[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 25906]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL LEARN AND SERVE CHALLENGE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this week marks the first-ever nationwide 
Learn and Serve Challenge, a series of events occurring across the 
country to raise awareness about the value of service learning and the 
role of Learn and Serve America in supporting and promoting it.
  Service learning is a way for schools, colleges, and communities to 
combine community service and academic learning in ways that increase 
student learning, strengthen partnerships between schools and the 
communities they serve, and perhaps most importantly, tap into young 
people's endless ideas and enthusiasm for solving problems.
  We know that the real benefits of service learning go far beyond the 
events of a week, or even a year. They last a lifetime, because 
countless students who participate in service learning continue to 
serve throughout their lives.
  As my brother Robert Kennedy said, each time persons stand up for an 
ideal, or act to improve the lot of others, or strike out against 
injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each 
other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those 
ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of 
oppression and resistance.
  When young students create such ripples and see their effects, they 
remember them all their lives. They remember their own ability to help 
others, and the joy and satisfaction it can bring. They develop a habit 
of service that follows them throughout their careers. And this is what 
makes service learning so very important.
  Through community service, all of us have the opportunity to make our 
own lives better by helping others. And through strong service 
learning, schools are teaching generations of young people the joy of 
helping others. We are also doing much more. We are making our 
democracy stronger. Our democracy depends on the active involvement of 
citizens to shape our government and shape our communities.
  There is no question that America needs students who are well-
educated in every way. We are working to do better in this respect, but 
we need to do much more. We need students who grow up understanding 
what it is to serve, to give back to their community, to help others. 
Our nation will always draw strength from a committed and engaged 
citizenry. Service learning helps us build that better citizenry, one 
student at a time.
  Seventeen years ago, I was the original sponsor of the National and 
Community Service Act of 1990. We reached across the aisle to recognize 
an important priority: to encourage and increase service in America. 
Among the many accomplishments of that legislation was the creation of 
Serve America, a new program to promote the practice of service 
learning in American schools.
  That program, now called Learn and Serve America, has exceeded the 
high expectations we had for it. Last year, 1.4 million students 
participated in service learning nationwide through Learn and Serve. 
Since the creation of the program, over 14 million students have served 
their communities because of it. It's an impressive accomplishment to 
have touched so many lives. I congratulate all of those who have 
participated in Learn and Serve over the years, and especially those 
who have guided the program so successfully.
  The Learn and Serve Challenge events taking place across America this 
week are an effective way to bring new and well-deserved attention to 
the program and to the benefits of service learning, and I look forward 
to even more impressive successes of this unique program in the years 
ahead.

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