I can't believe it is already October. I feel like I just got done with PSO yesterday. The office of Student Involvement is busy here at Framingham State College, and I'm trying to keep up to pace with all the craziness! Since I am the first VISTA here, I decided to talk a little about what my experiences have been as the brand new AmeriCorps*VISTA on this campus.

To say it's been overwhelming would be an understatement, but with that comes a profoundly rewarding feeling of really getting things done here. I arrived here in late July to an extremely warm office staff greeting me with open arms. They were largely unaware of what exactly my job was all about but my supervisor made sure to include me in the Staff Retreat agenda to go over my job, in addition to a general overview of what MACC and VISTA do (and what they do together =]). At the retreat, I used my flip-charting skills to wow my co-workers as I laid it all out for them. After I finished explaining about capacity building, engaging college students and making change - I felt much more comfortable with them and I could tell they were much more aware of what I was all about.

Sure, students still sometimes confuse me with a prior United Way volunteer who once sat at my desk, but my name is getting out there and things are definitely getting done.

I have done a lot of work to build upon the already existing partnership that FSC has with the United Way. My relationship with my contact there is awesome, we work very well together and are both new to our respective positions so the fact that we're learning together makes everything that much easier. We have decided to co-sponsor a day of service every semester. Just one for now until we get a better hold on getting these things together. This November we are doing a big day of raking for local elderly people and we have started recruiting volunteers for that. Additionally, we also place volunteers all over the MetroWest area together and have been pretty successful thus far with getting people interested. I have a Volunteer Opportunities distribution list that I send all different opportunities out to people on every day. Students have been pretty receptive.

The one big obstacle I have found so far is that at Framingham State, volunteering isn't anyone's "thing." Let me explain what I mean by that. Some people have Student Government as their "thing" or programming is their "thing"...at many colleges, volunteering and service is a "thing" that students have. Any given "thing" tends to be a students' main extra-curricular commitment. My goal is to make service a "thing" on this campus. We have already talked about creating some type of center for it in order to help with that cause. I think it will take a couple years to really accomplish this, but as long as I lay the brickwork, it can definitely be built upon and achieved.

I'm proud of the work I'm doing and definitely proud of the FSC staff who are so excited to be on board with these initiatives. Next up, Alternative Spring Break - Eek! That's another post entirely. =]

Til next time,
*VISTA Dana