Big News!
We are delighted to share that College for Social Innovation has been selected for a three-year, $2.7 million AmeriCorps State and National grant to support and expand our cutting-edge experiential learning work in Boston and beyond. Support from AmeriCorps will allow students who enroll in our Semester in the City and new Semester for Impact programs to continue earning a full semester of academic credit while receiving enhanced financial benefits, including a scholarship of nearly $2,000 that can be used for future semesters, graduate school, or to pay off student loans.
Since 2016, College for Social Innovation has forged partnerships with 16 leading colleges and universities across the country, empowered 500+ students to achieve significant gains in skills employers want, and built meaningful capacity for nearly 200 social impact organizations working on the front lines of educational and economic opportunity, public health, climate change, human rights, criminal justice reform, and access to the arts. Support from AmeriCorps will enable College for Social Innovation to enroll more students -- up from an average of 101 over the last two years to as many as 150 next year and more in future years -- and to #GetThingsDone as part of a national movement mobilizing Americans to solve problems in their local communities.
Students who enroll in CFSI's Boston-based Semester in the City program have access to supported cohort housing in Allston, serve in a 400-hour internship, and take two related classes designed to help students reflect on their internship, understand the history of social change, and develop the skills to succeed as emerging professionals who care about making systemic change. Students who enroll in the new Semester for Impact program will complete a service internship in their home college community and participate in a national learning community that features a mix of online and in-person classes and a launch week in Boston at the start of the semester.
Since its inception in the early 1990s, AmeriCorps has enrolled more than 1 million Americans in full- or part-time service roles across the nation. By combining AmeriCorps service with the chance to earn academic credit through immersive mentored internships, College for Social Innovation unites two strands of the national service movement: one rooted in building capacity for social impact organizations by mobilizing full- and part time AmeriCorps members, and a second focused on accelerating student learning and career preparation through service learning projects that get students out of the classroom and into the community, applying their classroom knowledge while learning new skills and addressing real problems in partnership with local residents.
College for Social Innovation’s mission is "to educate and inspire the next generation of problem solvers." We believe higher education needs an experiential learning revolution to make real-world, work-based learning a much larger part of the typical undergraduate's educational experience. We are also deeply committed to eliminating access gaps and ensuring that underrepresented students get full access to the types of high-impact experiential learning opportunities that research proves change lives for the better.
As a final personal reflection, I am proud to be reconnected to the AmeriCorps community, which I worked to build through my time as a founding team member at City Year in the early 1990s and later, as Co-Founder and CEO of Citizen Schools from 1995 to 2014. In 1910, philosopher William James described a system of national and community service as "the moral equivalent of war" and in more recent years advocates have described AmeriCorps as a way to create a perpetual "Greatest Generation" by challenging diverse cohorts of young people to take on positions of significant responsibility and service at a young age. As I speak with students of College for Social Innovation, I see how powerfully they grow when they step out of the classroom and get a chance to take action on the issues they are passionate about. America and its colleges, which have been foundational to our nation’s success, need more opportunities to unite through apprenticeship-based service work. We are tremendously proud to be part of the revolution.
— Eric Schwarz, Co-Founder and CEO