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Professional
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e Magazine.comT
he next generation of workers is already
being educated in schools across the
country. Our challenge is to ensure they are
receiving the education they need to become
productive workers in the years to come.The
best way to do that just might surprise you:
engaging young people in public service.
When most people think about public
service, they consider how it benefits the
recipient.There’s no doubt that communities
are strengthened when schools are fixed
up and more families can put food on the
table. Yet, I think this overlooks one of the
most important benefits of public service:
the skills it offers to those who participate.
A young person running their own service
project gains leadership, organization, and
engagement skills that will benefit them as
they continue their education and enter the
workforce. Public service not only helps
communities, but it trains young people to
succeed in their own lives.
This theory is backed up by a powerful new
study by Marc Prensky, entitled Unleashing
the Power of our 21st-Century Kids, which
proposes a radical transformation in our
education system. Prensky suggests that
if you put kids together with real-world
problems that they themselves perceive, the
result is real world accomplishment, and
they become good, empowered and effective
world-improving people.
Prensky goes on to say, “Imagine if kids,
after leaving K-12, entered college or a
job recruiter’s office not as they do today,
with a transcript of grades and (at best)
a vague idea of what they would like to
accomplish, but rather with an actual résumé
of accomplishments, with scores of projects
completed over a K-12 career, in multiple
areas and roles, and a clear idea of the kinds
of roles and projects that suit them best and
that excite their passions.”
That is exactly what the Jefferson Awards
Foundation ( JAF) hopes to achieve with our
youth programs. By having curricula focused
on team building, leadership, community
needs, project planning, fundraising, public
speaking, tracking impact, marketing, media
relations and scale, students are prepared
to make a big impact in their communities
and enter the workforce with the experience
employers are looking for.Below are five of the
core skills our students learn through public
service. By cultivating and implementing
these skills, students can become a powerful
upcoming work force, which leads to long-
term sustainability for our communities.
1. Identifying Problems. When students are
presented with the opportunity to tackle
the problems they are most passionate
about solving, the vast majority identify
community needs. Through public
service, students hone their ability to
identify problems by determining which
issues are most pressing and which issues
Engaging Youth for Public Service
HILLARY SCHAFER
they would be able to impact. Choosing
to volunteer at a soup kitchen or lead a
clothing drive means that a student has
identified a problem, imagined a solution,
and determined how much of their own
time and resources to invest in solving
that problem.
2. Team Building. In school, group
assignments often lead to frustration.
Yet teamwork is something that should
be encouraged and valued. Through
public service, students quickly learn how
powerful teamwork can be. It becomes
easily apparent that collecting ten cans of
food for a local shelter is less productive
than working with ten of your friends to
collect ten cans each - and asking even
more to join in the process. One of the
most important skills to teach students is
how to engage their peers to join them to
multiply their impact.
3. Project Planning. It’s often too hard for
young people to gain project-planning
experience.The next workforce will require
people to not only come up with big ideas,
but also implement those ideas. Students
won’t learn these skills through papers or
tests, but through actionable projects they
are able to organize and execute on their
own. Public service offers a pathway for
every young person, of any background, to
take ownership of a service project from
beginning to end. There’s no better way
to learn how to plan a project than by