When I first joined the Policy Cafe hosted by Sewa International USA, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d heard of service learning before, but thought it simply meant volunteering. As the discussion unfolded, I realized it’s deeper — it’s about learning through doing good, connecting what we study with how we live and act. It reminded me of my days at Irvington High School in Fremont, where projects often took us beyond textbooks. I still recall the CHANGE Project, where my friends and I partnered with a local environmental group for a beach cleanup and later wrote a paper on community engagement. Listening to educators and policymakers that day rekindled why learning should never stop at the classroom door.

1. Service Learning is Learning by Doing, Not Just Doing

At first, I assumed service learning was about volunteering outside school hours. But as the panelists spoke, I realized it’s actually a pedagogy, a structured way to connect learning with purpose. It’s not just about completing activities, but about asking why those activities matter.

When one speaker described reflection as the “engine” of service learning, that image stayed with me. Reflection is what turns experience into insight. Asking questions like “What did this teach me?” or “Whose story did I not see?” transforms ordinary work into personal growth. I realized that when we take the time to pause, think, and question, learning becomes something we live, not something we memorize.

2. Service Learning Teaches Life Lessons that Textbooks Can’t

The Cafe also helped me see how service learning teaches lessons far beyond academics. Yes, we might be helping others, but in the process, we discover ourselves. Through projects and teamwork, we learn empathy, adaptability, and how to take responsibility for something larger than ourselves.

One speaker described service learning as “education for citizenship,” and that resonated deeply with me. It’s not just about community hours or credits; it’s about learning to collaborate, to listen, and to lead with compassion. These are the skills that help us navigate real life, the kind that no test can measure.

3. Youth are Not ‘Future’ Leaders, They are the Leaders Now

The most powerful message I carried home was this: young people aren’t just preparing to lead someday, we’re already leading today. Whether it’s organizing a food drive, helping younger students with homework, or identifying community challenges, students everywhere are stepping up.

Service learning gives us the space and the confidence to do that. It tells us that leadership isn’t about age or authority; it’s about initiative, empathy, and action. That realization was empowering. It made me see that change starts with us.

My Reflection

Walking away from the Policy Cafe, I understood that service learning reimagines what education can be. It blends knowledge with action, reflection with growth, and learning with leadership. For me, the biggest shift was realizing that education isn’t only about what we know, it’s about who we become through what we learn. Watch the full Policy Cafe here.

Takeaways from the Policy Cafe on Education

At Sewa International, we have long believed that education should do more than transmit facts; it should nurture empathy, responsibility, and civic leadership. Yet, too often, service learning is treated as an optional add-on checkbox activity rather than a transformative core of education. On August 7, 2025, we convened a Policy Café to explore how Service Learning connects classrooms with communities and knowledge with action. The discussion began with a simple but profound question: How do students truly benefit from real-world, service-based learning? For Lori Heslewood, Director of Operations at the South Carolina After School Alliance, the answer begins with equity. She described service learning as a way to include historically underrepresented communities, transforming civic engagement from theory into a lived experience. The result, she explained, is a deeper sense of belonging and purpose.

That message resonated with Elizabeth Navarro, a Migration Policy Expert, who said, “It taught me that leadership isn’t about having a title’s about showing up.” For her, service learning rooted in reflection and relevance transforms empathy into leadership.

If empathy gives service learning its heart, agency gives it its strength. Isabel Luciano illustrated this through the example of participatory budgeting, a model that lets students help decide which community projects to fund or pursue. “When students have a say in what gets done, they stop seeing service as an assignment and start seeing it as their own contribution,” she said. Her insight revealed a subtle truth: participation without decision-making is not empowerment. True service learning invites students to co-create solutions, not just carry them out.

Even when such experiences are powerful, they risk fading if their stories aren’t told. Ramona Schindelheim, journalist and editor of The Future of Work(ers) newsletter, reminded everyone that storytelling gives service its permanence. “If we don’t share what these experiences mean,” she said, “we lose the bridge that connects classrooms to the wider community.” Reflection and communication, she emphasised, are not afterthoughts; they are how learning takes root. As the conversation deepened, the focus shifted from classrooms to systems. Efrain Mercado, Director of California Policy at the Learning Policy Institute, noted that “policymakers need to see classrooms firsthand so that service learning isn’t just a line item, but a lived experience that informs policy.” Ankur Patel, a school teacher and Director at the Hindu University of America, added that parents also hold quiet power: “Just by showing up at school board meetings, they can advocate for meaningful projects and signal that service matters.”

Closing the loop, Pam Siebert, Vice President of Community Impact at the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), emphasised that service learning becomes sustainable only when it is integrated into existing structures, such as career pathways, workforce development programs, and civic engagement curricula. “When service connects to the skills and goals students already value,” she said, “it stops being extrinsic and becomes essential.”

By the end of the Policy Cafe, one shared realisation emerged: service learning isn’t just an activity’s a way of rethinking education as a bridge between knowing and doing, self and society. When done thoughtfully, it nurtures empathy, leadership, and active citizenship. For Sewa International USA, this conversation was both an affirmation and a call to action: shaping education for service is not a destination’s a continuous journey.

In elementary schools across the country, educators often meet face-to-face with underperforming students, unequipped with the resources to help them succeed. From language barriers to a lack of classroom supplies, students in certain areas struggle a bit more than others, suffering under the weight of an imbalanced funding system.

For the past two weeks, I attended Sewa AmeriCorps’ ASPIRE Summer Program, organized in the Newark school district. While volunteering with ASPIRE, I met a student who refused to write because he didn’t know how, falling behind in his grade level. As one of the many districts across the country dealing with lower test performance and attendance, the Newark school district has been struggling to keep up with its bright students, compromising students’ will to learn and their futures.

Oftentimes, unequal school funding stems from inconsistencies in local property taxes, leaving poorer areas, often predominantly immigrant districts, with less funding towards education. In turn, poorer districts maintain poorer schools, resulting in declining graduation rates and worse test scores. Moreover, these kids are significantly shaped by the distinctive influences in their lives, whether at home, on the playground, or in the classroom, all playing a role in their academic needs. Thousands of brilliant students, many from poorer neighborhoods, have unique educational struggles and face social injustice because they are denied access to the help that they need. This isn’t an easy fix, however, but acknowledgement is the first step. “Class size is, first of all, a concern, and more than that, the range of the [knowledge] level in the class is what is the bigger concern. It's really unfair for very high-performing kids and also extremely far behind kids,” says Sudha Prabhunandan, a program director at ASPIRE. “We bridge the gap by pulling one sector out, so that the teacher can focus on a smaller range, as opposed to a huge spectrum of performance levels in one class.”

It is our responsibility, as journalists, educators, politicians, and leaders, to provide these children with the tools to empower their own lives. These kids aren’t just our future; they are the present, and they possess the ability to shape the world into a place where they see themselves succeeding in an opportunity they very much deserve. Effective funding reforms are emerging across the country in hopes of supporting these underprivileged students, with programs investing in more qualified teachers and distributing more funds to areas of high poverty. “Participatory budgeting is such an impactful backdrop for service learning [and it involves] having focused populations present at the table because you recognize that they're often excluded from our decision-making spaces,” Isabel Luciano, a community leader in participatory budgeting, said at a Policy Cafe on policy changes in education and service-based learning hosted by Sewa back in August.

To combat this learning epidemic, ASPIRE has supported over 3500 students this past year and is building a strong foundation for youth success. “Underserved and underprivileged subconsciously translates to dumb. But, a lot of these students, especially in these schools [in the Newark area], have really bright minds, and I think what’s happening outside of their control is really affecting them and holding them back,” says Varun Damojipurapu, a high school volunteer at ASPIRE. 

Some experiences make you stop and rethink what you thought you already knew. Attending the Policy Cafe on ‘Reimagining Nonprofits: Leadership, Community, and Volunteer Power’ was one of those moments. As someone who has volunteered for several years, I believe I understand how leadership and service come together. But listening to the experts and practitioners speak about growing volunteer leaders and sustaining them in a volunteer-led nonprofit opened my eyes to how much potential and responsibility each volunteer truly carries.

Here are the three lessons that stayed with me the most:

1. Volunteers Can Lead, If Given the Space and Structure

I’ve often seen volunteers take on roles far beyond expectation, yet their potential is sometimes underutilized. Dr. S.P. Kothari’s words resonated deeply: “Nonprofits must create and clearly spell out a ladder of growth for volunteers.” That ladder can be created through succession planning. And this, in Geoff’s words, “is often the biggest challenge for volunteer-led nonprofits.”

Listening to these perspectives, I reflected on my own experiences: the moments when I was provided with leadership roles were the moments I grew the most.

2. Building Volunteer Leadership Through Culture and Connection

Another key takeaway from the Policy Cafe was the importance of harnessing volunteer power. Volunteers flourish when organizations intentionally create a supportive environment and, in Mike’s words, “when they see how their contributions fit into the bigger vision and culture of the organization.” Combined with the deep connections they build in the communities they serve, this approach, as Dr. Nair noted, can spark real social change.

Dr. Renz captured both these elements beautifully: “Volunteer’ is a label for a relationship, and relationships only work when there’s reciprocity, authenticity, mutual appreciation, and value.”

Reflecting on my own experiences, the moments I felt most capable and empowered were always in organizations that cared about culture, connection, and purpose.

3. Volunteers Thrive When Organizations Provide Structure and Support

I realized that even the most motivated volunteers need systems, structure, and resources to lead effectively. Luis made me see how important it is for organizations to plan for capacity and complexity, and Monisha suggested one way to do this is a hybrid model with staff and volunteers supported by training and clear processes. Even with the right structure, volunteers can only thrive if organizations, especially smaller ones, have the resources to sustain them. As Ade highlighted, “Foundations need to increase indirect costs to 25% and/or offer multi-year funding.”

With the right support, volunteers can focus on leading and creating impact rather than getting caught up in coordination.

My Reflection

Seeing how individual leadership, supportive culture, and thoughtful structures all interact made me appreciate that volunteer impact depends on all three. Walking away, I felt a renewed sense of the responsibility and potential inherent in volunteerism. For me, the most powerful takeaway was seeing how thoughtful relationships and structures transform service into leadership and meaningful, lasting impact. Watch the full Policy Cafe here

At Sewa International USA, we believe the strength of a nonprofit lies not just in its programs, but in the people who power them: its volunteers. They are the bridge between community needs and collective action. But as demand for services continues to rise across the country, nonprofits are being asked to do more with fewer resources. As demand for services grows, staffing, infrastructure, and funding remain limited. In this context, volunteerism, once central to nonprofit identity, is too often reduced to operational support rather than leadership.

To explore how this trend might be reversed, we hosted a Policy Cafe on ‘Reimagining Nonprofits: Leadership, Community, and Volunteer Power' on September 9, 2025, beginning with one key question: How do we sustain volunteers?

Sustaining volunteers, as the discussion revealed, requires more than appreciation or incentives. It depends on culture, connection, and purpose. When volunteers see how their work contributes to a larger mission, when they feel trusted and part of a collective vision, their commitment deepens. And when their service connects them directly with the communities they support, it transforms both sides of the relationship.

But sustaining volunteers is only the first step. The next challenge is nurturing them into leaders. True leadership in a volunteer-led space must be built through intentional mentorship, clear pathways of responsibility, and recognition of effort. The conversation highlighted that nonprofits must create “ladders of growth” that allow volunteers to see tangible ways to lead. Without such pathways, organizations risk stagnation, over-reliant on a few individuals while missing the potential of many.

But even the most motivated volunteers can only thrive if the organizations they serve provide the right systems, structures, and resources. This led to another critical question: What are the key challenges in governing a volunteer-led organization while sustaining impact?

The dialogue emphasized that effective governance depends on capacity and complexity. As volunteer-driven organizations grow, they must continually revisit their models based on their capacity and complexity. Achieving this coherence requires clear systems and consistent training that align people and processes. Equally vital is sustainable funding, not merely for growth, but to preserve continuity, transparency, and fair investment in the people who make the mission possible.

Taken together, the discussions around sustaining, growing, and governing volunteer-led organizations made one insight clear: volunteer-driven nonprofits thrive when people, culture, and systems work in harmony. Volunteers are not just supporters; they are leaders, catalysts, and partners in creating impact.

For Sewa USA, the Policy Cafe was a reminder that reimagining volunteerism is an ongoing journey, one of listening, learning, and building organizations where volunteers can lead, grow, and create lasting change. Watch the full Policy Cafe here

In a time when nonprofits across the world are being asked to do more with fewer resources, one truth has become evident: the strength of the sector lies not only in programs or funding, but in the people who give their time, skill, and spirit to serve. Volunteers have always been the quiet backbone of social change, yet their leadership and potential often go unrecognised.

It was against this backdrop that the recent Sewa USA Policy Cafe on nonprofit management brought together scholars and practitioners to ask a vital question: how can volunteer-led organizations move from doing good work to creating lasting social change? The discussion was both inspiring and deeply introspective, inviting us to look inward at the systems, attitudes, and structures that shape volunteerism itself. Listening to the conversation, I was reminded that volunteers are the moral core of civil society. Their energy sustains many of our most compassionate responses to community needs.

The dialogue noted the shared recognition that volunteers thrive when they are empowered to lead, not merely to assist. This means building cultures of trust, where local voices and experiences are valued as much as professional expertise. Some participants emphasised that volunteer engagement must evolve beyond short-term activities to sustained partnerships with the communities being served. It is in this shift from ‘helping’ to ‘co-creating' that true empowerment begins.

Yet, as several panellists pointed out, passion alone cannot build strong institutions. The conversation underscored that even the most dedicated volunteer efforts falter without thoughtful leadership development, accountability systems, and investment in organisational health.

The Cafe surfaced an important question: how can volunteer-led organisations sustain scale and accountability without losing their spirit of service? Volunteer-driven institutions must learn to plan for both capacity and complexity. When operations grow beyond what volunteers can manage, hybrid models where small professional teams support a broad volunteer base through clear processes and training can help maintain balance. Addressing this gap is critical if volunteer-led organisations are to remain both mission-driven and effective.

The discussion also surfaced an uncomfortable truth: too many nonprofits, even well-intentioned ones, focus on immediate relief rather than structural change. This observation resonated deeply with my own experience in the field. When organizations operate in reactive mode, responding to visible symptoms rather than underlying causes, they risk becoming part of the very cycle they hope to break. The conversation reminded us that while resources may be limited, imagination and empathy need not be.

The Policy Cafe made it clear that volunteerism, when rooted in humility and continuous learning, can be one of the most transformative forces for social good. But that transformation demands courage, the courage to question our methods, to share leadership, and to look beyond immediate outcomes.

For organizations like Sewa USA, the lesson is not simply about doing more but doing differently: creating spaces where volunteers lead boldly, communities grow stronger, and service becomes a collective journey toward lasting change.