[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 18 (Monday, May 5, 1997)]
[Pages 612-613]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 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 long-time 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 Darryl 
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, be

[[Page 613]]

cause 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, 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 AmeriCorps volunteers 
Antoine Jackson, William McBride, and Jahi Davis; and Latifah Beard, 
eighth grade student, George Washington Nebinger Elementary School.