Greetings from Salem!

As I write this, I realize that it’s November and almost three months into my VISTA term, which is scary because in many ways the time has flown, at the same time there’s been a lot packed in to those three months! In October, my focus was split between outreach meetings with about a dozen community-based organizations to hear about their needs on behalf of the College and look at ways they might be able to build a mutually beneficial partnership with the college. It’s really interesting to hear about the challenges of non-profits during these difficult economic times. The meetings have also reinforced the challenge of our work: that often the type of short-term service or engagement that a college or university is most able to do is not helpful and sometimes even detrimental to those community organizations. My challenge at Salem State has been to try infuse service into the culture of a busy commuter student-dominated institution.

One of my major projects this past month has been to coordinate a large-scale food drive to benefit the six the largest food banks on the North Shore. I met with one of them a week before starting the drive and they mentioned how the organization had received a 25 percent increase in demand for food in the past year. With that dire need in mind, I tried to promote the drive using the “under-a-rock” method—that is unless you have been living under a rock then you should know about the food drive. Despite these efforts, and additional incentives offered to student organizations by the Student Government Association we had only received a moderate number of donations leading up to the deadline, and then on the final day…the flood gates opened. One student organization brought in six large boxes of food and several others made significant contributions. The drive ended very successfully and proved that the old maxim proves true on a college campus, if it weren’t for the last minute nothing would get done.

The craziness that is October in Salem culminated on Halloween when 100,000 visitors descended on the city (population 40,000.) A few VISTAs from Boston came out to experience the revelry with me, in what was easily the best Halloween I’ve had since undergrad.

Later,

Jay H

Meet MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA Lauren Buckley!

I can’t believe it’s already October, and I’m just writing my first entry! To be fair, I started a little later than everyone else, but I’ve still been working for about six weeks now, so that’s not much of an excuse. As you might be able to guess, my work at Holy Cross is off to a very busy start. During the first two weeks, my term of service overlapped with that of the outgoing MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA, Sarah Shugrue, so I was able to benefit from her experience and wisdom for a short time. Sarah was amazingly helpful, answering my questions about the position all summer and imparting the knowledge she’s gained on the job during the two weeks when I worked with her.

Sarah’s departure coincided with the first week of the semester—probably by design—so the pace really picked up just as I was beginning to navigate the position on my own. Luckily, I am one of many *VISTAs this year to serve at my alma mater, so the setting and many of the faces that I saw on campus were familiar. Many people ask me whether it’s strange to be working at a school that I graduated from mere months ago, and part of me feared that it would be. Some have even remarked that I’m taking a “fifth year” at Holy Cross, presumably to elude the pressures of the real world for another twelve months, but I’ve tried to be clear that I don’t see it that way myself. I’m not living on campus—in fact, I’m commuting an hour to and from work each day—and I have the opportunity now to see Holy Cross from an entirely different perspective than I did as a student. Although I have the privilege of working with college students and taking in the ivy-covered buildings and fall foliage on my way to the office every morning, the days when I could roll out of bed five minutes before class, spend my entire day focused solely on my own intellectual and personal development, and while away evenings sharing a bottle of wine with my closest friends have sadly passed. While I work on a college campus, I’ve had to conform to the rigors of a regular schedule and professional dress just like my former classmates, and I don’t feel that I’ve cheated myself of the opportunity to experience something new.

One factor that prevents me from feeling that I’m stretching out my college career is that I’m working in an office that I never utilized as a student. I am working in the Community Based Learning office, and regrettably, I never took a CBL course at Holy Cross. I wish that I had taken advantage of this opportunity as a student, but I think that my distance from the department helps me to bring a new perspective to the office, while also helping me not to fall into an awkward position somewhere between student and staff member. I’ve been told that I have a young face, and I am fully aware that most of the people who see me on campus assume that I am a current student, but being introduced to faculty and students as a staff member has helped to establish my position appropriately and accurately on campus. Going from student to staff member is doubtlessly a difficult transition, and things like calling professors by their first names and leading a student group have been challenging to say the least; yet I am beginning to develop a level of professionalism and confidence that I never needed as a student, and I’m learning to, as my supervisor says, “put on my big girl voice” to ensure that I am being heard and taken seriously on campus.

I’m trying to cram weeks of reflection into a single entry, so there’s so much more to say, but I’ll wrap up for now. Hopefully it won’t be another six weeks before I sit down to write another entry, so I’ll have plenty of opportunities to share all that has been going through my mind. I want to emphasize, finally, that choosing to serve for a year with MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA was absolutely the right decision for me. I can’t deny that the lack of paying jobs available to recent graduates influenced my choice ever so slightly, but after a month and a half I can already tell how formative this year is going to be in determining the person I will become and the life I will lead from here on out. MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA offers a unique opportunity for young adults to gain work experience, training, and guidance that my friends who have “real jobs” just aren’t getting, and I would highly recommend this path to anyone who is considering it.

How interesting, I wrote my last entry on a Friday afternoon and this one is as well. My anticipation of fall is growing. I’m ready for wet rainy days (Alfie may be a little unhappy about this), the smell of Earth, and decaying leaves. Fall should be depressing, right? For me though it isn’t. Take instance the other day I found myself rejoicing over my first “chill moment”. You know the first gust that creates a chilly feeling going straight up your back or causes those microscopic hairs on your arms to stiff up. After this you know the onslaught of fall has arrived. Fall creates an awe effect with its brilliant colors. Massachusetts is a perfect state to be in for that mushy wooshy stuff. Think about it New England foliage I’ve never experienced it, and I’m falling leaf over leaf for it because of what I’ve heard. I can’t wait to jump in leaves, watch puppies jump in leaves, feel the warmth of bonfires, drink apple cider, press the different colored leaves with an iron, and eat pumpkin pie. Halloween oh how could I forget. I’ve picked out my costume already: the wolf costume Max wears in Where The Wild Things Are. I got the idea from the book and it’s currently in theatres as a feature length film.

This 40 hour a week gig is cool, let me tell you. I’ve never had a job where I could listen to National Public Radio without disturbing someone else. This setup affords me the ability to listen to This American Life, a radio program produced by Ira Glass, as long as I want. The program records daily life of American’s and tells their stories, the idea is quite intriguing. Glass coaches me through the day at times. This past week was the 388^th episode and called Rest Stop it has a pretty cool premise: stick five producers at a rest stop in New York and let them record for 24 hours. The stories are quite interesting; the five producers make a concoction that’s genius, creative and incredible. It’s truly incredible how they get people to divulge their life story - gets me. It may be that they are nationally syndicated. You may be thinking: Why the heck is William writing about public radio when he’s supposed to be talking about civic engagement, service learning, and community service? Well it’s funny that you should ask! Because there’s a podcast of sorts that talks about all these fabulous topics. Go to www.servicelearning.org, the name of the show is Bring Learning to Life: A Service-Learning Podcast. The most recent one is on “Maximizing Community Benefit through service-learning.” A podcast is something that I’ve been thinking about doing for MACC or for NSCC. What’s great about podcasts is their ability to be mobile. The tradition of oral story-telling is extremely effective, and it doesn’t hurt when you’ve got a good voice. To further its relevance to service-learning, community service, and civic engagement is extremely important. The service is our story being able to reflect on it teaches us something.

Jay Helmer, the MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA of Salem State College, and I took a trip two weeks ago to Rhode Island, the ocean state, to visit Rhode Island Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTAs for a recap of life and a small shin dig, along the way I brought a weekly newspaper called The Boston Phoenix. I’ve now grown an obsession with this rag of a weekly newspaper which stems from its writers. The writing is beaming with witty writers who’re given the opportunity to write in-depth articles, something that daily’s can’t afford. The paper is very informative giving insight to life in Boston and Greater Boston areas on books, film, arts, politics, and music. It really offers a diverse pool of topics. My at the moment honeymoon-like obsession with the paper will hopefully not fade. Until then my eyes will be fixated on the drop off point located at NSCC every Thursday waiting to devour its every word.

So, today is a national day of service in remembrance of September 11, 2009. Here at North Shore Community College, we hosted two AmeriCorps*VISTAs who are both serving with Massachusetts Campus Compact: Curtis Pope of Bunker Hill Community College and Jonathan Nystedt of Gordon in Lynn. Unfortunately we were unable to plan a Lynn-wide day of service or have our students do service, because of the time restraints associated with school having begun just this past Wednesday. This trio of *VISTAs still pulled through though. We did our civic duty by helping serve lunch at My Brother’s Table, a non-profit Soup Kitchen in Lynn; they also helped put signs up around campus for a food drive that began today at NSCC. All in all it was a pleasant day to do service.

I’ve started to be a little bit more laid back on finding out the needs of the community to focus a little bit of attention on recruiting students, building the leadership aspect of my work plan. You could say I’m multitasking or branching out of what I’ve been trying to do for the past month. Community organizing is not easy, building a leadership institute is not easy; higher education is not like it was as a student that’s for sure. One thing I’ve grasped is slowing down. It’s not like I can take out a wand and make it happen; even though Harry Potter could make it happen with a swoosh of his wand. Until next time!

Peace

Good day all,

In the couple of weeks since my last blog post, I’ve started to settle into my role at Salem State. After about a month and a half on campus, I’ve begun to stop introducing myself as the “new” MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA/Civic Engagement Coordinator and have simply jumped right in to the work. What I love about being a *VISTA is the variety of the work, I can be in a t-shirt one day (helping to coordinate a service project) and a tie the next, talking to a senior level administrator. After my first few weeks in “t-shirt” mode helping to organize various projects for new student orientation, I’m now spending more time in ties meeting with administrators about community-based organizations with whom Salem State is looking to form deeper partnerships.

Classes have started, and students are back, which makes the campus buzz with so much more energy. Student clubs are starting to ask me about getting more involved in service, which is both exciting and encouraging as I begin to talk with community-based organizations about how Salem State might be able to better help those organizations achieve their goals.

I’m starting to feel more at home living in Salem too. Despite the visibility of the witch-trial-centered tourism, Salem is really a welcoming small New England city. I have gotten lost both walking and driving around the city (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) and have found a number of great places to eat and cool things to see and do (other than those that are witch-related). Living in town and having some knowledge of Salem has been a valuable way to strengthen connections and earn credibility with community partners. I also believe that being comfortable in the community is important because as much as I’m very passionate about the work that I’m doing, having a life outside work is important to maintain a healthy balance during my VISTA year.

Jay H

Meet Jay Helmer, MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA

Hello all,

My name is Jay Helmer, I’m coming to you from Salem State College where I serve as the MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA and Civic Engagement Coordinator. This is my second time around as a MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA, having served in 2006-07 before taking a two-year hiatus to pursue a Master’s Degree in higher education. I returned to MACC firmly committed to enhancing service and civic engagement, and because my first year as an AmeriCorps*VISTA was one of the most rewarding of my life.

As the first *VISTA at Salem State, I have the opportunity to help build a civic engagement program in two ways: first by assisting in the cultivation of partnerships with area community-based organizations, and secondly by creating and enhancing civic engagement opportunities for students, faculty and staff. As I write this, I have just cleared a huge stack of paper from my desk related to my first major project: coordinating a 19-project, 150-volunteer community service day for Resident Assistants and incoming students. My new position is in the Campus Center programs office, so it’s a hub of student activity, and the staff keeps me busy which is fun!

Today is the opening of the academic year and I am being formally introduced during a session for faculty and staff, so, as my supervisor said, “I won’t be anonymous much longer”. About a month into my year of service, my position has been everything I hoped it would be, and made even better by working with an incredibly talented tight-knit Corps of AmeriCorps*VISTAs.

Later,
Jay H

Introducing Lindsay Laguna!

Hello, Folks! I’m Lindsay Laguna, proud MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA/Community Programs Coordinator at Boston University Metropolitan College. I’m serving in the department of Student and Corporate Outreach. Although I work in an office that does corporate outreach, I do not work directly with that aspect of the work. Instead I do more community outreach to prospective students at BU Metropolitan College primarily by spreading word about the Scholarship for Parents. I support other outreach efforts, but this scholarship really takes up the bulk of my focus. Rather than repeat everything on the Web site, here is a link that succinctly describes the scholarship:

http://www.bu.edu/met/scholarship/parents/

Before I go into more depth about my work and because I am serving at a university, let me give you a snapshot of my own upbringing and educational experience. I am 24 years old, was born and raised in Chicago, lived a few years in Park Ridge, IL, and graduated with a BA in International Studies with minors in Spanish and Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After graduation, I worked in a variety of offices in a variety of universities mostly in Chicago. I did a year of service with the AmeriCorps program City Year Chicago. Since apparently I can’t get enough of AmeriCorps programs OR higher education, I now get the best of both worlds with MACC. I can’t think of a better fit for me right now.

I’ve only been with MACC/BU for a month, but this is probably the coolest work experience I’ve had thus far. I attended the Book Bag Drive (where I met the mayor), attend Middle O, a college fair, Chelsea’s Back to School Celebration, go on TV (BNN) with my manager Katherine and our Parent Scholar Joan, and got the scholarship on the BPS site under Family Resources (http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/39).

It is essentially my role to promote this scholarship to prospective Parent Scholars in the Boston and Chelsea communities. Since this is the 2nd year we are offering the scholarship, there is still much for me to do in terms of building community awareness of the scholarship and also keeping community members aware of the support that BU Metropolitan College offers to students “from application to graduation.”

Katherine and my VISTA predecessor Jessica have been wonderful in orienting me to BU and Boston in general. I’ve never felt so prepared for a new position, which means a lot since I’ve had quite a few positions these past few years.

That’s all for now! Till next time!

Peace,
Lindsay

Will Dowd's Journey North Shore Community College!

Details quickly - names William Dowd, I studied print journalism and minored in political science at a small liberal arts college called Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. I’m 23, originally from Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to a small town called Wellsville, Pennsylvania when I was 11 years of age. I came to Massachusetts by way of Wellsville. I’ve been placed at North Shore Community College as a MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA - charged with developing a student leadership program tailored to community service. It’s going to take a lot of work on the College’s part as well as mine. I’m one of about 30 other VISTA scattered in patches in different higher education institutions located all over this beautiful and stunning state, whether it’s my fellow AmeriCorps*VISTA member Margo all the way out in Amherst, placed at UMASS Amherst or someone as close as AmeriCorps*VISTA member Jay located at Salem State College – we’re truly patched all over.

Well, it’s a sunny Friday. I’m sitting in my new office at NSCC in Lynn. Yes, the city with the jingle that goes like this: Lynn, Lynn. The City of Sin, you never come out the way you went in. This tune of sorts is quite misleading though, Lynn has its rugged rough parts, but I’ve only met nice people thus far. The city is right off the bay, next to a beautiful island dubbed Nahant. In reference to Lynn’s location on the North Shore of Massachusetts it’s just below Salem, Swampscott, and right above Revere. I remember before moving here my friends were always confused because they thought Lynn was a person. So, I had to correct them – “No, no, no, I’m not moving in with Lynn, I’m moving to Lynn,” it was quite tiring after a while though it surely faded.

The experience thus far from spending a week in Boston at Northeastern University to receive training, visiting Salem for the Salem Jazz and Musical Festival at the Willows, taking adventures to Gloucester’s Harbor Beach and Nahant, meeting a group of people who carry the same values as I do, and will all be partaking in a year of service is truly rewarding.
Alright back to the office. I have an office with a window, looking out on Broad Street in Lynn a very busy section of the city. My office is fairly medium sized I’ll give you a mental breakdown - family photo’s on my right tacked to the large cork board, cold morning coffee - next to my black keyboard and the mouse pad, and of course the staple Merriam-Webster: dictionary and thesaurus –got to have those. Imagine for a second a square room with a purple door, windows straight ahead, white walls, book shelves on your left as you walk in and a desk place parallel to the window. I’ve been doing work on the computer for most of the day, so, these eyes are starting to become dry. I’m in need of some water. Now, I’ve decided to update Massachusetts Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA blog with a post, to enlighten those who’ve been de-voided of posts and have just been dying to read the next.

I want to really just reflect on the last four weeks of my life living in “The Bay State,” - I can’t believe it has been that long. I feel like I just got here, the roller coaster, lifestyle of a VISTA for the first few weeks has been really go, go, go, here are the tools you need to succeed, now go make a difference in the world. So I’ve decided today to take a breather, step back, focus my attention on what’s happened and just let it flow. That roller coaster is starting to simmer down. Reflection is a huge part of service, I’m looking forward to this upcoming Friday’s reflection – it will be the first time everyone’s seen each other since we left Northeastern.
Prior to arriving at NSCC, as written before, I received a week of training at Northeastern University - we’re given a packet called the “work plan.” We got it on our third day of training, as vocal as I was about getting it, other VISTA’s started picking up on how wound up I was. But to me it was a big deal the work plan gives you a timeline of your project, has your job description, tells you who your supervisor is- and is pretty much a manual that guides your life for the next year. So that night, I must have skimmed through it like three or four times, as if I were reading Kerouac’s On The Road, it was like experiencing the taste of coffee for the first time. Most definitely, a rush was felt; I was already building a mental map of how to execute the plan. Not having any prior experience in developing a leadership institute, I was a little overwhelmed – but I understood that the plan has a mission statement, having four goals; the goals guide the mission statement, accomplishing these goals will achieve the mission of the institute. Hold that thought for couple of paragraphs.

The first three day’s consisted of nothing but meeting Vice Presidents, Directors and Deans who I had delightful, engaging, conversations with; they all have the best interest of students in hand. My supervisor and I ate at the International House of Pancakes on the second day; it was quite early in the morning, so coffee was in order. Lloyd is the name of my boss; he’s the Dean of Student life at the College and is the one who wrote the work plan and compiled the grant to get me - he’s a very sweet man wh0 also happens to be from the South – Mississippi to be exact. At the meeting we go over expectations and talk of our leadership styles, but we couldn’t help but get off track – we started talking about our taste in music and found out that we had some things in common, he also told me to take a Myers-Brigg test, wanting to know what type of personality I was, so he could best direct me. I made a mental note to use this with students.
After this casual morning meeting I walked out of IHOP full from two pancakes, 4 cups of coffee, two slices of toast, home fries, eggs – along with a new friend, a new professional colleague, and someone I know is going to be a great mentor. I am going to learn a lot from him within the next year.

It’s around 9:30 a.m. we arrived back at NSCC - I was greeted with my first office plant and a welcoming card both from the NSCC Human Relations Department. I’ve decided to call the plant, “Alfie” (I’m all about naming things, inanimate objects too) – the name in my opinion suits the small plant plotted in a squared yellow cereal bowl. I appreciate small acts of kindness like this one. Now, let’s see if I can take care of the plant, I’m betting on a couple of weeks, but I’m going to try to keep Alfie alive (especially since it was a gift too) as long as possible. This will be the test to see whether I can handle a cat or a dog later in life. Pam Nolan-Young a now dear friend of mine, a well educated woman, director of human relations gave me these gifts.
After meeting practically everyone in the College, I could finally sit down and work. First task - I needed to see how things would come together, that is grasping how to meet my goals, I worked it out with a dry erase marker in hand by pretty much locking myself in a room and a not allowing anyone in. So for three to four hours I created a web thoughtfully defining my goals, understanding them, and then tediously working out logistics. I’m having a meeting with Lloyd this week to go over it, before we present it to my focus groups, which will come later on in the next couple of weeks. Through my mapping and readings transcending departments is going to have to happen in order to meet the standards of higher education. Stakeholders aren’t just students, but all entities of the college.

My second week I started compiling a list of all the community based organizations in Lynn, Danvers, and Beverly – this took quite awhile, however, once it’s finished the end product will be useful. I also created a Google map outlining the community based organizations in the Lynn. Now, it’s time to set up one on one’s with these organizations to see what they need. So when students are looking for direct community service opportunities they intrinsically better themselves, but also meet the needs of the community.

My third week consisted of meeting with three community based organizations to perform one to one’s. I met with Lynn History Museum and Historical Society, Lynn’s alternative adult education program Bootstrap, and finally Gordon College in Lynn. My first big project is working with Diana Kerry, she is the Public Policy Institute director, and we will be collaborating to make hunger awareness and homelessness at the forefront of the College and Institute as for initiatives coming out of our offices. Beginning September 11th, a day of national service to October 9th NSCC will have a food drive to fill the food pantries all across the North Shore.
As we move forward and closer to the September 9th onset of students the energy on the professional side of NSCC is building. Our students will soon be walking through the halls in due course and in no time at all, they will be filling every nook and cranny of Lynn, Danvers, and Beverly campuses. It’s a sweet feeling to be a part of higher education, especially in a new environment, and on the other spectrum as professional. I’m excited to get the ball rolling. On September 9th – 10th at 7:30 a.m. in the morning I will be “Walking The Lines” for two days. “Walking The Lines” is a program for the first couple of days where faculty, administration, and staff hand out energy bars and water to students as they walk into each entrance.

All in all it’s going to be a great year; I mean it’s already off to a great start. Massachusetts is absolutely a beautiful state.

Peace out.