American YouthWorks Charter High School operates a Service Learning Academy. Service Learning is a teaching and learning strategy though which students participate in meaningful community service projects. In the Service Learning Academy (SLA), students attend core academic self-paced classes AND participate in one of our Corps Programs. Through these Corps programs students get job skills that help position them for a career, earn community service hours, and begin developing professional networks with community partners. SLA students also have access to personal, academic, and career counseling. Students learn how to build portfolios, write resumes, apply for college and financial aid, and work with internship coordinators to land internships in their career field.

“Service-Learning is a particularly fertile way of involving young people in community service, because it ties helping others to what they are learning in the classroom. In the process, it provides a compelling answer to the perennial question: Why do I need to learn this stuff?”

—General Colin Powell, Founding Chairman of America’s Promise