Service-Learning: GenerationOn, NYC

VISTA Member

Jonathan Renard

"My program at generationOn is focused on getting youth involved in service. What I do in partner with the other VISTAs at generationOn is to work specifically with PS/MS 57, a PreK-8 school in East Harlem, to incorporate service-learning into the classroom by utilizing the parents/families and community. I aim to work with the teachers to fuse together service-learning into the curriculum so that each year teachers are equipped with the tools to use service-learning as a teaching strategy. My organization believes that students have the power to change their community, the world, and themselves as learners.

                I sit in on grade meetings, as well as meet one-on-one with all of the teachers (40+) to get a grasp on how they want to incorporate service-learning into the classroom. To say this is an easy task would be lying. With the amount of grading, testing, and planning for the teachers, I sometimes barely get a word in. The teachers have new curriculum, are being evaluated differently, and have higher standards to live up to. Why would they add on something “extra” to their workload? This is the hardest part about what I do. Working with the teachers is difficult and sometimes doesn’t work, or they aren’t interested, but when it all comes together and lessons begin to flow, it is rewarding.

                It is hard to explain how I believe my work is impacting the community. I believe I am a good communicator and can effectively respond to e-mails, telephone calls, showing up on time to meetings, etc., but my school that I work at lacks all of the above. It is hard to create sustainability when the other VISTAs and I are reaching out and bringing the parents and community in, when the school faculty and teachers don’t respond to e-mails (yes, they have stated “I don’t respond to e-mails,” and “we don’t respond to voicemails in the main office”), skip out on meetings, and don’t have to tools to continue to reach out to the partners we are creating. I believe that this has taken away from our mission to incorporate service-learning, and morphed it into how do we help this school gain communication and leadership skills.

                As a team, we definitely have much more work to do. Creating sustainability through service-learning is our main goal and what we strive for."