    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [April 28, 1997]
    [Pages 509-511]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Students, Teachers, Parents, and AmeriCorps Volunteers in
    Philadelphia
    April 28, 1997

        Thank you. Thank you very much. I am so pleased to be here. Thank
    you for making me feel so welcome. I want to say to all of you, I have
    looked forward to coming to this school

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    since I knew I was coming to Philadelphia, because I knew when I came
    here the people who come with me, including the press corps, would see
    what we're talking about when we talk about service and we say that
    everyone can serve, everyone can make a difference, and if all young
    people serve, we can turn this country around and put it in the right
    direction for every single child in America.
        I want to thank so many people. I thank your principal, John Krauss;
    the superintendent and my longtime friend, David Hornbeck. And thank
    you, Harris Wofford, for doing a wonderful job with the Corporation for
    National Service. I kind of hated to hear David Hornbeck say we had more
    AmeriCorps volunteers in the Philadelphia schools than anywhere else
    because now somebody will think that he was doing the home folks a
    little home cooking. [Laughter] But I'm glad you're here. And you ought
    to be here in Philadelphia, where our country got started.
        I want to thank the young AmeriCorps volunteers I just saw inside
    who work with Youth Build, Antoine Jackson and William McBride. I saw
    them in the school there. I'd like to thank your wonderful Congressman,
    Tom Foglietta, and Congressman Don Payne from New Jersey and Congressman
    Sam Ford who came all the way from California to be here with us today.
    We're glad to see them. I'd like to thank Latifah Beard and the other
    students here at the student council--the student body--who gave Hillary
    and me the gifts. And I'd like to say that I thought Tiffany and Daryl
    did a very good job introducing the First Lady, didn't you? [Applause]
    And finally, I'd like to thank Jahi Davis for speaking on behalf of all
    the AmeriCorps volunteers. He helped me with the President's Service
    Awards last night, and he said what he had to say today better than I
    ever could.
        I just want to say to all of you that when I ran for President for
    the first time, starting now more than 5 years ago, I had a dream that I
    could give young people in this country a chance to serve in their
    communities, to help children, to make places safer, to make the schools
    work better, to deal with the health problems and the worries and the
    fears of our children and build up their hopes and, at the same time,
    earn a little money for a college education. That's how AmeriCorps was
    born.
        I really dreamed that someday I could walk into a school like
    Nebinger Elementary and see what I saw today, two young people tutoring
    5-year-olds, talking to them about their lives and their future. One of
    the young men actually dropped out of high school before joining
    AmeriCorps, but now, because of AmeriCorps, he wants to be able to help
    young people from now on and to go on with his own education. We learn
    that by giving and serving other people, we're actually helping
    ourselves.
        I told somebody the other day that if we could get everybody in
    America to serve, we'd have the happiest country on Earth and people
    would see that service is selfish. Did you ever see an unhappy person
    who was really helping somebody else? Aren't you all happier because
    you're in Youth Build, because you're in the National School and
    Community Corps?
        And that's what the Presidents and General Powell and others have
    come together to do here in Philadelphia at this Presidents' Summit of
    Service. We want to try to help guarantee that our children have a
    better future. And what I want to do is to challenge every young person
    in America to serve as a volunteer or as a full-time community service
    person.
        Let me tell you, since AmeriCorps opened its door just 4 years ago,
    we've had 50,000 young people--and some not so young--50,000 serve in
    communities the way these young AmeriCorps volunteers are today. And
    it's making a difference for America's future. More importantly, the
    average AmeriCorps volunteer helps to generate another 12 part-time
    volunteers who come along and help. That, too, makes America strong.
        And what I asked America to do today was to support me in making it
    possible for many more young people to serve, like Jahi and the other
    AmeriCorps volunteers have done, because I found out that here in
    Philadelphia there's another movement going on spearheaded by a minister
    who's a friend of mine named Tony Campolo. He's going around to churches
    and saying, ``You ought to support young people the way AmeriCorps
    supports young people and pay for them to have living expenses so they
    can serve a year in community service work.''
        Today I said, if those young people do that through their churches
    or their synagogues or their mosques, through their community
    organizations, we will make sure, number one, if they're in college and
    they've got a student loan, that they don't have to pay any interest on
    the student loan during the year that they're working and no interest
    builds up. And number two,

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    if they're willing to go out and meet the same standard of hard work and
    long hours that the AmeriCorps volunteers meet, they will also become
    eligible for the scholarship. That could bring 50,000 more young people
    into the kind of community service we see with Youth Build and with the
    National School and Community Corps.
        And finally, let me say, you know what the project was that kids
    were working on in the class I just visited? Every one of them was
    talking about how they like to serve. Every one of those young children
    had to say, ``I like to help. I like to do something,'' and then draw a
    picture of what they like to do. No one is too young to serve. No one is
    too old to serve.
        We are the most diverse country in the world with a big democracy.
    We have people from all different races, all different ethnic groups,
    all different religions. But when we live together and work together and
    reach across the lines that divide us, we are the most interesting, the
    most powerful, the most vital country in human history. If we serve,
    that's the kind of country we'll be in the 21st century for all these
    children. That's my promise to you, and I want it to be your promise to
    yourselves.
        God bless you, and keep it up.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:46 p.m. at the George Washington Nebinger
    Elementary School. In his remarks, he referred to students Latifah
    Beard, Tiffany Way, and Daryl Way.