But then another identity about MLK Day began to take shape, and that was the idea of committing yourself to a day of service. Instead of a day off, MLK Day is a day ON. Use the day to serve your community by giving your time to work at a homeless shelter, pick up trash at the beach or park, do home visits to the elderly, mentor a kid, even take yourself down the local police and fire stations and introduce yourself to the people who will protect you in the event of an emergency. The sentiment behind this “Day On” is obvious: Dr. King was a man of action behind his words, which is what gave his leadership the credibility and the power to create change. If we all participate by serving, then we carry on the legacy of civil equality.

What if you are reading this at work? Or you click on this tonight after your epic powder day? What if you did not have the opportunity to volunteer today and now that you think of it you really want to do something in the spirit of MLK, and you have already donated and prayed for Haiti (and keep doing that too by the way)? I have something for you to do.

I would like you to support the US Public Service Academy, either for the first time, or the 48th time. I would like you to call or write an email to your Representative and to your Senators. If you have not signed the petition to create the first undergraduate institution to train public servants in leadership, policy, emergency management, ethics etc. in return for five years of service, then do that too. I would like you to demand of your Representatives and Senators that you want a place where young people are educated to serve the needs of the people so that the margin for error during an emergency like a Katrina or a Haiti is slim to none. Did you text off a donation to Haiti? Did spend a mere five minutes on that task and then post it to your Facebook status? Well, then spend 15 minutes today using your voice to demand that our government place value on the people who want to take care of our education, our safety, our health, by creating an institution on par with our military academies to train them. We deserve this.

Get to links for your Reps and Senators offices by going to this link on the USPSA website, or here or here. You can fill out one of their email forms, or call their offices directly to speak to a staffer. Other than the most obvious civic duty which is voting, it is also our job to tell our elected officials how to do theirs. They serve us, not vice versa. Use your time today to make MLK proud and participate in the process of being a citizen. It is a great honor and I guarantee you will feel fulfilled. Thank you for your support as always.

Part of my motivation for acting as California’s State Coordinator in USPSA’s efforts is rooted directly in my experience as a Teach For America corps member. I liked the idea of making public service more accessible to college students, and providing those future public servants with a rigorous education. What got me hooked, however, was the initial comparison made to Teach For America. What kept me going through my 70 hour work weeks, in addition to the amazing kids in my Los Angeles classroom, was my belief that I was part of a larger movement working towards something critically important- educational equity. The culture that I observed and participated in, both as a corps member and as staff at the Summer Institute training program, was one of professionalism, dedication to students and the larger mission, and relentless pursuit of results. What if building a United States Public Service Academy could do for jobs in government what Teach For America has done for teaching positions in low-income public schools?

My experience in the classroom propelled me towards graduate research in Social Policy, will guide me in the policy and advocacy job market when I complete my degree, and has encouraged me to consistently give money and time to child focused non-profits and legislative efforts. Teach For America is the most formative professional experience I’ve had. Stanford’s study, “Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Youth Service: The Puzzling Case of Teach For America”, suggests that not all corps members feel the same way I do:

“Financed by the William T. Grant Foundation, the study surveyed every person who was accepted by Teach for America from 1993 to 1998. It is being published this month in Social Forces, a journal published by the University of North Carolina. The study compared “graduates,” who completed their two years; “dropouts,” who entered the program but left before the two years were up; and “nonmatriculants,” who were accepted but declined the offer. It included 1,538 graduates, 324 dropouts and 634 nonmatriculants. Nearly 45 percent of those sampled returned the 34-page survey.

While Teach for America graduates remain far more active than their peer group, the findings indicate that the program neither achieves an earlier organizational goal of “making citizens” nor produces people who, in great numbers, take their civic commitments beyond the field of education.”

Does this imply that my original motivation for supporting USPSA was somehow flawed? I completed Teach For America three years ago, but my teaching experience is still relatively fresh in my mind. Do the study results foreshadow a possible future self- more cynical, less engaged? Regardless of the results of this study, I believe it is possible for an organization to instill a culture and create a network that can work for the broader good in a systemic, long term capacity. Although the verdict on TFA may still be unclear, and perhaps hard to ever measure accurately, I believe the United States Public Service Academy’s impact on our generation may be quite powerful.

USPSA students will enroll at 18, graduate at about 21, and then work in public service through age 26; this experience will help to create a cohesive culture of service among America’s youth. When I was in college, and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life after graduating, one of Teach For America’s recruitment flyers caught my attention. It asked: “Over 90% of members of Congress have law degrees. What would our country look like if over 90% had experience teaching in a low-income public school?” What would our country look like if more talented, rigorously trained college seniors committed to a wide spectrum of public service positions? Passing H.R. 2102 will help us find out. ~Genevieve Quist

I had little to no experience with grassroots organizing before I became involved with the Academy movement.  There were many things I cared about policy wise, but never knew how, or clearly felt as passionate about any other as I do the Academy to take action.  In this case I have a strong opinion, and the ability to articulate it, even though learning how to get that message out has been harder than I thought.  In many cases, it has been like trying to grow grass, without the benefit of a sod farm.  One blade at a time…

This past Sunday we had our monthly conference call with Chris and Shawn and all the state chairs and coordinators.  We reviewed all the goings-on in the House and Senate, as well as all the endorsements and publicity at the local level.  I find that we are all most excited to hear about these Congressional updates because a new co-sponsorship somehow feels the most tangible in moving the cause forward, even though it is often the grassroots work that gives us the credibility because we have such vast and growing support for the idea.

My biggest challenge in working with my team is keeping them engaged at the grassroots level, especially since it felt like we had such huge momentum in 2008.  Not only was it a monumental election year, but we held a National Conference in DC in April and had a wildly successful Youth Conference in July which resulted in huge co-sponsorship gains after the YACers stormed Capitol Hill.  And then, reality smacked down, the economy faltered, health care debates derailed, and my little lawn suffered a huge drought.

But a very interesting piece of information came up on the conference call that I think bears repeating LOUDLY.  At this point in the 111th Congress, we have 75 co-sponsors in the House for H.R. 2102, The US Public Service Academy Act.  At the exact same time in the 110th Congress, we had less than half that number of co-sponsors.  Less than half!  So in fact, all the fertilizing we have been doing since then and now IS WORKING!  All the Op-Ed writing, all the emailing, all the phone calling, all the tweeting, all the elevator speech-making, all the little things that feel like they get lost are actually growing into real co-sponsorships from real Representatives.  The drought is over my friends, and we are coming to plant you in the lawn next!

Thanks to our newest supporters:

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL)
Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL)
Rep. Bob Filner (CA)

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (TX)
Rep. Al Green (TX)
Rep. Howard Berman (CA)
Rep. Sanford Bishop (GA)
Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (Guam)
Rep. Chaka Fattah (PA)
Rep. Leonard Boswell (IA)
Rep. Mazie Hirono (HI)
Rep. Keith Ellison (MN)

Please join us in welcoming them and now take a moment to ring up your own Representative or Senator’s office and ask for their support as well.

Shining the spotlight on community service through entertainment is brilliant product placement.  Since so many shows are about teachers (”Glee”), cops (”CSI”), firefighters (”Rescue Me”), EMTs (”Trauma”), municipal employees (”Parks and Recreation”) and even doctors treating emergency cases (”Grey’s Anatomy”), the inclusion of community service storylines is seamless and influential.  And even more interesting to me, is that most of the characters in shows like “Glee,” “CSI,” Rescue Me,” and “Trauma” are all PUBLIC SERVICE careers.  Teachers, cops, EMTs, and city employees are all public servants, people who work for our local, county, state and federal government agencies making sure we are educated and safe and that there is access to services for all.

Volunteering in your communities is part of being a responsible citizen.  We must support those who are doing the career work at the public service level.  The next obvious step is to continue to attract the best and brightest to public service careers by creating the US Public Service Academy.  If all goes as planned with the iParticipate initiative, even more citizens will be attracted to public service, not just as volunteers.  Our actors, singers, musicians and entertainers are doing their jobs by inspiring us to volunteer.  Let’s show them one bigger by building the Academy to train those who want to plays these roles in real life.

Now, however, it is time to focus on the next obvious piece of the public service puzzle and that is leadership.  Without rigorously trained leaders, how will we channel all the man-power in our volunteer armies?  Where will these leaders come from?  Certainly not from business schools, or engineering programs, or art schools.  No, they need to come from the US Public Service Academy which will train them in the specifics of public service work, also known as local, state and federal government agencies.  And by creating a school that educates them for four years and requires them to “give back” by serving in a public sector job for five years, it is highly likely that these Academy graduates become career public service leaders, not just volunteers.  We need both ends of the spectrum to solve the crises facing our country, and now is the time to train the leaders by creating the Academy.

When Shawn and I first started working on the Academy nearly four years ago, we thought we would be able to win strong support from higher education leaders. After all, college leaders love to talk about their commitment to public service (particularly at graduation time). But as we stepped behind the rhetoric, we found a striking difference in how different colleges approach “public service” and how they view the efforts of other universities to encourage service. In general — and there certainly are exceptions — we have found that public university leaders have a broader sense of their service mission and assume that encouraging students to serve the public is one of their key reasons for being. These leaders tend to view the Public Service Academy as complementary to their efforts. They recognize, for example, that having the various campuses of the University of Michigan does not impede the efforts of Kalamazoo College or any of the other fine private schools in the state. The more opportunities, the better.

But many elite private institutions view us instead as competition — they fear losing students and/or funding to the Academy. We have had dozens of conversations with private school administrators who express concern that having a national Academy would somehow detract from what they are doing at their particular school. How sad and short-sighted — particularly when it comes from a school that rejects 80%-90% of its applicants! Apparently, these “leaders” would prefer to deny students more opportunities to serve rather than face the competition of a civilian Academy.