To counteract disempowerment frequently experienced in education, in 2001 the authors initiated a "Problem Solution Project" (PSP) in the second year a two-year urban certification and Master's program. The PSP, designed to promote empowerment of first-year urban teachers and their students, involves both service learning. In 2004, the authors began implementing a PSP in the program's first year, to enable preservice teachers to experience civically engaged learning using a studentcentered, participatory approach. The purposes were to: (a) encourage preservice teachers' own active practice and participation in identifying problems and forging solutions and (b) model how they might conduct a PSP in their own classrooms the following year. This article describes five years of implementing first-year problem solution projects. (Contains 3 tables.)