Whenever we do a Service Event i like to hear from young people who have served. I would like to thank my friend bill, and i had the privilege of helping. It was not me. It was a group of people, i did it with my best friend and college roommate, and others. It was a small group of thoughtful and dedicated people. Ite it work was not michael, was when people experience this love the idea. I am incredibly honored to be here. It is like a Family Member a Family Reunion with Service Members and giants. Thanks the bridge and president george w. Bush, i got the largest increase in americorps ever, 50 . Amazing. Bill, who went into the white house and made it happen. Susan who has been carrying this torch forever, domestically and internationally, helping spread this idea. Steve, who was here. Built the Service Movement for young people, service learning, changing the world and showing that you can be 9, 10, eight, and 12 years old and change the world. I want to thank brookings and bill. Belle. Of has put the issue poverty, opportunity, and the middleclass on the National Agenda and it is amazing how she keeps coming up with new ideas to advance the cause, but she is action oriented, and i am glad we have been able to embrace the Service Woman and the Service Alliance together. I would like to thank jesse, who is fabulous. When i called him about taking the job he said, i believe it is time for a new generation to take the lead, and honestly i cannot wait. And also patrick, a dear friend. There is no one who gets this more from his own personal experience and speak so eloquently. My chairman,oe joe. I am so honored and we are so fortunate. He has done an amazing job leading us. I think we have come together showing it does not matter if you are a republican or democrat, or in the military or civilian service. We can find Common Ground on this issue and you have done some amazing leadership. And barbara who is doing a fabulous job leading the corporation. You have put one in the sales for whole movement and we are blessed to have your leadership. Just a couple of thoughts. I love what everybody has talked about, i am with the folks who have said that we have to take this to scale, it is urgent. I honestly believe that there is no idea more important to helping us fulfill our fundamental mission of a country, just to form a more perfect union, and to have liberty and justice for all. I am remindedt, of two of my great mentors who , who alwaysharris emphasized the for all, from his days in the World War Ii Army air corps to literally his last breath was advocating and fighting for and saying that we have to have universal National Service. Unbelievable hero. The founder of americorps, without whom president clinton had the vision, and bill was there in the white house, that it was eli who understood politics and new how to get things done. You think about how washington is today, that americorps legislation got passed within ninemonths, a big bipartisan vote. Thanks to eli, and harris, senator kennedy and etc. , 1. 1 millions people 1. 1 Million People have served in america. In americorps. We know this works. It is not rocket science. As you will hear from these young people we have to take it to scale. From my own experience i can tell you, National Service changes your life. Wife at aonderful conference for certain for Service Leaders and social entrepreneurs. If you are looking for love, join the service you Service Movement. It works. Essence, what the Service Movement is about as abrupt spreading love in the world. I love what peter said, it was like a benediction. He said that National Service touches peoples souls. If we could get to one Million People a year, it will touch and change americas soul. And we need that. There is nothing more powerful than love. Everybody canaid, serve, and also said darkness cannot snap stamp out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot stamp out hate, only love can do that. And that is what the movement is about. I want to turn it over to these arelous, young leaders, who every day showing us what the served Service Movement is about. I will briefly tell you who they are and then give you a couple of minutes to share your story. We have william, and americorps he is a National Hero and icon. Hansen. Andrew we have a team leader with fema corps. American inan americorps worker from d. C. We have andrew hansen, the environmental steward of the delaware state parks, and we have taylor stone, in americorps vista member and a humanitarian dutch habitat for humanity. Why do we not start right here . William my name is william, i am from elk in West Virginia and i completed a term with northcentral and with the education alliance. Now, after completing my term, i have continued to be involved. I am the head of the Mentor Program and i said is the seuss the sous chef where we train members to do that as well. Hello. I am a field team leader. I have served for about six months in puerto rico, helping to support fast recovery efforts. We are serving with the office of external affairs in d. C. It has been an amazing opportunity. I am sure i will have time to talk about that. It has changed my life. One of the first things i read about the program before i learned about any details, a team leader said it was the hardest but most rewarding year of their lives. Now that my service term is up next month i can completely agree. I am grateful. Quickly, i am say honored to be here, so i want to thank samantha for reaching out to allowing me this opportunity to speak. Also, to barbara stewart, the president of the cncs, and very direct and im very grateful to be here. Some of thels and most intellectual people ive heard speak in a long time. It was a great fun. This is why im rambling. I am very grateful. Thank you. Good morning. Maryland, iendale leaderly serve as a team , this is my second year serving. Atear i served in bancroft Elementary School, a bilingual Elementary School. We focus on making sure that all of our students are bilingual in spanish, i served in third grade mathematics, in english and spanish. I am not very fluent, but the students are teaching me as well. I am a student to them. This at my college university. I went to delaware state university, and at a career fair at first i was not interested, because i was looking for internships. I came, last summer across an Instagram Post and it spread my interest once again. Itove the mission, and really aligned with my generalpurpose. Reasontimately it is the why i am here today. Very grateful to be here, and thank you. Good morning, or afternoon. My name is andrew and i am original from philadelphia or just outside of philadelphia. So, go birds. I am a u. S. Army veteran, i served 4. 5 years. A few years ago i moved to delaware, kind of just happened. I did not have a plan. I was looking to transition into Natural Resources but i do not have a college degree, and to be a field biologist that is what you need. I started doing a lot of volunteering and heard about the delaware state parks veterans conservation corps. Did i get all that . Thank you. She usually throws m ms at me if i get it right. I served two terms with the core. Before ultimately being hired by delaware state parks as and this does not fit on a business card, but seasonable seasonal Environmental Stewardship team leader. In this somewhat in the summer there is an additional parks for the coastal internship program. I just tell people i am a bottle a biological aid because the state pays for business cards by the letter. Here to aski am each and every one of you and anyone who sees this a question. Barbara has heard me ask this question before, but the question is this, if you have the ability to affect positive change, do you have the moral obligation to do so . Thank you. Hello everyone. As anurrently serving americorps vista with habitat for humanity international. I also served a Previous Term with a habitat for humanity affiliate in denver, colorado. They are, i was working as a construction crew leader. So, leading volunteers and building homes. Now i am doing Something Back in the office. I helped to create learning resources so that we can spread andabitat organizations help educate and mobilize the careers and the general public. So, a little bit about me. I got into habitat and a college and that was also my First Experience with a mailer americorps, and i did a quarter time program in college called jumpstart. For those of you not familiar, it is an Early Literacy program where a team of members goes into preschools and helps them develop their Early Literacy skills. That was my first exposure to americorps, and then, when i started to develop a passion for housing affordability. Through our habitat campus chapter, i decided to blend those two experiences with dopstart, and i decided to my year of americorps with habitat after college. Got a lot out of it and loved it so i decided to come back for a second year. Alan can i borrow years . Thank you. True Service Warrior there. Andrew, i love what you said. If you have the opportunity to affect change, do you have a moral obligation to do so. Military,erved in the civilian service, you have done it all. Senator mccain said that military and National Civilian service are two sides of the same time. Is saying thestal same thing. What was similar about your service in the military and your americorps service, and what was different. What did you learn from each, and why was it valuable for you to do both . Andrew i will take a moment here. Task and purpose, everyone operating for the same cause. My program was a little bit different because it was made up of veterans, so everybody had known the mission and been on the mission. The teamworkely aspect, working together with a common task and purpose towards a goal, something in mind to do. We have that sense of accomplishment. It was different because working with dependents were also in our program. It was not necessarily that drive in them already, that sense of duty to accomplish the mission, and there was the mentor ship factor, how can we bring them into the group so they understand where we are coming from. Alan terrific. Thank you. Kayla, i am million with the program you serve in. Can you share some of the most important things you have gained personally from your experience . Kayla some of the things that i ofsonally gained was a sense commitment, completing a service year takes a lot. From the long hours, to commuting to your Service Place every day, as well as personal challenges that you may face. It really took a lot of me, but i knew that i was showing up every day for my students, so i had to really, even on the days that i might not have wanted to get up because we have to get up what, but i knew that motivated me the most was to show up every day for my students because they need someone who will be there for them. I would say also, a sense of independence. I am from maryland, but you really have to drive everywhere. Coming into d. C. Every day and learning how to ride the metro, get around to various places in washington, d. C. , as well. I would say that being in an Elementary School setting, you have to learn to control your emotions because the students are very young, and they do not ownys have a sense of their emotional awareness, so i really learned a lot about that on this year. This year, and last year, my First Service year. Sometimes we want to just react, but in the Elementary School you cannot react because you have to take anyour actions account on your students. The last thing that i learned englishng empathy for language learners, like i previously said my school is about a bilingual Elementary School, so a lot of the students there are not from the United States of america. They are from all over the world, honestly. It is hard when you are learning two different languages,. We have one student from finland. He does not really know english, and he does not really know spanish. It is hard for him to necessarily grasp all of the concepts. Even with our latino and hispanic students as well, getting a grasp on english so they can learn as well as becoming on grade level as well. These are all of the things i have gained in service. Alan thank you. Prospects in ab Rural Community like elkins is different from urban areas. How did your experience help you in your career decisions, and what should policymakers and people know about how to be effective and what National Service can do in Rural Communities . William before i joined, i was working as a chef, that there was a reluctance to move me up or promote me based on my lack of schooling. Youth build obviously helped my get my High School Equivalency and achieve leadership skills. That is the case for a lot of people in West Virginia because we have a very high student to teacher ratio, 50 students to one teacher, so we have a lot of people struggling in classrooms, and unfortunately, a high dropout rate. When i got to youth build, i was taught, everybody is taught that when they do something bad you are labeled as a failure. When you feel something it can leave you broken. When i got to youth build, i learned that it is ok to break sometimes, because if you never break you never learn to put yourself back together. I prepared myself with their help, and it gave me my confidence back. That was something i needed to negotiate a pay raise and it helped me a lot with my next term, because i had gone back into the school that i feel that i was going to mentor the youth and face those same people. I tried not to keep that in mind. I kept my focus on the youth and wanted to do the things to them that i never had as a student myself. With that in mind, i had Great Success in the program and a made great bonds with the kids. At the end of the year i had a 90 turnaround rate. To be able to do a good job, and to contribute to them for that happening is amazing. For me to be able to sit here and talk to you guys, if you would have pulled me off of the dish tank and told me that i would be sitting in front a lot of people of d. C. I wouldve asked if that warranted me a break for the night. When i went into youth build, i learned a new thought process, because when you get out of school and into Something Like t youyourself and its almose we call them sheep nowadays you think reluctantly and moving on. In the words of alexander the great, im not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep. Im afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. Today, i stand before you a the kids i work with, being a lion. That is the most important thing you can do for yourself. [applause] william, thank you for sharing that very powerful story. Had the privilege of meeting with a lot of young that is a very powerful story, but i also know , veryan incredible impactful program. We need to get you in front of more people in washington, d. C. , down the street. Taylor, i love that you did jumpstart. I did not know that. I mentioned a consortium service, you can start learning in school. You decided to do in your second year, habitat. How do you know you have had an impact and what is the what is the difference between your first year in habitat, where you were doing more direct service work, and this year, where you are trying to help the organization as a whole . Taylor the impact this year looks drastically different. On the worksite i was able to lead volunteers in the building of two duplexes during my year there, so that is an additional for families we were able to surf through my service, which is awesome and a more tangible impact that i can see. What i am doing now is a little behind the scenes, but i still know i am making an impact. How i draw a connection between my two years of service, when i was on the build site last year, a lot of times what would happen, volunteers would come out and it would be their first time volunteering with habitat for humanity, and they would love it. I am a Firm Believer that it is through volunteer service that we can change minds and hearts, and i saw that firsthand on the worksite. You have these people who do not know about habitat or who do not the importance of home the importance of home affordability, and their voluntary experience gets them to care. I think that is the first step. That also happen with me in college in habitat, my own volunteer experience is what got me to care about these important issues. So now you have a volunteer who cares and they want to do something more, and that is where i see my role fitting in this year. Helped create, like i said, those resources for habitat organizations across the country , to help educate their ottoman volunteers ande their audience more on the issues of affordability. The resources i am helping to create now are going directly back to those habitat organizations that i worked with in the past. The same volunteers. They are giving them more of an educated view on the issue and helping them learn next steps. What can i do next . The issue,care about how can i influence my elected officials or whatever to also care . That is the resource that i am helping provide to those entunteers that i just sp the last year serving with. Is two very different years of service. I think one is a little more concrete, but they both connect in bringing the issues and helping our communities care. Thank you very much, taylor. That is a great story. Tojuan, you are finishing up your second year larry, first year. You are with the liqueur and i was thinking about your plans after. You are telling me with fe macorps, and i was making about your plans after. What are you doing next . Tojuan to backtrack a little bit, i grew up in memphis, tennessee. If you know about the place, it is not exactly a friendly place. A the inner city, there are lot of options, i think, for a lot of people. I remember my senior year year we had, every military recruiters set up outside of the cafeteria. Military, iinst the have several Family Members in the military, but it is not for me personally. I have always wanted to do something that would allow me to give back to this country, because i do love the u. S. Of course, it is not perfect, nothing is, but this country gives people so much, so much opportunity, so much freedom and democracy that is here. I wanted to do something that would allow me to give back to people to serve my country, but i knew being in the military was not for me. I had to do something to find a way to still do that and have an impact on people and not think about myself, for once, because that is something i struggled with for a while. So after college, i truly had no idea what i wanted to do. , just lost. Ely i got my degree in i. T. , and so that made it a little difficult when finding a job. I wanted to do something that would allow me to give back. Alan earlier this morning and told him a little bit of my story, as far as how my family was affected by Hurricane Katrina and what that did to me. Fema helped my family out quite a bit, quite substantially. Going from being homeless with a lot of my family to actually being put up in homes and being able to sustain their lives to this day. Sorry, i am getting a little choked up, but because of that, i always wanted to do something to give back. When i heard about americorps specifically, and i heard about emacorps, i was like wow, this gives me an opportunity to serve people, but to also give back to the same agency that provided my family with help at a time when they really needed it. Im extremely grateful for fema for that, and so after, i guess, my term of service, i am still a little unsure. There are a lot of things i would like to do. I would like to work for fema, that is the dream, doing things in Emergency Management. I did wildlife firefighting for a bit, in colorado, oklahoma, ohio, which gave me my first look into what Emergency Management looks like, and then worked for fema, which is a bit different because i am not digging hand lines anymore, i am in an office, so that is a big change. Like i am impacting the world in some way, and the best example i can give of that is during my first round of service this year, we served in puerto rico. Went out to one of the more mountainous regions in puerto rico and we went out to inspect bridges and a few different rivers along that particular municipality. And it was really heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It was heartbreaking because they talked about during the hurricanes, how people could not get food and water to those more mountainous regions because bridges were completely destroyed. There were no ways for them to get supplies to those people. That it was heartwarming to know that i was there, trying to do what i could and get inspections done, submit information to people who can affect policy change on a much larger scale than i ever could as one individual. For me, i think that is what National Service is supposed to be about. An entire community of people coming together to build a more Sustainable Future for everyone within the u. S. Corps arelike peace very focused on doing things my mom of the u. S. , but always says, how can you take care of someone else if you cant take care of yourself . Doings a big thing about Community Service, especially in the u. S. , we have similar problems that other countries have, so i believe we should definitely focus our efforts into making sure that our country is doing well as well. I think we are much better prepared to handle other es as well. Issu i think i skipped over that one question alan no, you are doing great. Tojuan afterward, i would love to work for fema, but i am doing i. T. , i love computers. I would like the opportunity to do that, or for some other government agency. Inant to do something Emergency Management. I cant say that enough. I want to do some thing every day in my job that will be allowing me to benefit myself. One of the first things they taught us in team leader , theyng for fema corps made us repeat this mantra constantly, over and over. Its not about you. Something that really got drilled into my head. I feel that i live that now, because doing Community Service is not about me, it is about what i can do to benefit other people, so alan thank you. Thank you for sharing that very powerful story. I see my chairman ted knotting, because we talk about how there are military recruiters everywhere, they dont even join the military, but they have the option to do what you did on your own, find civilian service. Fema would be lucky to get you, and as a taxpayer, ill be lucky to have you continue your service. The Previous Panel talked about how there has been a big authorization for americorps and yet we dont get the funding. , you, i love what you said did it because of your kids. That is what kept you going, getting up at 5 00 in the morning, saying very rate. Late. I will start with you. In. Nyone else wants to jump we are in the nations capital. Just down the street, there are people very powerful who make decisions about resources. I wish they were in this room right now. If you had a chance to talk to policy makers to decide, should we invest more money in National Service or not, what would you say to them to convince them it is worth it . I will start with kayla, and if anyone else wants to jump in on that. I believe that all millennials and people in generations younger than me and even older should be invested in National Service. What would get more people into National Service is if there. Ere, i think more benefits as a this because millennial, i know that a lot of my peers are really invested paychecks andig getting cars and houses and things like that and really building their careers and lives , but one thing that i know is that i am not chasing the money, you have to get more people that are, that have the same mindset as myself, because giving back, it takes a lot. There is a huge time commitment, however, it is worth it. I think i answered the question . Alan yes you have. Very well. Thank you. Anyone else wants to take a stab at that . If you could sit in front of the policy makers and say, this is why you should make the decision to invest more resources, what would you say . More you want to attract people to these kinds of programs, you have to give them a bit of an incentive. At the same time, i dont want to say the quality of a volunteer would go down or the quality of service, if there was too much of a benefit, then you might end up with someone who is just there for a paycheck, but i think there is a way to help the people actually running the programs so that they are able to offer something to the people who come into these programs, the individual will get something out of it, even if they did not want to, they will end up getting something out of it. But the people who have to run the programs, who are on the ground with these guys, who are the boots on the ground, there are people who have to run that. They need access to a little bit more to make things get done. Im sure we could have much larger programs out there if they had access, and it does not necessarily even have to be funding so much as guidance. How can i improve my program, where can i take it . Things like that. Alan this is the last question before we go to the audience. Lets step into the time machine. About a goal that we should get to one Million People within fulltime National Service within 10 years. Say it is 10 years from now and we have achieved that goal. From your experience, what kind of impact with that have on our country, on our communities in country . How america be different if we had one Million People youre doing what you overall doing you were all doing . Tojuan as i said before, the whole its not about you idea. Its extreme difficult for me to not talk about politics, because i think there is a lot that goes into play with a lot of those decisions. However, if this was 10 years in the future, everything was going the way that it would, i think the country would be much more resilient than it currently is. A lot of those things that divide us, because i have heard it talked about in pretty much every single panel, every single speaker has said something about division. I actually have a couple of members of my team in the back i am very happy they were able to show up but my team is extremely diverse. We have met people with different political, religious, socioeconomic backgrounds than my own, and yet we are still able to do the job that needs to be done, and im able to have conversations with them where there are not arguments, and i am able to find ways to deal with people. I think i am translating that to the question, to say that because i am around these people that are not like me, it makes a better person because i have a different understanding and perspective of what other people are going through, what their situations are like. I think a lot of us live we see this going on, but we do not pay much attention to it. Being part of Something Like americorps and being out there with boots on the ground, so to speak, dealing with people on a daily basis really changes your perspective on the entire world. If we can get a million plus people to think of every Single Person as a neighbor, as a community partner, as somebody we can collaborate with, that makes the entire country that much better. It allows us to put more projects and funding into other thing because we have education and funding to do those things. People to seeget each other as opponents, not enemies until we can get to that point, i do not think anything can change. In the future, i really, really we would be so much more resilient. Thank you, that is very powerful. William, you said something that a lot of people gassed it in the gasped atssed at in the room. 50 kids to one teacher. We could reduce that ratio to 25 or even 20 if we had more americorps folks. What would you say to folks. If we get to one Million People a year, how would that change communities like yours . William i think it could benefit West Virginia a lot, because then there would be more people willing to get into schools and volunteer to mentor. It was hard enough to even get me to do it, because there is not a lot of people who want to take that initiative or go back into the schools. West virginia does have the most americorps workers in any state, so i do not see why we dont have the resources to do that. If we ever get to one million, i am sure we can make some wonderful things happen in the schools and some other bills as well. Alan thank you. Taylor, what is your view . When you worked with habitat, you did jumpstart, what would happen to america if we got to one Million People a year doing service like you have done . Have a i think we would more cynically engaged society. I think we would also start to see each other as neighbors, kind of similarly to what we have all said. I have never really seen a more spot than habitat for humanity worksite. I encounter people every day of completely different backgrounds , political views, religious views, everything like that. But you are all coming together to get the task done, to build the house for a family who is also working hard to get that house built. I think that engaging people in service like that makes them start to see someone who is different truly as their neighbor, which this idea was mentioned in Previous Panels, but it really fosters that respect and allows you to see other perspectives. I think that having one Million People, sure, there are also all of the direct impacts of their service, but i also think it a more engaged and more empathetic society that could really help unite us. That is a very powerful and habitat is a great example. For every single americorps member that serves fulltime, average, 25e, on volunteers. So that would be 25 million. Your point is very good. 25 million americans engaging in service just through those americorps members. We are now the fun part, where you get to ask questions. I want to open it up to the audience, i love that. You are hand is already up. Stand up and say who you are, your name, before you ask your question. Thank you. Lets see get her another mic . Good afternoon, everyone. My name is michelle and i am a senior policy associate and some recruitment for nccc alan she is trying to say she is not a planned. I was the first person of caller to serve in my village person of color to serve in my village of rwanda. Can to promote diversity for people from different socioeconomic backgrounds . We promote more diversity and recruitment, make sure everyone we are serving represents our country . , do you want to go first . Tojuan sure. That is a good question. I am trying to think as i am talking here. I know really quickly, when i was debating in college, that was one of the biggest things that we saw. We saw there were a lot of people of particular backgrounds and socioeconomic status that tends to dominate the entire arena of debate oh, i am so sorry that tended to dominate the entire arena and it made it difficult for other people to really join and be successful. I think one of the things that helped us out was that my coach was extremely big on recruiting people, so we would go around to different places and try to target areas that were not of that same thing that we always saw. Going to a lot more innercity areas. I think one of the biggest things is not making people feel like they are less than. I think that is very difficult, especially when you are trying to market or promote an idea about doing something, it is trying to make people feel like they are all a part of the exact same thing, regardless of who they are. I think there are simple things that can be done, like providing posters or flyers or things with people of different races, people of different backgrounds, because i know that with a lot of different types of media, it is difficult to see representation. I know myself, being a person of i enjoy seeing representation of myself in movies and other popular media. That is another thing that could be done to do that. If you are going to do recruiting, i would definitely say, go to places that are much more public much more open, because a lot of public areas tend to have a larger or more diverse mix of people. That is my idea on that. Was a great question. When we were starting in the city, you have to make it a top priority, be intentional about it, and be strategic. The first person we put on the me, michael, it was kristin attwood, because she was our recruiting director. What she did, she went and found mentors and feeders. Ofbuild up a coalition faithbased leaders, people working in the community, people who had been Guidance Counselors in school, she just said, send me one young person, or two. That was a very Diverse Group and they were all excited about the opportunity. Then she went to rollerskating rinks, churches and synagogues, mosques, she went into the community and went to meet people where they were. That is how we got our Diverse Group. But we made it our top priority. If you are not intentional, it doesnt happen. Yes just say who you are, please. Is it working . Yes, it is really working out. My name is richard reeves, i am from the brooking institution. Thank you all for your service. What is the biggest challenge you have faced as you have undergone your service, and what, if anything, could have been done to lesson that challenge . Alan great question, thank you, richard. Does anyone want to take that . [laughter] william the biggest challenge i faced, being in a rural area, there is a big poverty rate. A lot of the people there are poor. A lot of students in middle school were telling me they were hungry, there was no food on their table and their parents did not have the money to get it. So i would try to urge them to go take food from the pantry, the school, or ask the cooks for food, because usually they will send them with a takehome bag if there is an obvious reluctance to get food and things like that. I myself could not bring them myd, so the harder challenge face was trying to get them to do that and finding a resource for their parents to use to get food, which ultimately i sent them to the Catholic Charities food pantry and they were able to get food and be good. They are all good. That is a big challenge i faced and continue to face as i work in the middle school. Alan thank you. Anybody else. Andrew . Andrew one word funding. The Biggest Issue is, how can you fund these programs . How can i get the money i need to keep this Program Going . We can get the bodies as we have heard, there are bodies who wants to do this, but how do we sustain this program and keep it going . Thank you. Then tos, back here, steve after. Oh, sorry. No, your first. You are first. Doug, is built. For all the panelists, 10 seconds or less, you are talking to a friend, a stranger, a colleague, and you are going to say, what was the number one best take away from doing a service year what is it . Alan i love that, speed round. Taylor, 10 seconds, best take away. My best take away from my Previous Year and this year hmm. You put me on the spot. Alan i know. Taylor i think i would say that back in denver, working with the habitat homeowners, i got an opportunity to build alongside. They were all from very diverse backgrounds. A lot of them were middle eastern and we spoke completely different linkages. But through that universal language of building, as we like to say i habitat, we were able to at habitat, we were able to unite across different backgrounds, different languages, and i think that is a common theme that you will find americorpsall programs, is there is always you tong that will unite the people you are serving with and you can take that and use it for out throughout the rest of your life to find ways to unite with people that you might look at or hear about and say wow, what do i have in common with them . You can take that throughout your life and keep running with that, which will lead to a more engaged society. Longerthat was a lot for 10 seconds. Alan that was an outstanding answer for being put on the spot. Taylor i had to think about it. Andrew teamwork. That is a big part of it. For the veterans returning, there is a kind of belonging and what you are looking for, and that is a big part of that. Public servants, in public and private service, when you serve in a team it gives you a sense of belonging again. Myeb my big kayla biggest take away its student growth. In the beginning, you have a bunch of kids that are not necessarily on grade level. Seeing how far they have come by the end of the year is honestly amazing. One of my students, she was the highest grower in math from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. She spoke no english when she got there and now we have all conversations and it is amazing me it is ther developments of my members, being a team leader. And having a team of now, six people, and seeing how much they have grown from the beginning of the service year until now, has been. I dont have words to explain it, just knowing that they went from one way and having a particular will view to completely changing that outlook and having a better outlook on their entire lives. My biggest take away as i was able to build myself back up and strengthen my ties with my community at the same time. My life is so much different and better now. I to be that to americorps and the people i met along the way. Very powerful. A 10 second. So steve culbertson. Nobody flips that a thermostat when youre 18 and all of a sudden youre cynically engaged. Michael phelps did not jump in the pool when he was 18. And start swimming. What happened to you as a child, name a person or an event that happened to you as a child that gave you the confidence to be providing the service that you did. And by the way, thank you for that. Person,anecdote teacher, parent or experience. Who wants to take that one . My mother taught Public School for 25 years just outside philadelphia. Years, yes, i 25 can go out and give a little bit i have to everybody else. Lets take the show on the road. [laughter] from an early age, i was inspired by my grandmother. She was the most selfless person i met she did everything for herself and was very independent. She was diagnosed with a very cancer 10 months before i joined youth build. And she wanted to see me graduate. She passed away one month before my graduation, but i know she is here with me right now. And she is very proud of me. Anybody else . Question, numerous people that i attribute to my service. I would give this to my fourth grade teacher. She gave me an award called the mr. Goodbar award. For helping one of my fellow peers in the class. Disabilities. Ng and the teacher gave me their ward because i took time out to help her get her work done, took slain things to her, with patients. I feel thatnce. Is shaped mikes parents as well. So thanks to my teacher. One of my high school teachers. She was the person who taught me how to meet everybody where theyre at. She did that with each of her students. That helped me through my year of service and my current year. The are working with volunteers or building alongside habitat homeowners, you have to meet everybody where they are at. Together toward a greater goal. Did i miss anybody . Mentor mr. My wilson. Things. O enjoy quitting it is super easy to start stuff. And it is really hard to finish things. I used to really enjoy quitting because it was easy. Mr. Wes, he challenged me and we took it a step at a time. Month by month he would challenge me different things. I loved having a goal to reach. Thats the way he was able to get me to do things consistently was by providing me with some kind of reward at the end of each month each time i did something. Eventually it translated to National Service because as everyone up here can understand and attest to the fact that it gets really, really difficult sometimes doing this, being homesick, being far away from your family, all this, its really really hard but its extremely rewarding at the same time. Terrific. I want to end with a final question for you all. I was really struck, andrew, by what you said at the beginning. Raise your hand if you believe that if you have the ability and opportunity to affect positive change in someone elses life, you have a moral obligation to do so. Just raise your hand. I knew we were preaching to the choir. [laughter] all right, can we hear it for this the best panel of the day. , thank you. [ applause ] wasnt that inspiring . I just loved this last panel but i want to thank everyone who came today, all of the panelists and obviously all of you. Its been really uplifting and inspiring. I want to really acknowledge the people who were key to putting this event together. Above all morgan welsh sitting here in the front row. Stand up, morgan. [ applause ] anna dotson. Where is sarah . Happy birthday. [ applause ] she had to work doubly hard on her birthday, but well give her some time off some other time. [laughter] you may be wondering why theres the name brookings future of the middle Class Initiative up here. I wanted to take just a minute to make the connection here especially since my colleague Richard Reese who directs the project is here now. The premise, i think, in working on future of the middle class is that a democracy doesnt flourish without a strong middle class. I think we are going to focus in the coming year on producing some kind of a report that brings together our work in this area. And we are, of course, going to focus on the usual things that people focus on when they talk about the middle class, whats happening to their incomes. Do we have a big problem with income equality in this country, what about their health, what about jobs and wages and what about work family balance. Were going to take on all those issues. But i think whats going to be somewhat distinctive about our approach is reflected in todays meeting. Were also going to care about and do research on and writing about relationships and respect. Relationships in your family, in your workplace, in your community, how you deal with other individuals in an attitude of respect. I think we have, as alan put it, been looking at issues through the wrong lens and we need to really come back to restoring what he called the soul of america. America is an affluent country, we have lots of resources but we do need to worry about these less tangible elements of our life together. So im very hopeful that we can address these issues. This has been a great beginning. As bill and others said, its a reality test. Its not just about talking about respect and relationships in a vacuum. Its talking about what we could actually do about it. Or as john allen said, its the first step from policy to action. So i think we are very privileged to have had such a great group here today. I certainly want to thank my colleagues at Service Year Alliance including tay and kevin by the way. And thank you all for coming and for sharing your thoughts and questions with us. We hope to see you again soon. [ applause ] or listen live on the free radio app louisiana boaters are heading to the polls today on one of more competitive gubernatorial races. A rally louisiana voters. The president tweeted today, louisiana, it out and vote republican before going to the big game today. A runoff be tremendous win for your great statelower taxes and car insurance, and better protection of your Second Amendment fantastic been with you last night. The president is back in washington, d. C. And expected to address trade talks with china in a speech later today at the values voters summit. Morning, the deal i just made with china is by far, the greatest and biggest deal ever made for our great patriot
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