Mason YMCA: The Mason YMCA, located just blocks from the main U of M campus, has formed a number of partnerships with U of M faculty and students in recent years. One of these partnerships is with Dr. Paul Wright and the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program in the Department of Health & Sport Sciences. This is a productive and mutually beneficial partnership. Over the past four years, Dr. Wright and his students have collaborated on a number of projects designed to promote positive youth development through physical activity. For example, each summer PETE majors plan and deliver a wide range of activity lessons in the YMCA’s summer camp program. In addition, this past summer the PETE majors planned and staffed a field day event for the camp. These service learning experiences benefit PETE majors by providing hands-on experience teaching children and youth and the campers benefit from the enthusiastic expert instruction. In recent years, graduate and undergraduate students from the PETE program have done internships and action research projects with the YMCA Community Action Program (YCAP) and the Multicultural Achievers program. However, Dr. Wright does more than send his students over to YMCA. He teaches a weekly youth program himself. His YCAP Kung Fu Club is designed to promote responsibility and leadership skills among youth participants. Wright also serves as the Mason YMCA’s external evaluation partner in assessing the effectiveness of current initiatives like their Adopt-a-School outreach program and he consults on developing new program ideas pursuing funding opportunities.