On Learning...and Leading

For some reason, I've become introspective this week, as I come to the end of my undergraduate college experience- a process that was deliberately truncated because of a deep and pressing desire to get out into the "real world," and as the realities of my organizational leadership position become defined. I've been thinking a lot about learning- comparing how I know (or how I think I know) I learn best versus what I've been or are currently being taught in a classroom and versus the work that I'm doing or have done outside of campus.

Here's an example that really struck me. I made a point this weekend to get caught up on school work and even ventured over to the University Library so I would be in an appropriate academic setting. For one class, Marketing and Business for Communications, the assignment was to read four short articles and write a one-page essay on "which one was the most enjoyable." I became immensely frustrated and instead started including some analytical details in my piece- because I considered it a complete waste of my time, busy-work if you will, to write about "feelings" after reading four articles. Don't get me wrong: I'll be the first to tell you that reflection is important, but it has to be guided and structured in a more appropriate way- a point that obviously must have been lost on this professor.

Meanwhile, in my day job, I am gearing up for the final push in the monthlong Pepsi Refresh Challenge. myImpact.org continues to hold a strong 3rd place lead. Although the campaigning is vitally important and enjoyable despite being tedious at times- the most important part of this monthlong contest, I am learning, is the opportunity that comes with it to make the case for myImpact- introduce what it is that I am working to advance- and gain additional support. It comes at a perfect opportunity in our organization lifecycle- as we take the jump from unofficial to official and as I assume unilateral control of the day-to-day responsibilities. I only wish that there were more hours in the day, but at this point I'm working to leverage this contest for all that it can be worth.

Where am I learning more? Where can I contribute more? Although I pulled an example from a single class this semester (I am in some other great ones that I feel are the best offered at the University), it reaffirms the decision that I made a year ago to graduate in 3 years instead of 4 and to continue learning what I think is the more difficult route- personal and professional leadership.

The Great Snowpocalypse

It's been nearly a month since I've posted a blog entry- that's an unfortunate trend that I hope will not continue. The month of February so far has been very busy for me.

My work leading myImpact.org has gotten more intense and as the result of some successes that have accumulated in the past few weeks I now find myself with more responsibility and, with them, new challenges. By far our biggest project this month is a national online contest, Pepsi Refresh, where we are competing for a $25,000 grant. After 3 weeks of planning before the contest opened, the first two weeks of the four-month contest have been very successful, and we have held the Third Place position for the last nine days. I fully expect that the contest will become increasingly more intense in the second half and am gearing up for a large final push.

This funding will go along way towards moving myImpact from an idea into an organization and behind the scenes we are working through the hairy details of forming a Board, creating bylaws and transitioning from two friends working on something cool to the responsibilities that come with a public charity. This is a difficult process, but a necessary one in the life cycle of an organization, and I continue to learn so much as we go through it. On February 1st, I officially assumed the position of Executive Director- and will be formally "hired" by our newly formed Board in the weeks to come.

Then, with a busy February schedule filled with conferences, speeches, meetings and events, DC gets hit with a series of historic snow events that was popularly called "Snowpocalypse." In the course of one week, we were hit with three storms that dumped 6 inches, 27.5 inches and 12 inches respectfully. I was literally snowed-in for a week- and the crippled capital city is just now beginning to get back to normal.

Although it might have seemed fun (and potentially productive) to be snowed in for a week- it was surprisingly very stressful. City transportation services ground to a halt. Bus service was suspended for nearly a week. Above-ground Metrorail stations were closed, opened in shifts, and then closed again for the second snowstorm. Below ground, trains were only running at 30 minute intervals- and that was before a derailment during Friday morning's back to work commute. The residential street where I live was only plowed sporadically through the week- until Thursday night when a bulldozer came to plow (an unbelievable sight that I have never experienced before!). Then, events and meetings that were scheduled were canceled- some at the last minute- and still have yet to be rescheduled. Even an online meeting that I had scheduled for Wednesday night was postponed because one of the participants did not have power. And I haven't even mentioned the grocery stores- I went on Thursday and Wednesday before the respective storms and stood in line for over a half hour both times to check out- had to fight for a basket- and had to dig through a small selection of available food items. I felt that we were living in a city under siege, and in many ways, we were. Although I survived (and so did the city), it was not as cool as a week of snow may seem- and we all will be working through the effects of the storm at least for the rest of this month.

Not a lot has happened in the news- because Washington ground to a halt last week and the President's schedule was suspended. Congress didn't even bother to come in for work. There's going to be a big health care summit at the end of the month- although whether or not this is an opportunity to move forward is a subject for debate. The President signed PAYGO legislation that also includes an increase in the public debt limit. This morning, a current and former Vice President went at each other during different Sunday Morning talk shows. And the Olympic Winter Games have begun in Vancouver- where ironically they are in need of the snow that we have too much of back East.

As we move into this next week, the third of Pepsi Refresh and a return to normality, I'll attempt to update the blog more regularly (as well as the website..Google Reader...Digg...Google Buzz...).

Honoring MLK's Legacy as a Day On, Not a Day Off

Today, I had the pleasure of joining the City Year Washington, DC corps at Ron Brown Middle School and Houston Elementary Schools in Northeast DC who welcomed nearly 600 community volunteers on the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service. As it always is when myImpact.org partners with CYDC, it as an inspiring experience that affirmed my belief, yet again, in the important work of the national service community.

It was a big day for the service world. The President and his family traveled to SOME (So Others Might Eat) soup kitchen to feed the homeless in the mid-morning. At our site, Education Secretary Duncan and CNCS Acting CEO Nikki Goren came to serve. Robert Egger's DC Central Kitchen had the VA Secretary. Volunteers around the country joined non-profit and service organizations; many stories were captured on a daylong live webcast produced by the Hands On Network.

Through it all, reminders of last week's devastating Haitian earthquake were present. With pictures of such utter devastation just  a few hundred miles from the US mainland, today's day of service took on a more urgent significance. It was, as Steve Culbertson reminded in a Huffington Post essay today, a reminder of the meaning behind the MLK Day of Service and the legacy of Dr. King.

Hopefully, I will have time in the next few days to post pictures & videos - and perhaps a longer-form video - of today's CYDC service in Northeast. In the meantime, here are some of the articles on service, out of literally hundreds that were published today, that captured my attention:

"Youth Poised for Action" by Steve Culbertson, President, YSA (referenced above)

"Capital Culture: Obama cites value of volunteerism" - AP

"King service co-founder: Holiday "has a long way to go" - citing Fmr. Penn. Sen. Harris Wofford, who  pushed for the creation of the King Holiday, saying that last year was the first time that MLK Day took, what he called, a "quantum leap forward" - Washington Post

"A New York Volunteer Effort Will Soon Spread to 10 Cities" - NY Times- about the Cities of Service Initiative, a project of the ServiceNation Coalition and Be The Change, Inc.

Finally, this press release from The White House listing the locations that various Administration officials served in the Greater DC Region today.

For more coverage of MLK Day 2010, visit www.myImpact.org, and look for our tweets from today, @myImpact 

"We Shall Overcome" Reflections on MLK Day 2010

Cross-posted from myImpact.org


Listening again to  Dr. King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, a ritual that I try to maintain each year, I am struck yet again at the relevance and applicability to our country, and our world, today- nearly 50 years later. The speech proclaims mass inequities in society- what should be clearly seen injustices but resists what may have been the tempting option of retaliation and instead proposes a solution embedded within the beliefs of non-violence.

"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred," King said, "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline."

Today, on the national holiday that has become a day of service, thousands of Americans will gather in their local communities around our country. Some will identify problems and brainstorm with others a collaborative solution. Others will work to implement a solution to a problem that has long been identified. Some will volunteer for the first time. For others, it will be the latest installment in their volunteering journal. In all cases, Americans will be united in service.

Our nation today still faces mass injustices and inequities. The legacy of Dr. King is often referenced when talking about education reform, voting rights and economic recovery. Schools in New York are different than those in Mississippi. Public hospitals in Washington state treat patients differently than those in South Carolina. A voter might feel that his vote really makes a difference in the fourth ward of Columbus, Ohio- but in Washington, DC, the nation's capital, the sentiment is different. At the macro level, the problems our country faces in the economy, education, health care, the environment and obesity-  to name just a few- seem daunting and unfixable.

But the dream of Dr. King lives on, though the volunteering and service of every American who will pick up a paintbrush, tutor a child, plan a neighborhood event or pick up litter from a sidewalk today. We are all working on our micro-community scales, whether independently or through a non-profit organization, to develop and implement solutions to national challenges. For any one of these issues, Americans can (and do) march on Washington, exercising their Constitutional rights to petition their elected official for grievances. But what Dr. King was saying in 1963 is a lesson equally as instilled in our American legacy: when we see a problem we must then make ourselves part of the solution.

Service is part of that solution. The number of volunteers grew last year and is on pace to do so again. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, one of the first pieces of legislation signed by President Obama, recognizes the urgent need to organize and deploy the human capital of Americans who chose to serve- and authorizes up to 250,000 AmeriCorps positions over the next five years. Entities from across society are joining forces in this movement of service- corporations, non-profits, foundations, individuals, cities, states, and small towns.

Today, we unite in service guided by the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to answer the dream of his time, and our time: a day when equality and justice reign from the mountaintops and the valleys.  We do so knowing that the greatest potential to grow this movement lies within each and every one of us. Just as Dr. King's is to so many of us, our own stories of service- of our unique volunteer experience- can be the inspiring force to engage even more Americans in joining our cause and giving back.

In 1963, Dr. King proclaimed his dream. In 2010, let us recommit ourselves to hearing it again and working in our own ways towards developing national solutions. Engaging all Americans, we shall overcome.

Does Service Learning Really Help?

The following is cross-posted from myImpact.org:

A recent New York Times article asked the question, “Does Service Learning Really Help?” The article, by nonprofit reporter Stephanie Strom, “loosely” defines service learning as “community service that supplements and enhances what students learn in a classroom” and explored the elements that make a positive experience for students.

“In reality, service learning often seems unconnected to any curriculum — painting park benches, for example. At its most basic, it can be hard to distinguish from plain vanilla community service” the article laments, while suggesting that detailed planning, by academic institutions and faculty, will result in a more enriching experience.

This conversation is an essential one, and one that speaks to the heart of the goals of myImpact.org. Understanding that volunteers, especially student volunteers, need to see their work in a greater context and then use that story to inspire more students to join a cause or participate in a program, is an essential guiding principle.

All too often, schools (and even colleges and universities) are more focused on aligning a service-learning program with a mandated curriculum that they ignore important elements that will enrich a student’s participation. For example, understanding the needs and working in concert with the non-profit organization a student volunteers at is more important than signing off on a certain number of volunteer hours.

Elson Nash, the acting director of Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service, said, “The relationships are key because everyone — the students, faculty and community organization — needs to be involved in developing the expectations for the service learning experience,” Mr. Nash says. “They need to talk about what it’s going to address, how the students are going to be involved, how it connects to the classroom experience, how it meets the nonprofit’s needs and, most importantly, how it is going to be evaluated.”

At myImpact.org, we believe that new technology and social media allow these relationships to be formed, and sustained, in ways like never before. The first version of our online platform, currently in development, treats recording a simple metric such as volunteer hours, formerly an individual exercise, as a social action—in a community where it can be commented on and, more importantly, tracked over time.

This approach is consistent with what we have outlined as a “Millennial Model” of civic engagement, valuing three traits: inclusivity, transparency and shared-decision making. A service-learning program that is going to positively enrich a student’s learning experience must be developed with the student’s, be open and honest about the intended outcomes (and how the program will be measured) and, overall, not take a top-down approach.

In sum, to answer the question “Does Service Learning Really Help?” the answer is an emphatic “yes,” with a giant caveat: when it is developed and implemented with a new model in mind.

The New Mobilize.org: Champions of the Millennial Generation

Today, the youth civic engagement field woke up to the news that two large players: Mobilize.org and Generation Engage, were merging into what I am calling the “new Mobilize.org.”

It is an exciting day for those within both organizations, and those of us actively involved in the sector to advance our aligned vision of education, empowering and energizing the Millennial Generation but, more importantly, it is an exciting day for those who may never know—or care about—organizational bureaucracy.

That’s because our work on behalf of all Millennials impacts all Millennials. When Mobilize.org (which today also announced a new mission statement: investing in Millennial-generated solutions) puts their support behind a project that advances their mission of Democracy 2.0, that is one more reason to take note of the generational shift the Millennials represent. (A shift that the Pew Research Center is exploring in 2010 with a yearlong series). It is one more potential project that can be scaled, one more solution to our society’s most complex and systemic problems that can be achieved.

Joining forces is vital, especially in the non-profit sector and especially in the youth engagement sector, when our work is so similar and so important. Today, the new Mobilize.org sets an important example and takes a dramatic step forward for an organization that was only born eight years ago on the campus of UC Berkley.

I have been privileged to work closely with Maya, Ian & the Mobilize team over the last year and a half, including a time as a program associate planning Constitutional Convention: Building Democracy 2.0. I've also worked with Decker and have a great appreciation for his work leading Generation Engage. They have been tremendous advocates of my work as co-founder of myImpact.org- as an organization that is officially a project of Mobilize.org. We will be looking to Mobilize’s example as we make critical decisions this year about the future of our organization, including aligning our efforts with others who share our vision to engage more young Americans in volunteering and service. It should also be mentioned that behind today’s development is the careful and deliberate guidance of Mobilize Founder, now the Executive Director of the National Conference on Citizenship, David Smith. Dave is the hallmark of a generational leader; we are all the beneficiaries of his stewardship.

I had a chance to visit with the new Mobilize Team yesterday and join in the fun as they produced the following video, playing on the theme song from a previous generation, as they continue to chart the future of a new one:

  (Listen for my voice at the end)

MORE: Read CEO Maya Enista's letter announcing the merger with Generation Engage