ABSTRACT
In 1991, one year after my team completed the program, City Year received a $7 million federal grant from the Commission on National and Community Service to expand and develop over two years as a model for a system of national service. The corps grew to 220 members the following year and made plans to enroll 500 by the fall of 1993 as well as to launch replication efforts in Rhode Island and South Carolina. Governor Bill Clinton visited City Year during his campaign for president, and later announced that national service would be a "defining idea" of his presidency. He identified City Year as a promising model. In the spring of 1993, nearly two years after the end of my City Year, I sought out my teammates—those who had completed the year and those who hadn't—to learn what they were doing and to find out about the impact of the experience on their lives.
