The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is a group of thirty diverse youth that helps create and oversee a State Farm-funded grantmaking initiative for student-led service learning projects in the United States as well as Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario, Canada. Grants are available for projects that address the issues of environmental responsibility, natural and societal disaster preparedness, driver safety, financial education, and accessing higher education/closing the achievement gap.

In a pep talk that kept clear of politics, President Barack Obama on Tuesday challenged the nation's students to take pride and ownership in their education — and stick with it even if they don't like every class or must overcome tough circumstances at home.

From Enchanted Learning, "These back-to-school activities and crafts are simple to do and are great as ice-breakers for the beginning of the school year. They help the students and teacher get to know one another. Also, it may help students find those people in the class who share similar interests, helping them make friends."

"The nonprofit Pearson Foundation hopes to start conversations and get people thinking about educational innovation with a new film series that profiles remarkable people and their accomplishments in school reform.... The film series, called 'A 21st Century Education,' highlights a dozen innovative and compelling school-reform leaders from around the world. The series was produced by the Mobile Learning Institute (MLI), a co-funded effort by Nokia and the Pearson Foundation.

"Ever since school was made compulsory for American children in the early 20th century, efforts at reform rarely included input from youth. But that is changing, as U.S. institutions are beginning to value the opinions of youth, and as youth themselves have realized their collective power through new networking media. 'Ten years ago, it was hard for young people, or adults even, to know whom to lobby, to find which elected officials, let alone to figure out how to contact them.