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service-learning

Tackling poverty through service-learning

Service-Learning Fosters Lifelong Development

When I was a teenager, we didn’t have a term for service-learning. There were opportunities to volunteer in our communities but not many people thought about the lifelong value of such experiences. As I reflect on my early volunteer experiences, I know for certain that my life was changed as […]

Empathy
positive youth development

Positive Youth Development: Research, Principles, and Practices

Positive youth development is the practice of nurturing core internal strengths and abilities in children and teens. It is about providing opportunities for youth to believe in themselves and their abilities to influence their lives and the world around them.  As families, schools, and communities, we share one goal.  We want […]

Compass-Inspired
Teaching Children Perseverance and the Value of Work, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Teaching Children Perseverance and the Value of Work

America Rice, age 11, recently expressed her views about hard work and perseverance: “If you want something,” she said, “you have to earn it. Everything is not going to come to you just when you want it.” How do children grow up to think and feel like America Rice? How […]

Resilience
Why Risk-Taking May Increase Teen Happiness, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Why Risk-Taking May Increase Teen Happiness

One of the first things you might associate with teenagers is their risk-taking behavior. And most of the time, those associations are negative. Right? That’s because we are deluged with stories of troubled youth whose risk-taking actions got out of hand —sometimes with tragic results. But what if there was […]

Resilience
Is Your Child Prepared for Lifelong Learning? by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Is Your Child Prepared for Lifelong Learning?

Lifelong learning is a buzzword in 21st century education. And for good reason. Becoming a seeker of lifelong learning is critical in today’s fast-changing world. Learning is not only a matter of absorbing information but a process of developing many other internal skills, like curiosity, perseverance, and the ability to […]

Curiosity
Teachers Change Lives through Service-Learning, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Teachers Change Lives through Service-Learning

Jake Bernstein, age 17, is a great example of how service-learning changes lives. In fact, in one of President Obama’s annual “Back-to-School” addresses, he praised three extraordinary high school students for giving back to their communities. One was Jake Bernstein. Jake volunteers with Autism Speaks and co-launched StLouisVolunteen.com with his […]

Empathy
How to Instill Compassion in Children, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

How to Instill Compassion in Children

How do children learn to care? How do they feel connected to their communities and know they can make a difference in the world? The answer isn’t as complex as it might seem. Like many college students who became committed to social and environmental causes, Danielle talked about developing compassion at a […]

Empathy
Youth Leadership: Engaging Young People for Social Good, by Marilyn Price-Mitchell PhD

Youth Leadership: Engaging Young People for Social Good

When it comes to youth leadership, Eden Eskaros is learning about social innovation at a young age.    On a recent trip to Mexico, Eden, age 10, was horrified to learn that children lived in dismal situations, using cardboard boxes as beds. She also noticed they had no shoes. Eden […]

Empathy