4/24/2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Forty undergraduate students have joined with local nonprofit groups to give a "voice" to issues concerning Generation Y as part of the Service-Learning Writing Project at Michigan State University.
Two classes of ATL 135, "Writing: Public Life in America," have teamed up with the Michigan Public Policy Initiative (MPPI) and Michigan's Children on "Public Policy Perspectives through Service-Learning," a project that called for students to research and write issue briefs on more than 40 important social topics ranging from gun control and affirmative action to Napster and assisted suicide.
The briefs will be published by MPPI as a handbook entitled "Generation Y Speaks Out - A Public Policy Guide" as a way to create a dialogue between young adults and policymakers.
"The unique set of partners is what will make the Generation Y policy guide so original and useful to legislators and other policymakers," said Jerry Lindman, director of the MPPI. "Policymakers have been seeking ways to engage this generation and this project turns the tables. Generation Y is now seeking to engage them."
The project originated last fall when the MPPI proposed the concept of reaching out to legislators to David Cooper, professor of American thought and language and founder of MSU's Service-Learning Writing Project. "I can't think of a better example of a classroom-campus-community learning partnership that combines such academic rigor and the potential for wide social impact with the successful development of our students' public voices," Cooper said.
According to Lindman, MSU student Matt Horton, a freshman from Perrysburg, Ohio, was instrumental to the project. Horton, who was enrolled in ATL 135 in Fall 2000 and is now a teaching assistant for the class, wrote an issue brief about RU-486 (the abortion pill), and was also responsible for writing two successful grants that will provide funding for the final publication in Fall 2001. Horton was recently awarded a Heart and Soul Merit Award from Michigan Campus Compact for his leadership on this project.
"It's important to look at these controversial issues from a 20-something perspective," Horton said. "Older generations think we're slackers but this type of project shows that we really do care and want to make a difference. Our ultimate goal is to change a law or influence policy in some way; then we'd know that our voice is really being heard."
Shanetta Martin, assistant for policy and organizational outreach for Michigan's Children and co-director of the MPPI Service-Learning Project, said she believes that the service-learning project fits well into the mission of Michigan's Children in empowering youth voices. "It is very stimulating helping young adults find their authentic voice and communicating that voice to policymakers," she said.
"This semester has been a pedagogical grand slam," said David Stowe, associate professor of American thought and language who taught one of the ATL 135 classes. "The students are learning so many skills. They're learning how to write as part of a team; they're thinking critically and listening to their classmates; and they're developing a sense of how politics really work."
Christopher Buck, visiting assistant professor of American thought and language who also taught ATL 135 this year, said he agrees with Stowe. "Our students have their fingers on the pulse of what's important to Generation Y and who better to deliver that message to our policymakers? The classes have done a phenomenal job this year of outlining a 'real-life' scenario in each brief and their perspectives on these issues really merit some attention." MPPI is a program of the Michigan Nonprofit Association and the Council of Michigan Foundations, which seek to promote nonprofit involvement in public policy.
MPPI is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Michigan Campus Compact. Michigan's Children is a statewide, multi-issue, independent, broad-based advocacy group, which acts as a voice for children. The organization works with policymakers, communities and the public to improve the quality of life for children and their families and to ensure that every child in Michigan has an opportunity to become a healthy, productive and responsible adult.
For more information, visit www.mppi.mna.msu.edu or www.michiganschildren.org