Folks have been conversations, if you can take them into the hall, please. This has been a fabulous day. I want to thank barbara who walked in. I agree we have saved the best for last. No question. Whenever i do a Service Event i say we have to hear from young people who are serving or have served because they understand what its about because its at the ground level. Im so excited about this panel. I want to thank my friend bill for his overthetop comments. I had the privilege of starting the program, but it wasnt me. I did it with my best friend and college roommate, Michael Brown and others. It was a small group of thoughtful dedicated people. What made it work, it wasnt me or michael, it was people when they experienced this, loved this idea. I am honored to be here. Its like a Family Reunion for me with Service Legends and giants, my brother john bridgeland who i worked closely with for 20 years, thanks to bridge and george w. Bush they got the largest increase in ameri corp. Ever. Susan stroud, whos been carrying this torch forever, domestically and internationally helping to spread the idea all over the world. Steve cullbertson, who was here. Who has built the service for young people showing you can be nine, ten, eight, 12 years old and change the world through service. So many people have built the movement its amazing. I want to thank bell and brookings. Bell is a hero, she has put the issue of poverty, opportunity, the middle class on the National Agenda and its amazing how she keeps coming up with new ideas to advance the cause but also action oriented. Im glad weve been able to embrace the service brookings and alliance together. I want to thank jesse, whos fabulous. When i called him about taking this job we said i believe its time for a new generation to take the lead, and honestly, jesse, i cant wait. And also duval patrick, whos a dear friend, no one gets this more from their personal experience. I want to thank them. My chairman, joe heck, i am honored to serve on the commission. Hes done an amazing job leading us. Weve come together in a great way, showing it doesnt matter if youre republican or democrat, we can find Common Ground on this issue and you provided amazing leadership, joe. And barbara, whos doing a fabulous job, youve put wind in the sails for the whole movement. We are blessed to have your leadership. Just a couple thoughts. I love what everybody has talked about. Im with the folks who have said we have to take this to scale. Its urgent. I believe theres no idea that is no more important to helping us fulfill our fundamental mission as a country which is to form the more Perfect Union and to have liberty and justice for all than National Service. When i say that im reminded of two of my great mentors who i know are with us here, Harris Woford who emphasized the for all from his days in the World War Ii Army air corp. Literally to his last breath was advocating for. And saying we have to have National Service. And eli see gal, who is the founder of americorp. President clinton had the vision but it was eli who understood politics, knew how to get things done. That legislation got passed within nine months, big bipartisan vote. And then the program was launched within a year. And thanks to eli and harris and other champions, senator kennedy, hatch, et cetera, 1. 1 Million People have served in ameri core over the past 25 years. We know this works. Its not rocket science. And as youll hear from the young people, we have to take it to scale. From my own personal experience, i can tell you National Service changes your life. I met my wonderful wife who founded Public Allies at a conference for Service Leaders and entrepreneurs, if youre looking for love join the service movement. It works. I say that because at its essen essence, what the service is about is spreading more love in the world. I love what peter said, i agree with you, it was like a benediction. He said that National Service touches peoples souls. And if we can get to a Million People a year, it will touch and change americas soul. And we need that. There is nothing more powerful than love. As dr. King said, who said everybody should be great because everybody can serve, he also said darkness cannot stamp out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot stamp out hate. Only love can do that. Thats what the movement is about. So i want to turn it over to these fabulous Young Leaders who are every day showing us what the service is about i want to briefly say who they are and give each of you a couple minutes to share your story why you joined the service movement, what youve gotten out of it, what you did. We have William Cartman from youth build. Dorothy stillman is a national hero. Youth build usa. We have andrew hanson, we have tawan reid, a team leader with fema. We have kayla wetzel. Weve got andrew hanson, the Environmental Stewardship program for the state parks. And taylor stone, project Development Habitat for humanity. Why not just start here. My name is william gartman, im from West Virginia and i completed a term with youth build North Central and with the education alliance. Its okay. Now, after completing my term, ive continued to be involved with youth build. Im the head of the Mentor Program and i sit as the souse chef where we take in other members and train them to do that as well. Terrific. My name is tawan reed, im a Field Team Leader for fema corp. I served for about six months in puerto rico, were now serving with the office of external affairs here in d. C. Its been an amazing opportunity. Its honestly changed my life. One of the first fingthings i r ant the program, a team leader said it was the hardest yet most rewarding term of their life. Now my term is up i can agree and im grateful. Im honored to be here so i want to thank Samantha Warfield for reaching out to my campus and allowing me this opportunity to speak so thank you very much. Also to barbara steward, the president of cncs director, sorry. Very grateful to be here. As well as among generals and some of the most intellectual people ive heard speak in a long time. Im excited. I think thats why im rambling. Im very grateful so thank you. Good morning, im kayla wetzel. I am from glendale, maryland. I currently serve at city year washington d. C. As team leader. This is my second year serving. Last year i served at bancroft Elementary School, a bilingual Elementary School. I served in third grade mathematics, which is english and in spanish. Im not very fluent but the students are teaching me as well. So i am a student to them. I came across city year at my college university. I went to Delaware State University and we had a career fair. I was at first i was not interested because i was looking for internships. However, last summer i came across an Instagram Post and it just sparked my interest in city year once again. I love the mission. And it really aligned with my general purpose. And ultimately its the reason why im here today. Im very grateful to be here and thank you. Morning or afternoon i dont know what were at at this point. Im andrew hanson, originally from philadelphia, or just outside of philadelphia, go birds again. I am a u. S. Army veteran, i served four and a half years. A few years ago i moved to delaware, kind of just happened, didnt really have a plan in mind. I was looking to transition into Natural Resources but i do not have a college degree, to be a field biologist thats kind of a thing you need. While i was in delaware i started doing a lot of volunteering and heard about the Delaware State Park veterans corp. , she usually throws m ms at me if i get it right. I served two tours i should say i served two terms with the vet corp. , they were close enough to tours at that point, before being hired by Delaware State Parks as the and this doesnt fit on a business card, but seasonal Environmental Stewardship program team leader. In the summertime theres an additional title added to the bottom, which is for the coastal park internship program. I tell people im a biological aid for the state of delaware because apparently the state pays for business cards by the letter and i dont get many to give out. Im here to ask each and every one of you and everyone who gets to see 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. My name is taylor, im serving as an americorp. Vista for habitat with humanity international. Also served a Previous Term with a habitat for humanity affiliate in denver, colorado. There i was working as a construction crew leader on the build site. So leading volunteers in building homes. Now im doing something a little bit different back in the office and i helped to create learning resources that we can spread to habitat organizations throughout the nation to help educate and mobilize our volunteers in the general public. So a little bit about me, i got into habitat in college, that was also my First Experience with americorp. I did a quarter time program in college called jump start for those of you who arent familiar, its an Early Literacy program where a team of corp. Members goes into preschools and helps them develop Early Literacy skills. So that was my first exposure to americorp. , when i started to develop a passion for Housing Affordability and habitats admission through our campus chapter, i decided to blend those two experiences with jump start and through habitat and decided to do my year of americorp. With habitat after college. And i loved it and decided to come back for a second year. True Service Warrior there. I love what you said, if you have an opportunity to affect change, do you have a moral obligation to do so. You have served in the military, civilian service, youve done it all. Senator mccain said that military and National Civilian service said theyre two sides of the same coin. Tell us, what was similar about your service in the military and your americorp. Service and what was different and what did you learn from each, and why was it valuable for you to do both . Take a moment here, sorry about that. Task and purpose. Everyone operating together for the same cause. My particular program was a little bit different because it was made up of veterans and dependents. So everyone had known the mission and be on the mission. But its definitely the team work aspect, working together, common task and purpose towards a goal, something in mind to do, and you get that sense of accomplishment. It was a little bit different because working with dependents were also in our program. So there wasnt necessarily that drive in them already, that sense of duty thats accomplish a mission, and there was a mentorship factor to that, how can we bring them into our group so they understand where were coming from. Terrific, thank you. Kayla. Im a little bit familiar with the program you serve in. Can you share what some of the most important things youve gained personally from your experience. I some of the things that i personally gained was a sense of commitment. Completing a service year takes a lot. From the long hours to commuting to your service site every day, and as well as personal challenges that you may face. It really took a lot out 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 really, really early, but i knew what motivated me the most was to show up every day for my students, because they need someone thats going to ultimately be there for them. I would say also a sense of independence. I am from maryland. However, you really have to drive everywhere. But coming into d. C. Every day, i learned how to really 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 really have to learn how to control your own emotions, because the students are theyre still very young and they dont always have a sense of their own emotional awareness. So i really learned a lot about that this year. This year and last year, my First Service year, because sometimes we want to just react, but in an Elementary School you cant just react, because you have to see how your actions take an account on your students. The last thing that i learned is having empathy for english language learners. Like i previously said, my school is a bilingual Elementary School, so a lot of the students there are not from the United States of america. Theyre from all over the world honestly. But its hard when youre learning two different languages. We had one student from finland. He doesnt really know english and he doesnt really know spanish, so its hard for him to necessarily grasp all the concepts. These are all things that ive gained through service. Thank you. Thats great. William, the needs and the job prospects in a Rural Community like elkins where you served is very different from urban areas. How has your experience. Helped you in your career decisions and what should policy makers know about how to be effective and what National Service can do in Rural Communities . Before i joined youth build i was already working as a chef, but there is some reluctance to move me up or promote me or increase my pay based on my lack of schooling. Youth build obviously helped me get my High School Equivalent and achieve a lot of leadership skills. Thats the case in West Virginia because we have a very high student to teacher ratio. We have a lot of people struggling in classrooms and unfortunately a pretty high dropout rate. When i got to youth build, everybody is taught in the school when they do something bad, theyre labeled as a failure. When you fail something, it can leave you broken inside. When i got to youth build, i learned that its okay to break sometimes. Because if you never break, you never put yourself back together. I prepared myself at youth build with their help. It really gave me my confidence back. That was something i needed to negotiate a pay raise and to get to that next level. It helped me a lot with my next americorps term too. I tried not to keep that in mind. I kept my focus on the youth and wanted to do things for them that i never had as a student myself. I had Great Success in that program. At the end of the year, i had a 90 turnaround rate in their abc criteria. For me to be able to sit here and talk to you guys, if you would have came here and pulled me about four years ago and told me id be sitting in front of a lot of people in d. C. , i would have acted as though that warranted me a break for the night. But here i am. When i went into youth build, i kind of learned a new thought process. When you get out of school and you get into Something Like that, you have a certain way of thinking about yourself. Its almost like we call them sheep nowadays. 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 lion and i tell all the kids i work with be a lion because thats the most important thing you can do for yourself. [ applause ] thank you for sharing that very powerful story. Ive known dorothy. She was one of the first people to get behind us. Ive had the privilege of meeting with a lot of young people who have done youth build. Thats a very powerful story but i also know its not a unique story. Its an incredibly powerful impactful program. We need to get you in front of more people in washington, d. C. Taylor, i love that you did jump start. I didnt know that. People can start with service in school and do service in college. You decided to do habitat and youre in your second year. Can you tell us how youre trying to help the organization as a whole . Sure. I think the impact obviously looks drastically different. On the work site i was able to lead volunteers in the building of two duplexes during my year there. That is an additional four families that we were able to serve through my service, which is awesome. Thats the more tangible impact that i can see. How i draw my connection is when i was on the build site last year, volunteers would come out and they would love it. I am a Firm Believer that it is through volunteer service that we can change minds and hearts. I saw that firsthand on the work site. You got these people who dont know about habitat or dont know about the importance of Home Affordability and their volunteer experience g