By Brenda Kunz, corps member serving at Henry Wilson Elementary School
“Everybody can be great…because anybody 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.”― Martin Luther King Jr.
Here at City Year, we hold this quote near and dear to our hearts. Martin Luther King Jr’s message is one of our biggest inspirations towards realizing our students’ potential, holding them to high standards and supporting them while they reach their goals. 50 Acts of Greatness is a lunch program in which Corps members invite students from their behavior focus list (students who are working on social emotional learning) to explore their leadership potential by being challenged to change actions and behaviors that are holding them back from their full potential. These “leadership lunches” provide opportunities for students to gain better understanding of what it means to give back to the community and the importance of having positive relationships in their lives.
50 Acts of Greatness is a program that gives students an opportunity to bond with their Corps member on a different level. Similarly, Corps members are able to have deeper, real-life conversations with these students. 50 Acts exposes these students to topics such as relationship building, trust, responsibility and random acts of kindness. These lunch groups are just one more way Corps members are able to provide support, guidance and leadership growth to our students. We believe in the success of our students, because we know that each one can be great, 50 Acts at a time.
