LearnServe's Fellows and Young Changemakers
LearnServe equips high school students with the knowledge, tools, and relationships to find a cause – and take action.
About You
About You
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Rechler
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
LearnServe International
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, DC, Washington, Washington
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, DC, Washington, Washington
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
After-School Provider.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Inches-thick layers of paint coat the walls of homeless shelters and elementary schools – the product of countless student and corporate groups eager to serve. And it’s not hard to understand why: the 200,000 students enrolled in Washington DC area high schools complete, on average, roughly 2.5 million service hours each year. That’s a lot of paint, bags of litter, and peanut-butter sandwiches. Yet poverty and environmental degradation persist while schools lament their students are apathetic and disengaged. Why? Our schools don’t ask the right questions. We need to re-orient the paradigm of school-based service, extracurriculars, and classroom learning towards critical inquiry and hands-on entrepreneurial leadership.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
“What pisses you off,” we challenge our LearnServe Fellows each fall. Then we turn the question back to them: “What are you going to do about it?” LearnServe brings together aspiring young entrepreneurs – student from diverse backgrounds selected from more than 30 high schools across the DC area – as Fellows and guides them as they design, launch, and integrate their social ventures into their schools and communities. Following eight months of bi-weekly after-school training, students pitch their ideas to panels of community leaders, competing for matching seed grants of $250.
Young Changemakers clubs bring LearnServe into the school, helping multiply the Fellows’ in-school reach ten-fold. Venture project leaders – trained as LearnServe Fellows, and supported by university and corporate mentors – mobilize teams of peers, in the process transferring their skills and engaging the broader school community.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Meet Diego, LearnServe Fellow & Young Changemaker from Rockville High School:
Fall 2010. Diego joined the LearnServe Fellows Program – one of 3 selected from his high school and 65 across the city – concerned about the growing academic achievement gap between African American / Hispanic students and Caucasian / Asian students. As one of few minorities in Rockville’s International Baccalaureate program, he knew he had to do something – the question was what and how.
Fall 2010-Spring 2011. Through the LearnServe Fellows Program, Diego and peers from across the city came together bi-weekly to navigate transforming their ideas into business plans, and, ultimately, action. Diego learned to conduct a needs assessment, strategic plan, and venture budget.
Throughout the year, Diego met weekly with his Young Changemakers Club – 40 members strong – at Rockville. Working with the 5 Young Changemakers on his team, Diego shared the skills he’d learned through the Fellows Program and worked with them to launch Youth2Youth Tutoring. They pitched the idea, and won $250 from LearnServe and Ashoka’s Youth Venture to get the idea off the ground.
Fall 2011-Spring 2012. Seed funding in hand and team in place, Diego returned in the fall set to kick off Youth2Youth Tutoring. A year and a half since Diego joined the LearnServe Fellows Program and Young Changemakers, he has a dedicated team of high school volunteers and middle-school tutees meeting weekly. In the meantime, a new set of peers have joined LearnServe’s Fellows and Young Changemakers set to launch their own venture ideas.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
LearnServe’s approach integrates five elements:
1. Reflect our city’s diversity – select students from a range of schools and socio-economic backgrounds;
2. Connect local and global – our complementary LearnServe Abroad program offers students opportunities to experience social innovation overseas;
3. Transform ideas into action – put students in charge of identifying the problem and leading the solution;
4. Teach business skills through community engagement;
5. Engage students and schools together – aligned to change school culture.
Other kindred organizations include Youth Venture, the Future Project, Global Kids, and NFTE. LearnServe uniquely offers DC-area schools a systematic, school-based and cross-school model focused on social entrepreneurship and community engagement.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
LearnServe equips high school students with the knowledge, tools, and relationships to find a cause – and take action.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
LearnServe mobilizes students and teachers to reposition schools as hubs for innovative problem-solving and community action.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Meet Jessica, founder of Kids Are Scientists Too. Concerned that elementary schools weren’t sufficiently exciting kids about science, Jessica tried something different. She recruited 40 fellow high schoolers and designed a hands-on science curriculum, which they taught biweekly after-school to 400 students at 14 elementary schools – in their first year! Now imagine the 200 Jessicas who have graduated as LearnServe Fellows – and the thousands they’ve engaged and affected through their work over the last 6 years. Multiply that by ten for each school-based Young Changemakers club. At Rockville High School alone, LearnServe’s Young Changemakers club has launched 14 ventures over two years, half led by LearnServe Fellows, engaging hundreds and shaping the school’s leadership development, community engagement and social conscience.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
LearnServe is building a city a) where high school students graduate well versed in business leadership and social consciousness and b) where schools serve as hubs for innovative problem-solving, community action, and student-led change. Over three years we’ll grow to 40 participating LearnServe schools, 15 active Young Changemakers clubs, 120 Fellows program participants, and 2000 students involved in youth-led social change through LearnServe. Through expansion, partnerships with schools and non-profits, and curriculum licensing we’ll launch in at least one new U.S. city. Our partner schools will embrace student-led social innovations as a core element of their school identities.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
In 6 months we will have launched LearnServe’s Young Changemakers at 3-5 schools, and identified 10 prospective schools for 2013
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Meet with the LearnServe Advisor and Head of School at each LearnServe school in order to select pilot sites.
Task 2
Finish developing the Young Changemakers Curriculum, based on initial pilots at Rockville (MD) and Thomas Jefferson (VA).
Task 3
Recruit university students and business partners to serve as Young Changemakers co-leaders at participating schools.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
We’ll be poised to launch LearnServe's Young Changemakers at 10 new sites locally, and license the curriculum beyond DC.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Meet with heads of school to identify 10 expansion sites in the Washington, DC area
Task 2
Secure financial commitments from participating schools, universities, and businesses to sustain program growth.
Task 3
Begin developing virtual tool to accompany LearnServe Fellows and Young Changemakers curriculum
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
The three-part story that led to LearnServe’s Fellows and Young Changemakers programs:
Hugh retired from school leadership convinced that schools must do more to introduce students to global issues – and mobilize them to act. In 2004 he invited DC-area students and teachers to Ethiopia for two transformative weeks of service. LearnServe was born – with a focus on international service learning.
Scott returned from a year supporting entrepreneurs in Chile convinced that focusing on adults was too late: “we’re too stubborn,” they told him, “set in our ways.” He joined LearnServe to help launch the Fellows program, bringing social entrepreneurship to DC-area students.
“While this is an extraordinary experience,” reflected Jake on the LearnServe Fellows Program, “it shouldn’t be extraordinary, it should be ordinary.” Introduced as Jake’s LearnServe venture, Young Changemakers offers such training to fellow students – now as an “ordinary” high school experience.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
LearnServe is built around strong local collaboration. Youth Venture has been a partner from the start, sharing curriculum materials, co-convening selection panels, and offering LearnServe alumni the opportunity to connect with a global community of social entrepreneurs. We work with For Love of Children, Global Kids, Ron Brown Scholar Program, and POSSE, among others. More than 100 business and non-profit community leaders serve as panelist reviewers – and many serve as guest presenters and role models during the year, as well as offer financial and in-kind support to LearnServe.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
We count on a dedicated team of 12 staff and volunteers. Scott Rechler and Sabine Keinath are the directors of LearnServe International, CEO and COO respectively. Scott has worked in the field of social entrepreneurship, including at Ashoka, and youth development. Sabine is an international development economist. Our program leaders are educators with international experience. We have faculty advisors at each partners school, and are building a network of corporate and university volunteer partners to support our Fellows Program and Young Changemakers clubs.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
As a small team, we welcome any collaboration and support – in particular financial investment, impact measurement, and strategic planning. We can offer curriculum ideas as well as links to DC area schools and organizations. We are always happy to brainstorm, refine, or help incubate promising new initiatives in our city or field.
 | 59 weeks ago Scott Rechler updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Scott Rechler submitted this idea. |
