Connecting through service to reduce drop-outs

Minnesota’s own Fond du Lac Ojibwe high school just got a jolt of energy to set students on the pathway to college. That energy was in the form of a 3 year, $700,00 grant awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The Corporation announced $5.4 million in new Youth Engagement Zone grants to improve academic and civic engagement for students in high poverty communities. They only awarded six grantees, out of a pool of 99 applicants, demonstrating just how impressive Fond du Lac is.

The plan of the Fond du Lac Ojibwe School (which is twenty miles from Reading Corps members in Duluth and Barnum) is to launch a "Connecting Through Service" project to engage high school students at risk of dropping out. They will work with community organizations to embed service-learning into core academic curricula, integrate entrepreneurial skills and tribal culture with service-learning projects, and establish a youth leadership group.

Patrick A. Corvington, CEO of the Corporation, says "Youth are natural innovators and leaders, and these grants will give them the tools they need to learn inside and outside the classroom.” Congratulations Fond du Lac Ojibwe School!