Category: Uncategorized

  • Activist Spotlight: Joshua Borokinni

    Joshua Borokinni, a 20 year old activist from Lagos, Nigeria shares his inspiring work as a climate activist and social innovator. Joshua is the founder of Borokinni Joshua Initiative, an organization that focuses on social innovation, youth engagement, sustainable development goal advocacy, and climate journalism. In our conversation, we spoke about the dedication it takes…

  • Activist Spotlight: Nabila Abbas

    Nabila Abbas, 23, spoke with SLP from her home in a remote area of Pakistan. Growing up in conservative tribal area, Nabila found it challenging, but essential, to break out of the limited role offered to girls in her community. With the support of her parents, Nabila has become a fierce advocate for girls, education,…

  • Earth Day 2020: A Virtual Day of Advocacy

    So what exactly is Earth Day? In 1969, founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, came up with the idea for a national day to focus on the environment after witnessing the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson believed that by…

  • SLP Students Bring Impassioned Advocacy to Vermont State House

    SLP Students Bring Impassioned Advocacy to Vermont State House

    A group of forty ten and eleven year olds at Founders Memorial School in Essex, Vermont participated in the fall session of SLP’s Residency Program. After brainstorming more than thirty social issues of concern, these passionate 4th graders chose to address Vermont’s growing homelessness crisis.  “We feel upset because homeless people are not getting the services…

  • Is Civics Education a Constitutional Right?

    The U.S. public school system was created, in large part, to prepare young people to be capable, engaged citizens. Since the mid-20th century, however, most schools have neglected their responsibility to prepare students for civic participation: it’s been well-documented that high school students throughout the country are graduating with, at best, minimal knowledge about government…

  • Activist Spotlight: Ashanti Benons

    SLP’s Youth Board continues to grow, with new voices from around Brooklyn joining the Board’s ongoing advocacy for educational equity and action civics for all NYC youth. Today, we feature an interview with one of our newest members, Ashanti Benons, a senior at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School. Check out a few highlights from our…

  • SLP expands to Vermont!

    SLP expands to Vermont!

    We’ve always known – and many years of inspiring SLP projects have confirmed – that Brooklyn youth have a unique and powerful perspective on how to create positive change in their schools and neighborhoods. This year, when an opportunity arose to work with youth attending school in a very different environment – rural Vermont! –…

  • Fifth Graders Launch “Prevent. Prepare. Provide” Campaign

    During SLP’s Spring 2019 Residency, a 5th grade class at PS 58 in Carroll Gardens decided to tackle an increasingly urgent community problem: the impact of extreme weather events on the most vulnerable New Yorkers.  During the Research Phase, these young advocates learned how climate change amplifies extreme weather, causing natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy…

  • SLP Youth Board Calls for Culturally Responsive Action Civics For All

    We are the members of the Service Learning Project’s (SLP) inaugural Youth Board, formed to provide a platform for Brooklyn high school students to develop their leadership skills and advocate for legislation that increases student voice and overall civic engagement throughout the city. Over the past six months, we have worked to research the state and…

  • SLP Students at Fort Hamilton High School Take Their Research to the Streets

    During the Research Phase of an SLP project, when students become experts on their chosen social issue, they often collect data through surveys and direct observation. For ninth graders at Fort Hamilton High School determined to prevent littering, this meant community mapping – or an observational field trip. After several weeks of building their knowledge…