Have you donated a year to service?  Are you thinking about serving for a year?  It’s an attractive option for me personally (as I’m graduating in…7 months, a year ahead of schedule! more scary than exciting…), and many recent grads find themselves with the compulsion to do something. We’ll try to start putting together a solid list of resources, but for now, here’s a few programs to look into:

City Year - Give a year to work with kids in cities across the US.  If you’ve ever met a City Year volunteer or alum, you’ll know it; not only do they have a distinctive uniform, they’ve got enthusiasm beyond belief.

AmeriCorps offers thousands of domestic opportunities, depending on what you want to do.  There are teams all over the country, and a few different “subprograms” - VISTA, NCCC, and State/National.

The Peace Corps sends Americans abroad for two years to teach, help, and be a part of local communities.  We’ve posted before about their funding difficulties this year, though - like most organizations, there are too many good-hearted, capable people for far too few slots.

Teach for America sends new teachers to needy schools for a two-year term.  An extremely competitive program, TfA has made spectacular impacts.

MATCH Corps brings recent graduates to a charter public school in Boston for a year.  They aren’t teachers, but tutors, and generally work for two hours a day with each of their students.

Here’s Idealist’s list of Term of Service Programs.

So now - an open call to readers and everyone.  What other resources are there to help connect those who want to serve with year-long opportunities?

I’m back in DC from Denver, and haven’t had a chance to post about my last day!

On Wednesday, I got a chance to talk to former PA senator Harris Wofford. He has been a tireless advocate of service, and remains so today - when I met him, he was wearing a Peace Corps hat. I’ll post the interview soon.

I was lucky enough to see Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday, and he did mention service!

And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.

Here, here. We’re huge advocates of debt relief for service; often, money becomes a huge factor for new grads who would otherwise go into serving their country. If you’ve got huge student loans, taking a cut on salary is hard and sometimes not possible. But with debt relief programs, graduates are now able to choose a different path.

McCain is also a proponent of this plan. He’s a huge supporter of both AmeriCorps and Teach for America. Read more on the candidates, education, and service here.

I look forward to covering the RNC as well; however, because of the storms, most programming has been postponed or canceled. It should start up tonight. Yesterday, Laura Bush and Cindy McCain appealed to conventioners as well as the at-home audience to give to relief efforts in the Gulf Coast. We absolutely support, and think their calling attention to the region was very well done. If you can donate, check out the Freedom Corps website, which has a great list of places, or just go directly to the American Red Cross.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or have never seen a newspaper), you know that the Olympics have started up in Bejing. Now, I thought it’d be a stretch for me to post about them (but the Opening Ceremony was spectacular, and I love gymnastics, and diving, and equestrian…), but little did I know about a certain Olympic fencer, Tim Morehouse. Swords are pretty awesome in and of themselves, but what’s also really amazing is his work with Teach for America:

Since 2000, Tim has simultaneously pursued his other passion, education. Tim joined Teach For America and taught 7th grade for three years at Mirabal Sisters School in Washington Heights, New York City. At the same time, he acquired a Masters in Teaching from Pace University (class of 2003) and became a fully certified New York City school teacher.

For the past four years, following the Athens Olympics, Tim has worked in various capacities on the Teach For America staff in roles that have included supporting and mentoring new teachers and working in human resources.

That’s from his website. You can read his blog, and check an interview with MSNBC (where he discussed T4A) here.

And okay, they’re technically called “sabers”. Which actually might be even better.

He taught for America - now he fences for America!

WSJ is discussing what happens when recent grads hit the slow job market:

Mike Stewart is putting off law school in favor of teaching in Washington, D.C., for the next two years. Katherine Atwill, an Ivy League graduate, stopped interviewing at consulting firms in favor of teaching in the Bronx. Rebecca Graziano, at age 23, quickly gave up looking for work. “There’s nothing out there right now,” says the Emory University graduate. She’s heading to sub-Saharan Africa to work in youth development.

Young people like these are part of the growing ranks of college graduates who, amid a worsening job market, are contributing to a surge in applications and enlistments at public-service agencies like Teach for America and the Peace Corps.

One thing the article doesn’t mention is the selectivity of the organizations. Both the Peace Corps and Teach for America are very picky, and the acceptance process is often long and complex. The article seems to give the impression that because recent graduates can’t get jobs in the private sector, they are easily accepted in the service sector - and that’s not true. It’s competitive. With that clarified, the article is much more a commentary on the economy than service. It also seems the article reduces the choice to the job market - if JP Morgan won’t hire, then everyone will move to the Peace Corps! This idea seems overly simplistic.

But the basic point is clear - the slow market means people look into not-as-traditional alternatives, especially service. Great to see service covered.

We’ve recently learned about IdeaBlob, a website that asks people to submit their ideas, and then vote on others. Each month, the top vote-getter wins $10,000 to advance his or her idea. Which is a great idea. Someone should submit it to IdeaBlob. Oh, wait…

Anyhow, two Teach for America alums have proposed their ideas - both of which are particularly awesome.
Elizabeth Devlin has proposed an idea called Girl Talk: Read to Achieve, which will create after-school books clubs for at-risk girls. She needs your votes to win, but also wants to know about books with strong female characters.

Efe Osagie has founded Lead Now Fellows, which will reform Nigeria’s education system by recruiting college grads to teach. He’s got some questions up for advice about sponsorship and dealing with skepticism - let him know if you can help.

 So go vote. These ideas need funding!

Nashville’s Mayor Karl Dean wrote a great editorial for The Tennessean on the value of getting smart, young graduates into public schools. Dean focuses on Teach for America, and lays out the reasons he wants TFA in Nashville:

Fundamentally, I believe for our school system to meet the needs of all our students, we have to challenge the status quo — the way things have always been done — and this program was born out of that same idea.Nashville has great teachers — teachers who are completely devoted to our students and to providing them with the best education possible.

But like every large school system, we face challenges in attracting young, talented teachers willing to take on tough assignments.

Teach for America is an opportunity to bring smart, idealistic, energetic young people into our school system who have excelled academically themselves and will, therefore, push our students to excel, as well.

Many of our students face adversity not only in the classroom, but at home and in their communities. The support of a teacher is sometimes the only thing those students have pushing them to succeed.

You can’t get a better endorsement than an energetic Mayor who wants to improve the schools in his community. And there are many mayors like Dean who would love TFA to expand into their school systems. Which is why TFA is a key ServiceNation coalition partner, and why ServiceNation wants to help great organizations like TFA scale up.

If there is one person who should know what a community needs, it is the Mayor…
(Photo credit: The Tennessean)

Looking Good: NYT recently ran an op-ed discussing Teach for America and how we’re seeing real results! TFA is working with students who want to succeed, but haven’t had the chance. Check out the study referenced over at the Urban Institute. Slate’s got an article discussing TFA, its effectiveness, and in context of No Child Left Behind (Bush’s education act). Two pages of interesting insight - a must-read.

My Friends: Also in Slate - broadcast your wonkiness to the world by downloading one of Slate’s custom political ringtones. Set includes Obama saying, “Yes, we can”, Hilary laughing, and a McCain “my friends” compilation. Warning: setting the volume too high could precipitate Hardball-style confrontation on public transportation. 

Ouch: Over at Foreign Policy magazine, a retired Peace Corps volunteer / official smacks the Peace Corps aroound a bit. Pretty intense criticism - some valid, some harsh. NPR interviewed the author on Saturday to follow up. It reminds me of a NYT op-ed from January. Any Peace Corps volunteers - or anyone - want to respond / agree / disagree / discuss?

Making a Difference: The coAction Connection is releasing a documentary on youth and racism, filmed at the White Privilege Conference Youth Institute. You can read the press release here at the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, where we picked up the story. Check out the trailer:

Starting young - Meet Connor Dantzler, a Maryland eighth-grader who has been volunteering since he was 9!  For the past five years, Connor has distributed joke books throughout the state to patients in hospitals and assisted-care centers, as well as their families.  Connor was named one of Maryland’s top youth volunteers of 2008.

Teach for America has seen a huge jump in applications and enrollment.  Next year, 3,700 new teachers will be placed.  The organization’s budget has also increased by $40 million.

Universities, companies, and government alike are starting to recognize the power of public service.  Tufts University has created a program that will help repay the loans of students and alumni who work in public service.  Similarly, Philadelphia-based companies have created a tuition reward program that will offer up to $2,500 each for students who volunteer at non-profits.

Connor meets Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, at the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.