RSVP for Panels & Venture Fair: April 23rd

Meet our current LearnServe Fellows, learn about the issues they care about and their ventures that address them, and find out how to support the many projects they've designed to improve communities here and abroad at the 2015 Panels and Venture Fair!

Join LearnServe on Thursday evening, April 23rd at Maret School for our 2015 Panels and Venture Fair. Celebrate and launch the amazing youth-led social change projects created by our sixty 2015 LearnServe Fellows.

RSVP here. (Note: If you have been invited to serve as a reviewer, please RSVP using the link in your email invitation.)

Fellows Venture Premiers at White House!

In October 2014, President Barack Obama drew on his experience volunteering and serving to create the 2015 White House Student Film Festival, challenging students around the country to create and submit short videos that "highlight the impact of service and giving back."  Of course, service is something our LearnServe Fellows are well acquainted with!  Our own Savita Potarazu (Fellows '14, Incubator '15) created a video around the Fellows program and her venture, The Fine Hearts.  It features her team members and their efforts to link art and activism at schools and organizations around the region — and even showcases LearnServe staff and 2015 Fellows!  Her video was awarded Honorable Mention in the Festival.  You can watch the video, Speak Your Art.  To see more videos about the organization and how they are supporting the arts and expression, check out The Fine Hearts Tumblr.

"Snow"-cial Action Summit 2015

While our Snowball Effect Gala was a great success, we may have over-done it!  The next day, our 2nd Social Action Summit was nearly snowed out.  However, over 75 high school and college students braved the weather and made it to American University and chose from over 15 breakout workshops, many of them taught by LearnServe Fellows and other youth!  Workshop themes included spoken word (facilitated by 13 of Nazareth), start-up culture, civil rights organizing, and launching a venture with crowdfunding.  We want to give a special shout-out to American University's School of International Service for hosting and to AU Returned Peace Corps volunteers for facilitating our internationally-themed workshops, and to MediaRise for facilitating workshops on communications and media.  And of course, we also want to thank our keynote speaker, Steven Olikara, President and Co-Founder at Millennial Action Project for sharing his experience and inspiring our Fellows and other youth participants.

Staff News

Alli Baugher, LearnServe Advisor and 2014 Zambia Trip Leader recently shared her experiences as a teacher at Ballou High School on NPR, One Teacher's Journey Through The Challenges Of A High-Risk School.

Ryan Dalton, LearnServe Fellows Co-Leader, is currently in Abuja, Nigeria where he was sent for this day job at the National Democratic Institute as an election observer for Nigeria's presidential election!  The election was heralded as a success and Ryan even recorded a message from the field to explain the political atmosphere and the importance of the election to the LearnServe Fellows.

Darrell Scott, LearnServe Incubator Leader, was awarded funding from Davidson College's Venture Fund for his own venture!  His venture is Colorworthy: "a daily email digest for black millennials that curates and distributes relevant, compelling, national news content."

Maurice Wilkins, LearnServe Fellows Co-Leader, has a new job on Chancellor Kaya Henderson's Community Action Team (CAT) in the Office of Family and Public Engagement at DC Public Schools.  In his new role, Maurice will work to create and manage partnerships among DC government agencies, improve community relations, and improve the flow of information directly to communities.