Driven to serve: Jim Balfanz

When Jim Balfanz joined City Year – a nonprofit focused on education, youth development and national service – in 1993, he had no idea he would still be serving the organization and community more than 30 years later.

"I joined City Year when it was in startup mode," says Balfanz, now CEO. "I thought I was doing a one-year pit stop to do something meaningful but I had a life-changing experience."

Founded on the mission of making national service a core part of civic life, City Year recruits diverse teams of AmeriCorps Volunteers to serve in under-resourced schools as student success coaches – tutors and mentors – helping students improve academic outcomes and stay on track to graduate, all while developing durable skills that prepare them for college and career.

A new worldview

For Balfanz, the impact of City Year is also deeply felt on a personal level. In his own time as a corps member, he has learned a lot about different perspectives and about himself.

"I went to Northeastern University, a great school. I was a political science major with a minor in Asian studies. I was going to get a master’s in international business," he reveals.

"But I learned more in my first three months serving side by side with this amazing group of 17–25-year-olds from so many different backgrounds about different perspectives and blind spots about myself that I don’t know I ever would have uncovered otherwise. And that was really motivating."

Focusing on the four percent of American districts where around half of non-graduates come from, City Year concentrates on where intervention is needed most urgently and where the biggest impact can be felt.

"In today’s economy, there are very few opportunities if you're not at least a high school graduate. The approach that we take in our model is to try to create support for young students and schools succeeding at the direct service level, at the widespread impact level and at the system level," Balfanz says.

Workforce engine

Clearly, much has changed since City Year was founded. But the immense value in gaining diverse team-based service experience remains one of the most in-demand durable skills employers are seeking out. Communication, collaboration and adaptability are only becoming more vital as technologies like AI continue to shape the world of work.

"A shared experience like City Year, working on diverse teams, wouldn’t by itself solve the system’s challenges, but it would make them far more solvable," Balfanz explains.

Gaining experience and developing skills in real-world settings sets City Year apart. Alumni have learned how to navigate complex social environments and collaboratively solve problems have caught the attention of major employers.

"We started to pilot with Deloitte and had so much success. There are 40 or 50 City Year alumni working at Deloitte right now," he confirms.

This direct pathway into a leading Fortune 500 company is a strong illustration of the value City Year offers to both society and its graduates.

"If you’ve graduated from a four-year school and you’ve completed City Year, you’re in that Deloitte recruitment path," he adds. "And ServiceNow and other companies are approaching us to build career partnerships."

City Year’s focus on creating pathways to careers, as well as higher education, is also being advanced with another key partner – the State University of New York (SUNY). An innovative pilot program with SUNY now gives corps members an opportunity to gain college credit for prior learning through City Year service, which City Year is working to bring to additional higher education institutions nationally.

The future of AI

While there are no doubt complex questions about the role of AI in both organizations and society as a whole, Balfanz and his team are actively exploring how to make the most out of emergent AI-backed tools.

"We’re very seriously working on understanding how AI can be applied in a healthy, safe way to improve outcomes for the students we serve," he says.

In early experiments, City Year has found ways in which AI has the potential to play a meaningful role in improving both efficiency and effectiveness.

"We’ve got some pilots where we’re using AI and getting 70 percent less planning time and 30 percent improvement in academic outcomes," he points out.

By using AI to support student success coaches in doing what they do best – developing relationships with young adults to make sure they feel seen and valued – Balfanz hopes City Year will continue being relevant in a constantly changing world.

At a time when many college graduates are finding it challenging to gain entry-level jobs, the organization is well-placed to provide essential experience and skills at an increasingly critical stage in young people’s lives.

"National service is a great return on investment in terms of the many benefits to society, the individual and to build that bridge between college to career," he concludes.