This week, over 2500 educators, youth, and community organizations from fifty states and thirty-four countries will be coming together in Atlanta—and we are honored to be one of the co-hosts of the National Service-Learning Conference.
Setting the stage for a lifetime of service is vitally important to the health of our communities and our nation. Positive, impactful, and fun service projects that can make our nation’s youth feel like they can be part of the solution to some of the biggest problems that we face are an important part of solving those problems.
Through generationOn, more than a million young people in all fifty states and countries around the globe are having a positive impact on their communities. generationOn is taking a comprehensive approach to improving schools and the lives of children by leveraging the transformative power of service and service-learning.
The Conference is occurring at a critical time as our nation actively seeks an array of solutions that will help us to achieve a graduation nation and at the same time develop a new sense of civic responsibility for this generation. The Conference presents an opportunity and a needed platform for us to bring some of the top thought leaders and innovators together to explore how we can grow service-learning as a strategy that connects learning objectives to community needs, while empowering youth to discover their potential as world citizens.
Getting youth involved in service early and in a positive way is the best way to get them to lead a lifetime of service. Teachers and parents can work together to help to ensure that today’s youth will be tomorrow’s service advocates and change makers.
In The Wisdom of the Sands, Antione Saint-Exupéry advised, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” So, too must we teach our youth that service is not a chore but a pleasure, that acting to change their communities for the better is not work but an adventure.
