Do you know what you would like to do after graduating from high school? Are you headed to college with a major in mind or to a training program that will lead to employment in a particular field? Will you join the military, take a gap year or seek full-time work in an area with the hope that it will become your career?
If you aren’t sure, you’re certainly not alone. Would you consider a yearlong program that offers paid work, career exploration in the world of public service, a success coach to mentor you and, at the end, $6,000 to put toward your future?
Maryland has started such a program, and taxpayers fund it. In the Opinion essay “Wes Moore’s Big Experiment for Maryland,” Pamela Paul explains:
Taking a gap year, or devoting a year to public service, whether to develop yourself or to serve a higher purpose, can be very alluring and, just as often, very impractical: How do you find the right opportunity, or fit it into your life, and most of all, swing it financially?
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland is trying to find a way to make it work for more people.
One of the centerpieces of his administration is the newly established Department of Service and Civic Innovation, which includes a public service program with two arms, the Service Year Option, for Maryland residents within three years of high school graduation, and Maryland Corps, which is open to a range of applicants. Each provides access to entry-level positions at nonprofits and state agencies, as well as a small number of businesses with a strong service component, such as public health or community development. Participants are paid a minimum of $15 per hour and provided help with transportation and child care, which could otherwise keep out those with fewer support systems. At the end of the minimum nine-month term, all participants get a $6,000 stipend toward college or to cash out for a down payment on a car, for example, or a home.
In the essay, some participants in the Service Year Option talked about the support they received:
During the pandemic, Romona Harden, 22, transitioned to remote learning after a semester and returned home to Prince George’s County. As she pursued her education, she was not sure how to go from one step to the next. She began working for a nonprofit community organization that had signed up to be a provider for the Service Year Option and then encouraged Harden to apply.
“I need a mentor,” Harden wrote in her application. “I have a lot of hopes and dreams, but I need someone to push me.”
“My biggest hurdle is myself,” she told me in a Zoom interview. “As much as I know that I put in a lot of work in school and my personal life and professional life of trying to get to the next place, it’s still very discouraging. It’s hard to think that I can compete with other people out there being fresh out of college.”
Like all participants, Harden received training, opportunities to network with other participants and a “success coach” who met regularly with her as a kind of mentor.
“My success coach is the bomb dot com,” she told me. Harden said her coach has at times felt like a therapist. “She’s helped me to know that I can do it. There are people who believe in me.”
Students, read the entire essay and then tell us:
Does Maryland’s Service Year Option appeal to you? If your state had a similar program for recent high school graduates, or if you live in Maryland, would you consider participating? What aspects of the program do you find most enticing?
Does a career in public service — working for a nonprofit or the government, in a field like public health or community development, or at some other mission-driven organization — interest you? Why or why not?
Is there a cause that you strongly support? If so, how, if at all, are you involved with it? Do you donate money to the cause, volunteer your time, spread its message or work for it part time? Do you see yourself being in a career dedicated to that cause in the future?
Romona Harden, 22, describes how important her “success coach” has been in helping her work toward her career goals. Do you think such a coach would be helpful to you? Do you have someone in your life you consider a mentor, a guide or a role model? How have they aided you?
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland said: “This is the kind of program that gives people such hope and inspiration. I really do believe in the idea that service will save us.” What do you think he means by that? Do you agree?
Should all states provide residents with opportunities to work in public service — and have taxpayers fund it — as Maryland is doing? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
