Posted by ERIC WILSON – After reading TIME Magazine’s September 2007 cover story, “The Case for National Service,” Alan Khazei, founder and chief executive of Be the Change, went to visit TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel and suggested a national summit on service.
ServiceNation begins today in New York City as the two presidential candidates put their campaigns aside to discuss how their possible administrations will view the role of citizenship and service in a post-9/11 America. According to Politico, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are expected to shake hands on stage in between separate conversations moderated by Stengel. I plan to be onsite to take pictures and blog later tonight; however, you can watch it live starting at 8pm EDT on CNN, MSNBC and possibly Fox.
The Clinton School’s mission to prepare leaders for public service joins ServiceNation in its campaign to have 100 million Americans volunteering every year by 2020. To find out more about ServiceNation click here. Until my next post, please take a look at these statistics in reference to the Millenial Generation (Americans born between 1978 and 1996):
*50 million of them will be voters in 2008.
*65% of them are volunteering in high school, more than any previous generation.
*58% volunteer at least monthly.
*70 of 18-24 year olds believe that politics is relevant in their lives.