AmeriCorps

Reflection Journal #2: Clarke County Mentor Program The Clarke County Mentor Program is a mentor program that was established in March of 1991 as a joint initiative of the Athens Clarke County School District and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in order to provide mentors to local students between grades K-12. The program allows mentors to visit mentees during the school hours for about one hour, once a week, for at least an entire year. The mentors are not encouraged to provide academic…

I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to apply for the Community Manager position that recently became available! I would love to be a part of the Boston Community Corps team and I hope this letter will demonstrate why. During my time working for Health Leads at Codman Square Health Center as a case manager and patient advocate, I managed the case of 20+ older adult patients. This involved aiding them to access food, shelter, and other public health benefits they needed. This work was…

Citizenship in the United States means having the right to vote. However, this right for every citizen did not come without overcoming some racially discriminatory obstacles. One of these obstacles for African-American men were the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws unfairly discriminated against African-Americans preventing them from casting their ballot at the voting poll. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended the overt forms of racial discrimination in voting practices. However, as time has passed…

During my sophomore year as an undergraduate at the University of South Carolina, I was accepted into the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. I do not exaggerate when I say that this program changed the entire course of my life: helping me to fully understand my interests, altering my professional goals, and providing me with a viable path for my passions. As a first generation student, I had very little knowledge about how to navigate the sphere of undergraduate education…

Although each school has a different deferral policy, many schools allow this, and some even encourage students to take a gap year. There are over eighty colleges and universities that offer grants to students who defer their studies to participate in Americorps, and similar grants are given to students for different opportunities. Those colleges are very understanding of gap years and support them and the outcomes they produce. Unfortunately, not all colleges and universities share the same…

In 2006, I traveled across the country to study boarder issues in Nogales. The purpose of the service learning trip was to study border issues from Mexican’s perspective. Through my ethnographic research, I participated in a simulation where I followed in the footsteps of Mexicans crossing the border. The day began with attending a community church service where locals prayed for community members who were planning to cross the desert the following day. I connected with locals about the…

The notion of what a gap year involves is a tempting one, especially upon finishing secondary school; after over two thousand hours of class time, standardized testing, and extracurricular activities the prospect of beginning a lengthy rigorous university career can seem exhausting and leaving students feeling burnt-out. This is why U.S. students should adopt the custom of taking a gap or bridge year before college, involving six to twelve months of travel or experimental programs; research…

JusticeCorps is an AmeriCorps internship program offered to college students to volunteer in the self-help centers of the Superior Courts of California. As a JusticeCorps member, I assist litigants complete forms related to their case in family law, housing law, and other pending…

My interest in public health began very early in my life. I lost a cousin to a global epidemic and thought that if I became a foreign affairs officer, I could help reroute resources to where in the world they are needed most, like my aunt, for whom I am named. I decided to study political science and in my last semester at Rutgers, while doing a senior project on income inequality and its consequences in Brazil, I was public health found its way to the forefront as I engulfed myself in the facts…

going in for my service learning project; I tried to avoid expecting anything. When I got there, I was pleased with how smoothly everything went. I was aware ahead of time that I would not be teaching the nutrition plan alone. Two workers from Americorp joined in to help lead the class. They were perfectly professional, while remaining casual enough to make the children feel at ease. They gave me the option to observe the lesson as they taught it, or to participate. I chose to participate and…