20th Annual National Service Learning Conference
The capital of Tennessee, Nashville, also known as “Music City USA” saw a new star take center stage, as the 20th Annual National Service Learning Conference took over the Nashville Convention Center from March 18 – 21, 2009. The Shinnyo-en Foundation co-sponsored the event with its theme “Growing Hope, Cultivating Change.” In this year of change, with the Obama Administration supporting expansion of service-learning in the nation’s schools, there was an added spark and enthusiasm in the eyes of the 2000 plus attendees, from 35 countries.
Thousands of young leaders, service-learning practitioners, administrators, educators, researchers, policy-makers, parents, program coordinators, national service members, community-based organization staff, and foundation and corporate officers convened to discuss, learn, and share ideas about service and community-based projects. The event connected young people with service-learning leaders through four days of plenary sessions, featured forums, and service projects. It also provided access to new ideas and networking opportunities, with more than 150 workshops. All in attendance had their days packed full of knowledge and fun.
The Foundation sponsored nine Shinnyo Young Adults – Justine Fan, Tony Pricor, Yuko Ota, Pimpahp “Fern” Withyachumnarnkul, Yi-Chuan “Sophia” Ho, Jiayan Law, Marie Clarke, Masaya Okada, and Gabriel Nittmann – who flew into Nashville from Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Germany, Japan, England, New York, and California. Despite their lengthy flights the young adults were eager to start the four day conference. They began the conference with an introduction to the Foundation, Six Billion Paths to Peace, and an insight into what service-learning was about. Equipped with this information, the Shinnyo Young Adults took on the conference with zest and great enthusiasm.
Amongst the many workshops and forums attended, highlights for the young adults were the two Shinnyo-en Foundation sponsored workshops “Being What You Want, Teaching Who You Are – a School Reform Strategy” and “Six Billion Paths to Peace: Techniques for Deepening Reflection.” Both workshops were extremely popular and attracted a large number of participants who were happy to stay even though it was standing room only, for many of the attendees. The young adults took away a deeper understanding of the philosophy and felt that the content resonated with their own values. On the last day of the Conference, the young adults, along with 800 attendees were present at the Service Learning World Forum where Haru Inouye of the Shinnyo-en Foundation was a featured speaker. His speech was met with a standing ovation and left many in the room inspired to serve others.
Before saying their final farewells, the young adults shared their thoughts and feelings from the Conference with a presentation of their porfolios that they had prepared with mementos, photos, and warm memories of the four days they spent in Nashville.
