Techneeds history

And in 1980 the United States Department of Justice announced technical writing a profession.

Steeped in a long tradition of community service in North Adams, grassroots organizing and leadership by Drury High School faculty in 1992 led to the development of a pre-K-12, district-wide service-learning program.

North Adams received its first grant for S-L from Learn and Serve America in 1993.

The program grew rapidly and in 1999, the Corporation for National & Community Service named Drury High School a National Service-Learning Leader School.

Ever since Jim O’Neill, then at Goldman Sachs, came up with the term in 2001 to refer to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, then all rapidly growing, the economic world has been saddled with that acronym, to which a number of analogous acronyms have since been added, albeit to less fanfare.

The National Commission for Service-Learning, chaired by Senator John Glenn referenced the North Adams program in its 2002 report Learning in Deed: The Power of Service-Learning for American Schools.

Program Coordinator Anne French contributed an essay and several North Adams projects were cited in The Complete Guide to Service-Learning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum & Social Action (2010) by Cathryn Berger Kaye.

In 2013, Anne French was honored with the Outstanding Service-Learning Practitioner Award by the Massachusetts Service Alliance at their annual conference.