Mentor Monday: Why I Serve
I serve because I believe that a well-educated populace is essential to the success of a democracy. I was inspired to join City Year by my study of the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, specifically the debate over whether the new American confederation had the social structure necessary to allow for the implementation of a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. This is a question which has changed in form, but is still true in essence to this day. The United States has fallen behind other industrialized nations in most measures of education, and I believe that this gap is the foundation of many larger social ills, ranging from poverty to low voter turnout. I truly believe that the effect of City Year can and does ripple out beyond its stated goal of addressing the dropout crisis to positively affecting society as a whole.
A City Year corps members provides additional help in a middle school classroom.
While it was my intellectual interests and firm belief in the necessity of national service, of giving back, which prompted me to join City Year, that is not what keeps me going. While our service is undeniably challenging and draining at times, it is the personal connections I have made with the students which inspire me to give them my all every day. Seeing a sixth grader who has not begun to master even second grade math sharpens my focus from the larger societal implications of the failure of the education system to the devastating affect this failure will have on that student’s life. I know that my presence is making a difference in the lives of students, in their attendance, behavior, and course performance, and that my team’s presence is making a difference to the culture of the entire school. I can only hope that enough other young people will be similarly inspired to serve to make City Year’s presence felt across the nation.
- Laura Mills, Corps Member-Esek Hopkins MS
