The Idealist.org Podcasts Idealist.org

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In 2010, a new national service corps is getting off the ground. Blue Engine, based in New York City, aims to recruit a corps of about a dozen fellows for the 2010-2011 school year to facilitate daily, differentiated, small-group instruction for high school freshmen.

 

Our guest is Nick Ehrmann—Blue Engine's engine and a Teach For America alum— who says that we know how to get high-needs kids into college, or getting them "college eligible" — nonprofits and schools have been targeting and tackling hurdles like high school completion, college admissions, and financial assistance.

 

But, while the high school drop-out problem is far from solved, groups are paying far less attention to college completion rates for high-needs kids, or "college readiness."

 

Blue Engine aims to close the gap between college eligibility and college readiness.

 

After graduating from Northwestern University in 2000, Ehrmann began his career in education as a Teach for America corps member in Washington D.C. In 2002, he joined forces with local philanthropists to launch the nonprofit “I Have a Dream” Project 312, a youth development program for Nick’s fourth-grade students. In the fall of 2003, he began doctoral work in sociology at Princeton University as a William G. Bowen fellow.

 

Over the past three years, Nick spent months shadowing his former students in high school classrooms, living with their families, and conducting extensive interviews in the local community, where he has witnessed firsthand the negative effects of academic underperformance on the transition from high school to college. His dissertation—Yellow Brick Road—is scheduled for defense in the spring of 2010. Ehrmann currently lives in New York City.

 

Idealist’s Amy Potthast talks with Nick about the Blue Engine fellowship, its application deadlines (March 10 and April 28, 2010); the gap between college eligibility and true college readiness; and why it’s crucial to expect more out of high schoolers in order to prepare them for high school and college success, and beyond.


 

As Peace Corps nears it's 50th Anniversary in 2011, applications are on
the rise, fewer Volunteer positions are getting funded, the Senate just
confirmed a new agency director, and the number of Peace Corps  alumni
is nearing 200,000. Helping connect the dots among the agency's fiscal
needs, and Volunteers past, present, and future is the National Peace
Corps Association—the independent organization of former Peace Corps
Volunteers, known as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or RPCVs.



The National Peace Corps Association offers the Peace Corps
community tools and resources to stay informed and engaged, and
advocates for Peace Corps funding and support.

Today’s guests
are Erica Burman and Molly Mattesich of the National Peace Corps
Association. Erica Burman is the Director of Communications at NPCA,
and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in The Gambia in the
late 80s. Molly Mattesich manages the Africa Rural Connect project at
NPCA, as well as the Peace Corps Connect online social network. Molly
served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali from 2002-2004.



Idealist's Amy Potthast talks with Erica and Molly about NPCA's initiatives like the More Peace Corps Campaign, Africa Rural Connect, the RPCV Mentoring Program, and Global Teachnet. They also talk about the new online social network for the Peace Corps community Peace Corps Connected, the Peace Corps Polyglot blog, and World View magazine. Finally, they discuss the new Peace Corps director — and departing NPCA board member — Aaron Williams, and how online communication tools are changing the Volunteer experience.

Today's
guest on The New Service podcast is Aaliyah El-Amin, an alumna of Teach For America’s 2000 Atlanta corps. Teach For America is the national corps
of recent college graduates who commit to teach for at
least two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong
leaders in expanding educational opportunity. In the 2008-09 school
year, 6,200 corps members taught in over 1,600 schools in 29
regions across the country while more than 14,000 Teach For America
alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education
for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence
and equity.
 
In
2000, at age twenty, Aaliyah El-Amin graduated from Davidson College
and joined Teach For America to teach 4th and 5th grade in Atlanta,
Georgia. It was through her corps experience, that Aaliyah found her
calling. During her time in the classroom, Aaliyah received her Masters
degree in Elementary Education from the University of Georgia. By the
time she was twenty-three, she’d received her principal certification
and had become an instructional facilitator at her placement school,
providing professional development to veteran staff members. Aaliyah
then became the executive director of Teach For America--Charlotte when
she twenty-four. She is currently at Harvard University working on her
doctorate in Educational Policy and Administration.   



Idealist's
Amy Potthast talks with Aaliyah about the impact corps members are
having in underserved classrooms across the country, how applicants can demonstrate the qualities Teach For America seeks,
and how Teach For
America alums are going on to become lifelong leaders in the field of
education. They also talk about Aaliyah’s own career path and her
personal passion for creating educational equity, and how you can get
involved with the movement to end educational inequity whether or not
you participate in the corps.

For other service opportunities, including teaching corps, check out The New Service blog from Idealist.org.

June is Pride Month, so The New Service podcast from Idealist.org
is taking a closer look at the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) individuals serving in Peace Corps and
AmeriCorps.





Today's guests are lesbian and gay former service corps participants:






Chad Jeremy, a former AmeriCorps NCCC corps member, currently a
training specialist with AmeriCorps NCCC in Perry Point, MD. Chad is an
officer with National Service GLOBE, an affinity group for LGBT folks involved with national service.
Kate Kuykendall, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (China,
1999-2001); currently a Public Affairs Officer for Peace Corps Los
Angeles. Kate's a member of the LGBT Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group.
Martha Tierney, a former Notre Dame AmeriCorps member, currently a
program offer for AmeriCorps National at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Martha is also a National Service GLOBE officer.





The New Service podcast host Amy Potthast speaks with them about agency policies affecting LGBT
service—including policies around joining the corps with a same-sex
partner; the experience of serving as a lesbian or gay corps member;
and opportunities to serve on projects that relate to LGBT issues.





Also check out our interivew with one of the only known transgender Returned Peace Corps Volunteers about his service. (Because of scheduling issues, and as a way to maintain his anonymity, we agreed to a written interview with him.)







Finally, if you are an LGBT individual considering Peace Corps service, register for Kate Kuykendall's online information session "Have Rainbow, Will Travel: The LGBT Experience in the Peace Corps" on Saturday, June 20, 2009. She'll introduce Peace Corps service more specifically, and also address issues of special concern to LGBT folks.

Read the transcript.

Corporate social responsibility and citizen service are increasingly
becoming two sides of the same coin, as more business-sector employees
and clients demand opportunities to improve their communities as part
of their workplace culture. Exemplifying the beneficial opportunities
of cross-sector alliances is the new national partnership between the
nonprofit Be The Change, Inc., and the business network Pricewaterhouse
Coopers (PwC).



Today’s guests on The New Service podcast from Idealist.og are Be the Change, Inc's Alan Khazei and PwC's Shannon Schuyler.

Alan Khazei is the founder and CEO of Be the Change, Inc, the lead organizer of the Service Nation campaign that has galvanized support throughout the country for passage of the Kennedy Serve America Act. Alan is Co-Founder & former CEO of City Year, the youth service corps that helped to inspire the development of AmeriCorps.



Shannon Schuyler is the Managing Director responsible for PwC's U.S. Corporate Responsibility.
As such she is responsible for fostering meaningful partnerships with
national non-profits, including a new national relationship with Be the
Change, Inc.



The collaboration between Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Be the Change
Inc is aimed at inspiring a new era of voluntary citizen service. PwC
will also serve as a Lead Sponsor for ServiceNation's participation in
the upcoming National Conference on Volunteering and Service. 



Amy Potthast spoke with Alan and Shannon about their evolving
partnership, about how corporate responsibility strengthens
communities, and about how groups can — and must — come together across
sectors to solve our most pressing social problems.

The Resource Center, a website of the Corporation for National and Community Service, is the repository of over 8,000 nodes of training tools, publications, and effective practices to support volunteer programs, nonprofits, and people involved with the AmeriCorps family of programs. The Resource Center–free and accessible to all audience–boasts a 3,000-item lending library as well as a calendar of events of interest to national service programs and nonprofits.

The guests on this New Service podcast are Laura Norvig, the Resource Center's librarian, and Jason Scott, the Training Officer and eLearning Specialist at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Laura has been with the Resource Center for nearly a decade, manages acquisitions and operations for the Resource Center library, and oversees the taxonomy for the Resource Center website. She follows trends in blogging and collaborative media as well as serves as the “voice” of the Resource Center on social media sites.

Jason is responsible for providing tools, training and information online to national service programs and nonprofits interested in service and volunteering. He has worked for an AmeriCorps State program and started out at CNCS as an AmeriCorps Recruiter before beginning his work in the Office of Leadership Development and Training.  He also served as a VISTA in 1999 then as a VISTA Leader in 2000.

Amy Potthast talks with Laura and Jason about how you can access, benefit from, and contribute to the Resource Center.  Also check out sister websites VISTA Campus (free login required) and EnCorps.

Learn more about national service and the Resource Center on The New Service blog from Idealist.org.