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Obama's call to service may inspire some, but others are already serving

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 3, 2008 at 2:43 a.m.
Updated July 3, 2008 at 1:03 p.m.

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School leaders say students today are paying greater attention to social issues and taking action, whether it's starting a recycling program or holding an eco-friendly car wash to raise money for coral reefs.

"What kids know now - they just know so much more than we did at that age," said reading teacher Kathryn Singey, who has 32 English-language learners ages 12 and 13 in a six-week ecology course at Casey Middle School in Boulder this summer.

"They know so much more and they have to have some way to work with it," she said. "They could just get sad, but I think the natural way to work with it, or make it positive, is to do service."

Saving the reefs

Today, Singey's students will use biodegradable detergents, newspaper and vinegar to wash cars and raise money for Coral Reef Watch. Paper towels are banned and students will use as little water as they can.

Singey has run a summer program for English learners for eight years, but this is the first to focus on ecology.

Students picked topics such as global warming and alternative transportation to research. They'll give presentations to each other next week.

Together, they decided on the car wash and picked Coral Reef Watch, a program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as the beneficiary. They've already talked about continuing their efforts through an ecology club this fall.

Singey remembers activities such as decorating floats for parades when she was a teenager.

"It made me happy, but I don't remember feeling empowered," she said of those activities. "These kids are all about, let's do something to help, let's have an impact. That's really empowering."

Requiring student service

In Douglas County, community service isn't an option; it's been required of high school students for more than a decade.

Dave Callan, director of student development, said Douglas County has required 20 hours of community service to graduate since at least 1989.

"There's been discussion over the years about what does community service mean, what counts and what doesn't count," he said. But the 20-hour minimum stuck through last year's revision of district graduation standards, he said.

A student advisory group did tweak the documentation part of the requirement. Students now must answer questions about what they learned and how it impacted them.

Callan said the students also encouraged the district to explore "service learning," or incorporating academics in the community service experience.

What's the difference between community service and service learning?

"An example would be, if kids go out and clean up the creek of litter, that's community service," Callan explained.

"If students go out and study the wastewater, the kinds of trash, the impact of the trash on the ecosystem and did some critical thinking . . . that's the service learning component."

District leaders are considering the suggestion, he said.

AmeriCorps

Thirteen-year-old Eman plays a mean game of Uno.

Peering across the table from Marcus Woods, an AmeriCorps volunteer, Eman kept the game alive while Woods glanced at his cards and talked about the importance of youth volunteer work.

Both spend their summer weekdays at the Commerce City Boys & Girls Club summer camp, which hosts more than 100 youths, ages 6 to 14, at Kearney Middle School.

Woods, 22, is one of three CARENET (Community Action on Reading and Education Network) AmeriCorps state volunteers who serve as reading and writing tutors and counselors at the camp in Adams County School District 14.

Since its start in 1993, AmeriCorps has engaged more than 200,000 youths age 17 and up in local and national civil service projects.

"It is good to get teaching experience, to work with kids and to give back to the community," said Woods, who began his AmeriCorps term in August 2007 after graduating from Boston College.

"I enjoy helping the kids," he said. "Teaching students to play chess is my favorite part."

Recycling story

One student's simple question had a weighty solution - 46 tons to be exact.

"I asked myself what is the one thing that affects everyone, and hands down, it was environmental issues," high school junior Jane Culkin said.

Culkin, 16, and two classmates organized a recycling program at Denver's George Washington High School that recycled 46 tons of paper from November to May.

"The school's recycling program had been canceled due to lack of funding," Culkin said, explaining why the students took on the project.

After Culkin enlisted the help of 17-year-old seniors Joanne Foote and Maddie Wolberg, the three received donations from the International Baccalaureate Program and from parents.

George Washington now boasts about 150 recycling bins and one large recycling dumpster. Culkin said that recycling is one way to help the environment that does not require substantial effort.

"Anything you can recycle at home, you can now recycle at school," said Culkin, who feels strongly that younger generations must get involved in green projects.

"If the youth are not behind recycling programs, then who else is going to be later on? Who is going to take up the challenge?" she asked.

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