AJ Robbins Foundation — CISNY Teen Leadership & Mentoring Program

Communities in Schools, NY is working with the AJ Robbins Foundation on its Teen Leadership Program in four New York City high schools; (the program is also currently being expanded to CIS affiliates in several cities). While the program+IBk-s modules are excellent, and CISNY has seen outstanding results with the young people it is working with, its promotion of leadership skills and their expression in community service projects has been less than desired because of a lack of connection at the school level to such projects. (Generally, students are given the option of selecting a community service project from a list of community organizations.) To overcome this shortfall and increase the service learning component+IBk-s capacity to support a rich learning experience, CISNY is developing a service learning program supported by software with a project-based learning practicum and +IBw-functions+IB0-[2] that link classroom learning with after-school community-based learning programs, thereby integrating the leadership program+IBk-s learning modules into a cohesive applied learning initiative.

Service Learning with an Integrated Project-Based Learning Practicum

Since service learning and community service hours are a requirement in most schools, CISNY can through the Digital Campus portal help expand the Robbins Mentored Teen Leadership program to a wide range of schools and students. By designing an integrated +IBw-leadership and active service learning program+IB0- with a project-based learning practicum, the program offers the added benefit of helping students master skills and working formats important for success in the 21st century work environment; for example, students:

• learn to work as a member of a team
• learn to take responsibility within the team
• learn to work with diverse groups of people and collaborate across sectors
• master basic technical skills
• improve their communications skills
• have a heightened awareness of the issues of the day
• increase their creative and critical thinking capacities
• apply learning directly to an accomplishment with an outcome

This initiative integrates the Robbins Mentored Teen Leadership Program with classroom, service learning, and project-based learning adding an e-mentoring program for applied learning projects in the community. Community Asset Mapping as a service learning project for participating schools is one of these projects.