The end? Well, not exactly. Scratch that - not at all. I thought I was going to be writing about the amazing time I had in Atlanta, Georgia the at the NYLC National Service-Learning Conference. I mean, how pumped up can a person in my line or work feel surrounded by thousands of others who are as excited or even more crazy about service-learning? But there was something in the air the whole time we were celebrating.

The National Youth Service Learning Conference is this week (April 6-9) in Atlanta, Georgia and I will be here soaking up as much as I possibly can over the next few days. There are so many great things about being here already, besides the obvious - it's about 20 degrees warmer than Michigan. So far, the Welcome Celebration last night featured good old southern cuisine (succotash, grits, fried chicken, BBQ sandwiches, fried okra) and brought together literally thousands of service learning advocates and practitioners to network and enjoy themselves. Today we workshop.

Last week I attended a Learn & Serve - Michigan Service Learning Sustainability Symposium with some colleagues. The symposium was intended for K-12 educators and service learning coordinators, but I was ecstatic to go as a representative from higher education because there was so much great information getting spread around!

U.S. News & World Report released the 2010 "Best Colleges for Service Learning." Who is on the list, and what were the criteria under consideration? And how in the world did they rank colleges on service learning?

There is some confusion about the definitions of community service and service learning. The term service learning gets thrown around quite a bit, an educational buzz word at times used to describe virtually anything that involves some type of service to the community. But what are the actual differences?