Highlights of the National Service-Learning Conference: Youth for a Change:
- Desmond Tutu -- Didn't say anything massively groundbreaking, but just being in a room with such a person was an honor. And really, the guy is hilarious (totally wasn't expecting Mary/Jesus knock-knock jokes). My favorite was his adorable opening making-fun-of-his-age story: A school in the Netherlands named itself after Tutu, and he attended their 400-year anniversary celebration. A little girl came up to him and asked, "Were you here when the school started?" (They have since renamed the school, haha.)
- Urban educator and NYU professor Pedro Noguera -- I read a lot of his stuff in an education class in college, but I think he easily won over even those who weren't already fans. Very much a proponent of an "it's not problem kids, it's problem schools" idea, he had some fantastic stories and passionate solutions.
- Hanging out with the directors of the Peace Corps, Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps lives there) and USA Freedom Corps -- With all due respect, they didn't say a whole lot of anything with substance. But it was still cool to sit 10 feet away from them in a small session and chat. Brought up some interesting ideas to me about national service and how it should be used.
- Change the World. It just takes cents. and other youth projects -- Probably the most inspiring part of the conference was seeing all the elementary-, middle- and high-school students doing awesome service-learning projects, such as the one above. Made me feel proud, hopeful and incredibly lazy, and it was great.
- Spoken word artist Julia Sewell whose performance opened and closed with the infamous Nelson Mandela genius that, I think, echoed the tone of the whole conference:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
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