As a college president, one of my greatest joys is handing students their hard-earned degrees at graduation.
But just as rewarding is what comes next. Each year, I get a front-row seat to observe these new graduates putting their degrees to work as they pursue their goals and passions in their first jobs. This week, for example, I checked-in on three of Franklin and Marshall College’s 2017 graduates as they prepare to work long hours for modest pay but great rewards helping low-income, urban and rural public-school students.
What they had to say left me awed and inspired, for these are patriots who believe in the promise of America’s youth. Too bad they’re also pawns in a federal budget play that undermines the nobility of genuine public service.
Take Doug Benton. After volunteering in Lancaster, PA throughout college, he signed up for the Pennsylvania College Advising Corps, through which 26 recent graduates will spend the next two years helping 7,000 low-income students plan for life after high school. “This program allows me to work with young people one-on-one to make a measurable impact,” he told me, “thereby changing lives and futures.”
Doug spent July with his fellow first-year advisors learning about everything from college majors to financial aid policies and from application requirements to free SAT prep services through Khan Academy. They’ve visited private and public four-year institutions as well as community colleges and technical schools to ensure they have relevant and up-to-date information. They need to be good, as hundreds of students are relying on them.
Fueled by his belief that “every student deserves the opportunity to pursue a high-quality education,” Doug will be assisting students at Greencastle-Antrim High School in rural Franklin County. Over the next two years, his main goal is “to help as many students at [his] school as possible commit to and complete a post-secondary education or job training program that will allow them to live financially sustainable and fulfilling lives.”
Doug’s goals mirror his classmate Sydney Fass’s, although she’ll be mentoring 3rd to 5th graders in the South Bronx through the program City Year. She’s one of 3,100 City Year members nationwide that will be encouraging more than 200,000 students to strive to rise all across the American mosaic—and she’s already brimming with excitement to teach and mentor her students. Sydney believes that “when individuals have an education, they have the power to reach for their goals and all they hope to achieve”—and, beautifully, she wants to enable that process.
Finally, I had the opportunity to touch base with Nadia Johnson, who will be helping students in a KIPP public charter school through Teach For America. She spent the summer learning about high-impact instruction, culturally-relevant pedagogy, and strategies for classroom management. Now she’s chomping at the bit to engage with her fifth-graders this fall.
Nadia is a first-generation graduate who aims to help all her students achieve at grade-level or higher while earning their respect, elevating their aspirations, and involving their guardians and communities. She told me, “I want to remember that those who come into contact with our students are part of the team that students need to survive and strive for their very best.” She knows that with education and a growth mindset, talent will rise.
While Doug, Sydney, and Nadia are working in different programs and cities, they share the American virtue of service. They’re all can-do young people—strivers, leaders, achievers—precisely who we need in our children’s classrooms.
They have one more thing in common: Their programs all receive funding from AmeriCorps, our national service program that supports communities and young adults who want to give back. Each year, 80,000 Americans join the corps in a range of capacities from faith-based service organizations to schools and non-profits.
My three 2017 graduates all accepted their jobs knowing that at the end of their first and second years, they would receive Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards, typically a $5,800 grant to help pay down their student loans or invest in graduate studies.
Now those stipends and the benefit of delaying loan payments while in public service are on the chopping block, as the White House has proposed a 2018 budget that wipes out AmeriCorps.
What is the value in stripping these small stipends from people like Doug, Sydney, and Nadia? While so little is gained in the federal budget, so much is lost in the service of Americans. In fact, a Columbia University study found that Americorps generates an impressive return on investment—nearly $4 in community gains for every $1 invested in national service programs.
Ending AmeriCorps harms poor communities, discourages public service, and attacks American values. We create the America we want when we inspire the young to invest their lives and labor in the democratic ideals of our country.
Maybe this is all just a part of typical D.C. budget brinkmanship—a ploy to force advocates for public service like me to call for cutting something else instead.
That’s the definition of cynicism and it will only disadvantage Americans. Fortunately, there’s an antidote to cynicism, too: the fellow feeling expressed by our youngest adult Americans—Doug, Nadia and Sydney—beacons of hope in this and any era.
