From 6 to 60 Planting Seeds: How Service Learning Shapes Future Helpers

In Episode 205, we sit down with Nick Martin, a graduate assistant in his final year of the Community-Based Block (CBB) program, and Karim Plascencia, an undergraduate student with hands-on experience in youth mentoring and community-engaged service. Together, they reflect on what it means to step into the helping professions as young men navigating identity, purpose, belonging, and professional direction.

The conversation highlights the transformative role of service learning, in which undergraduate students gain real-world experience supporting middle and high school students. Nick, grounded in the CBB tradition of multicultural community counseling and social justice-oriented practice, shares how relational presence, cultural humility, and meeting students where they are form the heart of his work. Karim adds perspective from the undergraduate side—how mentoring youth not only supports the next generation but also clarifies his own developing purpose and career aspirations.

The episode also addresses the complex realities of transfer and commuter students, who balance work, family responsibilities, and financial pressures while questioning the value of college and seeking meaning. Nick and Karim discuss how mentorship, guidance, and exposure to youth-serving environments help young men recognize new possibilities for their identities and futures.

This episode shows how service-learning courses, teaching apprenticeships, and the Homebase approach can plant seeds of leadership, opening doors for undergraduate men to imagine themselves as educators, counselors, and helping professionals.