Eight years ago, a high school student that had traveled around a little bit with us started school at a university on the eastern shore of Merryland. She hit the ground running and within a few weeks, she had gathered a group of students interested in their community just off campus with it's share of interesting issues including poverty, homelessness, child welfare and development. This group of students was not only interested, they acted. Every week they were involved with some kind of community development activity and it was consistent.
In fact, it's been consistent just about this whole eight years. Leaders have graduated, new students have joined and their involvement in community projects has pivoted and been clarified. For the past two years or so, this arc of student involvement has morphed into a mentor program, with college students being big brothers or big sisters with elementary school aged kids in a specific neighborhood. I've loved watching this for the better part of a decade. It proves out lots of questions that students have - can I make an impact while in school, will I have enough time, can I start something like this myself. Yes, yes yes.
This mentorship thing comes to Baltimore in early March as a partnership between The Ember Cast and Serve The City Baltimore for the second time in two years. We'll host a little service project in the city, encourage these amazing student leaders and take lots of notes on how they do it.
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