjoyed a luxurious luncheon provided by students involved in a service learning class at Woodland Junior High. "I thought it was very nice of them to spend a Saturday serving us lunch," said Hillcrest Towers resident Pat Watson. "We're all very grateful. It also gives everyone a chance to get out." | ||||
| March 2, 2005, Sequoya County Times Central High School Receives Cherokee Learn And Serve Grant Central High School recently received a $20,000 Learn and Serve grant from the Cherokee Nation. "This is the third year Central High School has participated in the program. Activities have included care packages for servicemen, a veterans memorial, nursing home visits and more," Donna Gourd, the Cherokee Nation Learn and Serve program director, said. "The student service activities are connected to learning objectives related to civics, history and culture and help foster civic responsibility," Gourd said. | ||||
| November 3, 2004, Northwest Arkansas Times Woodland service program named best in Arkansas Students enrolled in the service-learning class at Woodland Junior High in Fayetteville can now claim to be the best service-learning students in the state. The Woodland students were named the Arkansas Department of Education's Arkansas Learn and Serve America Program of the Year. It is an award the department bestows on what it deems is the state's best service-learning program, according to Connie Crisp, Woodland's service learning coordinator. In a letter to Crisp, T. Kenneth James, director of education for the department, wrote that through the program's efforts, they "have not only made a positive impact in other schools, but also on the elderly, the homeless and the disadvantaged of Fayetteville." | ||||
| November 1, 2004, Pine Bluff Commercial New Trail Gets Kids To Walk And Learn Students at Townsend Park North Elementary School are putting their math and science skills to use as they get fit using a new walking trail unveiled last week. The 225 students will use their skills in measuring measure their laps around the track and examining plants growing near the trail. During the dedication ceremony, students also used the trail to "walk away from drugs," a theme used because of Red Ribbon Week, the annual week when students are told to keep away from drugs. But the walking trail and the grant that funded its service learning project, is meant to do much more. According to the grant writer, Donna Hobbs, healthy bodies lead to healthy minds and healthy minds can make energetic, better-performing students. | ||||
| California | |||
| April 2007, CSUMB News & Media Information "Service Learning teaches Theory Through Practice" (3 minute mp3) Return of the Natives, a project of the Watershed Institute at CSUMB, brings nature to people and people to nature by restoring habitat. And it provides some students the opportunity to meet their service learning requirement through working with the community in a variety of ways. |
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| February 7, 2007 California State of Education Address by California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell touts service-learning as key to successful schools. [This is an excerpt from the annual State of Education Address given February 7, 2007 by Jack O'Connell, California's elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Full text available at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/se/yr07stateofed.asp] . . . . The 21st century demands that students know how to work cooperatively, to learn and to innovate in teams*to interact with, empathize with, and work with people from different cultures. What some consider old-fashioned virtues are essential for successful citizenship in a global economy. Schools that are making progress closing the achievement gap are schools that have infused their culture not only with high academic expectations but with high expectations for character and behavior. Walk into a school that has made strong academic achievement gains, a school like Lee Elementary School in Long Beach, and you'll see students who respect themselves and their classmates as scholars. You'll see words like "responsibility," "integrity," and "commitment" prominently displayed. Successful schools all over our state are using a variety of strategies to deliver character education in their curriculum, on their playgrounds and even on their schoolhouse walls. They are combining academic standards with service learning, in projects that teach the value of giving back and the importance of engaging in the broader community. In the Riverdale Joint Unified School District, in rural Fresno County, every class from kindergarten through high school, takes on a service project designed to impact their community in a positive way. Students have collected food to prepare and serve to senior citizens. They've planted flowers in community flower beds, and hosted ceremonies for Veterans Day. Students select the service project their class will work on, but their teachers and principal make sure that the experience is tied to one of California's high academic standards. Since Riverdale started its service learning program, the district has strengthened its ties with the business community, faith based groups and adult service clubs. Now, caring adults in the town have a stake in the success of students, and students have a greater stake in the success of their community. Now I am not surprised to read the promising research that is developing showing that quality service learning is one effective tool for improving student achievement. And none of us should be surprised that when we walk into a school that is beating the odds in achievement, we find that school embracing character education along with standards based education. When strong character is a school-wide focus along with strong academics * when tolerance and kindness are rewarded and hostility, cliques or irresponsible behavior simply not accepted * schools are the safe havens for learning our students deserve. Nothing makes me sadder than when I hear that parents have put their children in private school, not for religious convictions but because of a belief that any discussion of commonly held virtues * character education * is taboo in our public schools. In fact, promoting development of good behavior and strong character has always been a part of the mission of public schools. It's never been more important that we fulfill this mission, to prepare our students with the guiding principles for successful lives and successful communities. So I will encourage and support character education and standards-based service learning over the next four years, and I will be sharing with you positive programs that are showing results in our schools. My friends, as we begin this New Year filled with hope from our successes and optimism to tackle the challenges that lay before us, let's pledge today to prepare our students for a future in a community where we'd all want to live. Let's build for every student a school where we'd want our own children to attend. A school where every child is respected, expected to succeed and supported in reaching the high bar we set. Let's work hard together, and look forward to the time when all California's children are succeeding and our children believe, "This is the way it is, and always will be." | ||||
| April 19, 2005, The San Diego Tribune Today's youths shaping up as generation of volunteers Serra High School freshman Tom Smith takes time away from homework, sports and friends to document the life of a World War II veteran. Jennifer Cordileone, 17, does the shopping once a week for a Point Loma hospice patient. At University City High School, students turned an almost cursory assignment into a book drive for homeless children. The American youth is no stranger to community service. Scouts, candy stripers and the like have been coming to the aid of strangers for centuries. But today's teens are shaping up to be a generation of super volunteers. Thanks largely to a lifetime of scheduled play dates and organized activities, experts say this generation knows how to mobilize, evaluate and take on problems - perhaps like none before. | ||||
| March 18, 2005, Long Beach Telegram Shriver: Get involved LONG BEACH -- When children volunteer, they help not only their communities, but their own education as well, California first lady Maria Shriver said Friday at a Long Beach conference. In an address at the National Service Learning Conference at the Long Beach Convention Center, Shriver urged children of all ages to get involved in school programs that provide volunteering opportunities. "You get so much more out of it than you yourself give," Shriver said. Children are never too young to start contributing, and having kids volunteer at an early age instills an ethic that they carry to adulthood, she said. | ||||
| March 18, 2005, State Farm (PRNewswire) High School Students Address Teenage Vehicle Deaths by Educating Peers about the Dangers of Risky Driving LONG BEACH -- A group of teenagers from across the country are hoping to convince their friends that risky behavior behind the wheel can lead to death. The program is called Project Ignition. Sponsored by State FarmŽ and coordinated by the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), teams of students from 25 schools around the county each received a $2,000 grant to implement programs addressing issues facing teen drivers. | ||||
| February 25, 2005, Eureka Reporter Grant connects area, service, HSU through 'community conversations' To gain a clearer, deeper understanding of the connections between Humboldt State University and its community partners, the HSU Service Learning Center is facilitating a series of "community conversations" throughout Humboldt County. Supported by a $7,900 grant from California Campus Compact and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the project will also develop survey research on co-educational opportunities. | ||||
| August 23, 2004, Monterey Herald A decade of community service A CSU-Monterey Bay program that places students in volunteer positions is taking center stage as the campus celebrates it 10-year anniversary. University employees gathered last week for the anniversary kick-off celebration. The event included a panel discussion about the service learning program and a welcome from the university's President Peter Smith, who recently wrote a book highlighting the program's successes. | ||||
| August 16, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle Guv's Community Service Plan For College Kids Is Misguided Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to require college students attending a state university or college to perform community-service hours in order to graduate. Though his proposal, part of the report prepared by his California Performance Review task force, is well intended, his approach is flawed. | ||||
| August 11, 2004, Los Angeles Times Monterey Bay Campus Is a Role Model To graduate from college, Tracy Burke spent time in a halfway house for female felons. Alicia Gregory filled grocery bags at a food bank. Tiana Trutna taught elementary students how to grow vegetables for their school cafeteria. Here at Cal State Monterey Bay, it's required work. The only public university or college in the state to require such service, Monterey Bay is finding itself at the center of a fast-growing debate as California begins to consider whether to mandate community service for all 3.4 million students in the public system. | ||||
| May 22, 2004, Fresno Bee University receives grant California State University, Fresno, has received a $34,000 grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service to enhance academic and civic engagement on campus. The grant funds will provide training sessions for those involved with the program, an assessment of the campus's academic culture and civic mission, and development of activities to "transform academic culture in order to more fully achieve the civic mission of education and development of student leadership." | ||||
| May 6, 2004, Palisades Post Chavez Legacy Inspires PaliHi Service Projects Eleven years after his death, labor leader and United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez still has a long-lasting influence. Palisades High School received a grant this school year to incorporate ideas about Chavez's values and ideals into the curriculum and organize community service projects, inspired by Chavez's grassroots activism. The $44,000 grant from the Governor's Office on Service and Volunteerism (GOSERV), was called "From the Mountains to the Sea, Honoring the Legacy of Cesar Chavez." | ||||
| March 25, 2004, PNN Online, Non-Profit News and Information Source Community Based Organizations Awarded $1 Million Over 50 community-based organizations from across the U.S. have received nearly $1 million in grants through two unique capacity-building programs designed by the Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet). | ||||
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