Semester of Service Quotes

"Martin Luther King was interested in big results not the short-term. So, the idea of King Day being the signal for a long-term commitment by millions of students over a semester would have warmed his heart...Martin always asked us to do more than we were doing because the road ahead was still so long... The Mountain to climb was still so tall. The Semester of Service is just that opportunity to do more."
- Former Senator Harris Wofford, Colleague and Lawyer of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Recent research has shown that projects must be of sufficient duration, typically at least a semester of 70 hours long to have an impact on students. Fewer hours simply do not give the students enough time to grapple with difficult issues or to have a deep enough experience to make the learning endure.”
- Dr. Shelley Billig, Unpacking What Works in Service Learning

“Children and youth prove daily that they desire to be civically engaged. The Semester of Service campaign and accompanying resources empower students to create change in their communities while also developing a deeper understanding of educational subject matter.”
- Steven Culbertson, President & CEO, Youth Service America

"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. At this moment of great challenge and great change, renewing the promise of America begins with renewing the idea that in America, we rise or fall as one nation and one people."
- President Barack Obama

"Take on an issue – a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them."
- Bill Gates @ Harvard University, June 2007