City Year Patch

History

 spirit break  In 1992, former Student Body President of the University of South Carolina Marie-Louise Ramsdale attended an event called Serve-a-thon for City Year while a student at Harvard Law.

Inspired by City Year and the 10,000 people performing transformational service , she returned that night to the computer lab at Harvard and wrote a two-page proposal to bring the program to Columbia, SC.  

Inspired by her passion and determination, the cofounders, Alan Khazei and Michael Brown, founded City Year Columbia in the summer of 1993.

CITY YEAR COLUMBIA FACTS

Each year, approximately 25 corps members serve as part of the City Year Columbia corps, making a difference in the state’s capital by providing a total of 68,000 hours of service. Since 1993, City Year Columbia corps members have:

  • Served more than 741,882 hours,
  • Inspired more than 16,000 citizens to civic action,
  • Mentored more than 40,000 students and;
  • Partnered with more than 200 community-based organizations.

Learn more about the history of City Year.