Join us Tuesday, July 11 and Wednesday, July 12 from 9 AM – 12 PM CST on Zoom!

This course is being offered at no cost by the National Youth Leadership Council in collaboration with Innovageous. Teams of 2-3 of higher education faculty for institutions is highly recommended.

Effective service-learning implementation and design is the foundation of student engagement, learning, and success. Learn from experienced educators and service-learning leaders as you work to refine and improve your courses, and develop courses that meet service-learning requirements for Teacher Education.

Planning and Designing Service-Learning Courses for Teacher Education Programs will be facilitated by service-learning experts who introduce the pedagogy, process, research, and planning of service-learning as an instructional strategy through hands-on experiences. The course will focus on using service-learning as an instructional strategy to improve student outcomes and meet genuine community needs in K-12 classrooms.

At the conclusion of this course, participants will leave with an understanding of how to:

• Tap into service-learning as a high quality instructional practice 
• Design K-12 service-learning experiences to meet academic standards
• Differentiate service-learning experiences by grade levels
• Incorporate the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice into curriculum planning 
• Develop a Teacher Education course plan to promotes service-learning as an instructional strategy, and includes topics, content, objectives, and assessments that support quality service-learning in k-12 classrooms
• Integrate service-learning into higher education coursework to model effective implementation

Facilitator Bios:

Shira Woolf Cohen is an educator, community organizer and leader who has been recognized locally and nationally for her work. Shira spent 19 years at a charter school in Philadelphia where she co-lead the growth of the school from a K-8 with 500 students to a K-12 school with 1500 students in her role as Teacher, Dean, Vice Principal and Principal. She served as an Adjunct Instructor at multiple universities and a board member and chair for several local and national nonprofit organizations. She currently supervises aspiring leaders during their principal practicum and teaches pre-service teachers in their graduate program at Holy Family University and University of Phoenix, and is the facilitator for the National Youth Leadership Council’s Instructional Leadership in Service-Learning Certificate Program. She was a recipient of the G. Bernard Gill Award in Service-Learning Urban Leadership and is a Cohort 3 Senior Neubauer Fellow in Educational Leadership. Shira holds a Bachelors of Science in Middle School Education and Mathematics from Lesley University, and a Masters of Education in Urban Education and Principal Certification from Temple University. She also completed the National Institute for School Leaders preparation program. 

Amy Meuers is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Leadership Council, the leading service-learning organization in the country for more than 40 years. Amy has spent 20 years with NYLC leading both national and international service-learning initiatives that expand the capacity of educators to utilize service-learning as an instructional strategy with students of all age-levels. Under her leadership, NYLC launched Youth as Solutions, a national service-learning program that supports teams of youth across the country in addressing issues impacting their communities.  She co-founded the Coalition for Service-Learning to support advocacy efforts for service-learning at the federal level, and published Equity in Service-Learning: Self Assessment Tools for Quality Engagement, Engage: Service-Learning for Afterschool, and the revised Getting Starting in Service-Learning: Integrating the Process into K-12 Teaching. Amy co-designed and facilitates NYLC’s Certificate in Service-Learning Instructional Leadership which has graduated more than 50 leaders in K-12 and higher education over the past two years. She is a graduate of the Hubert H. Humphrey Policy Fellows (21-22) and is a  city commissioner in her hometown of Brooklyn Park, Mn. Amy holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Administration from Globe University, and a Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership from Regis University. She also completed Northwestern University Certificate of Executive Leadership and ASU Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership.