How 3 years of AmeriCorps changed my life
AmeriCorps (pronounced uh-meh-ri-kor) - a “federal agency that funds organizations to make positive impact in communities.” They focus on education, economic opportunity, disaster response, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans & military families. You can think of it as a domestic version of the Peace Corps.
I served 3 full time years as an AmeriCorps member, not making a salary, but was given a very modest living stipend and education award upon completion of each year of service. You may be asking - why the heck would you essentially work for free? I definitely didn’t serve with AmeriCorps to make money, I did it to learn, grow, and experience new things. My time with AmeriCorps helped me attain skills and knowledge, that I don’t think I’d otherwise obtain somewhere else. I made so many lifelong connections with others. All 3 years as an AmeriCorps member were within the education field. This is what solidified my passion for working within the education field (both K-12 and higher education).
In my first year, I served as a corps member with City Year. I packed up my things and moved all the way to Sacramento CA from UT. In all transparency, I was extremely nervous about making such a huge move to an organization that I wasn’t very familiar with, as we don’t have City Year here in UT. I decided to take the leap and go for it. This was one of the toughest, yet extremely fulfilling years of my life. I’m so grateful I took the opportunity to go.
My second year, I served as a VISTA member with 2 organizations - Utah Campus Compact and Utah Scholars. I researched college readiness and retention. I then developed a college readiness toolkit for high school students. This toolkit took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to create, but it was an abundant amount of information on choosing the right colleges to apply for, how to apply, scholarship and financial aid information, good questions to ask on college campus tours, etc. I also created a training program with Utah Scholars, in which I trained volunteers in how to utilize the toolkit when working with high school students who are preparing for college. I not only developed the training materials and curriculum, but I held train-the-trainer presentations all across the state. I also had the opportunity to speak and share about college retention with a large group of educators. It was both terrifying and exhilarating.
In my third and final year with AmeriCorps, I served as a VISTA leader. I was able to lead a group of VISTA members who were disbursed on different college campuses throughout Utah. This experience not only taught me great leadership and management skills, but I learned how to have very difficult conversations. It took me outside of my comfort zone, which was really beneficial to me in the long run. It was so amazing to see how much of an impact my team had on their colleges. I had the chance to do regular site visits, and even traveled down south to St. George, Utah to visit.
All in all, would I do AmeriCorps again? 100% yes! When you’re not getting paid, and really doing it to give back and learn, it’s completely worth it. There are so many AmeriCorps opportunities out there, both full-time and part time. If you are at all interested, I’d suggest visiting www.americorps.gov. It is such a rewarding and worthwhile experience. Also, if you do have any questions about AmeriCorps and my experience, feel free to reach out. I’m happy to be able to have a platform to share what’s near and dear to me. xoxo
