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Did you know that all City Year AmeriCorps members participate in a series of personal and professional development trainings throughout their 10+ month service experience? These ongoing trainings are designed to help student success coaches not only better support student learning and well-being in ������Ƶ but also promote their own growth and skill set.

Now, the start-of-year segment of those trainings, offered each summer, is changing its name from Basic Training Academy to Service Leadership Institute (SLI).

The change is based on insights about the professional experience that young adults seek in today’s labor market and the durable skills that our alumni have valued developing at City Year, said City Year Chief Transformation Officer Stephanie Wu.

“Service Leadership Institute reflects how City Year thinks about the value of national service. When a trained student success coach steps into a school each day for a year or more they deepen skill expertise, build leadership abilities, experience purpose, and earn recognition for meaningful work,” Wu said.

The foundations of a lasting professional experience—skills, leadership, purpose, recognition—have recently been recognized as worthy of formal academic recognition for City Year members. Through a pilot program with the State University of New York, starting this fall City Year AmeriCorps members serving in Buffalo and New York City will be eligible to earn up to 10 academic credits for their learning gained through their service in ������Ƶ.

City Year Orlando AmeriCorps member KiHyira Jones says the pre-service name change to makes sense.

“Boot camp sounds like we’re all doing the same thing at the same time and service isn’t like that,” KiHyira said.

“Service Leadership Institute is more positive and changes the way you think about it. It recognizes us as leaders and individuals and what we’re bringing into this school, this classroom, to make it better.”

“Service Leadership Institute sets the tone for a year of practice-based development that results in real and measurable growth for City Year members and the students they support,” said Wu.

What is City Year’s pre-service training?

The beginning of this year-long journey for corps members is a two-to-three-week onboarding experience. During SLI, student success coaches learn about:

• • Forming positive relationships with the classroom teachers they will partner with for nearly 10 months and with the students they serve, using a developed by Search Institute and the that focuses on strengthening students’ social-emotional development.
  • Details about City Year’s holistic approach to student and school success, Whole School, Whole Child®
  • Delivering effective academic support, especially in English Language Arts and mathematics, among other subjects
  • Context about the city, district and ������Ƶ in which they are serving, to ensure they are prepared to support students
  • Strengthening durable skills that will help coaches be successful in service and their future careers, including creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication and strategic planning

The purpose of SLI is to ensure that all AmeriCorps members are prepared to contribute to student success and that they feel more ready to serve in ������Ƶ alongside their teammates, said Senior Vice President of Program Delivery Heather Keag.

“The training emphasizes the importance of cultivating positive relationships with students—relationships grounded in proximity, consistency and earned trust and how to work effectively within school communities,” Keag said. “We also want to support corps members as they engage in continuous learning and reflect on their growth during their service year.”

For student success coach KiHyira, the pre-service training helped mentally prepare her for collaborating with her teammates, serving in ������Ƶ, and learning how to best support students. All that started, she says, with a warm welcome from her site team.

City Year Orlando “did a good job trying to first make sure everyone was settled and comfortable,” KiHyira said. “A lot of us were relocating to Orlando. I came down from North Carolina and my roommate was from Kansas City. We didn’t know anyone. The introduction was calm and the learning and development pace was to gradually let us go, as we were ready for the next step.”

Training that focuses on real-world learning, reflection and practice

Service Leadership Institute is grounded in three key areas: leadership development, relationship-building, and student success.

SLI is designed using the 70-20-10 learning model: 70% is focused on experiential learning, role-playing, and real-world application; 20% is social learning through team discussions and collaborative problem solving; and 10% is formal learning through frameworks and direct instruction.

“We designed Service Leadership Institute to feel meaningful from day one,” said Theresa Conroy, senior national program director.

“AmeriCorps members are learning through real practice, reflection and experience to ensure they feel prepared to serve in ������Ƶ along their teammates.”

What happens after Service Leadership Institute?

Following City Year’s pre-service training is the start of school—an extremely busy time for educators, parents and students.

Across the country, City Year AmeriCorps members serve in 29 U.S. cities partner with classroom teachers to provide students with holistic support throughout the school day—academic, social and interpersonal.

Learn more about what to expect as a City Year AmeriCorps member.

Throughout the school year, teams of City Year AmeriCorps members continue to receive professional development trainings. This ongoing training is designed to help student success coaches become even stronger tutors, mentors and role models and be effective collaborators in the complex work environment of ������Ƶ.

“As a cohort, we all had a lot of questions about how to show up for students and if we were good enough to do this job,” KiHyria said, who requested and was assigned to support an eighth-grade math classroom.

“Being able to practice what we were learning week by week made it easier to digest. Once we learned how to log in to record [student behavior and engagement] data, then we’d learn how to create a lesson plan. It was well implemented and by the time we started working with students, it felt more comfortable.”

The durable skills that are honed during a year of service with City Year—teamwork, creative problem solving, leadership, empathy and communication—serve AmeriCorps alumni well when they complete service and begin entering the job market. These durable skills are among the most valuable to today’s employers yet are often the hardest to find.

Learn more about how a year of service with City Year strengthens critical human skills that AI cannot replicate.

Apply now!