The program was piloted with two Philadelphia-area high schools - the private suburban Haverford School and the inner-city George Washington Carver High School for Engineering and Science - in winter and spring of 2002. The May primary in Pennsylvania provided an impetus for the program. The students were particularly affected by the service-learning component.  

For example, at Haverford, some of the students decided to launch a voter registration drive on the adjacent Haverford College campus.  They learned that they were not allowed to encourage registration there; only college students could speak to other college students.  While this seemed patently unfair, the students learned much about bureaucracy and political process.  Another group of students successfully partnered with a local pizza parlor to distribute voter registration information.