Happy Holidays!

The past two weeks have finally got me into the holiday spirit.

Last week I sifted through holiday cards at Barnes & Noble for half an hour. I didn’t want to be picky, but I’m not someone who just grabs the first box of cards in sight. Plus it was hard to find a card with a pretty design and thoughtful message. After finally deciding on a set of cards, I dedicated a day and a half to writing personal cards to community supporters.

These supporters have been championing BU’s Scholarship for Parents anywhere from a few months to more than a year, and I owe them a huge THANK YOU. Although recruitment events can make life hectic, they have been rewarding. With these cards, I wanted to acknowledge people who’ve made the first half of my service year eventful. That’s why I didn’t mind writing messages to every supporter till my hand felt like it would fall off.

This is my last week of work for 2010, and there has been no shortage of bonding time with coworkers. The holiday party for my college was Tuesday, the holiday party for my office was Wednesday, and the holiday party for my university was Thursday. It reminded me of what I like about this work environment.

People at my university work hard but make time for relaxation. Many employees balance school with work, and that is no easy feat. I couldn’t complain about balancing one class with work because some employees balance two to three classes with work … and they manage their responsibilities well.

Our Parent Scholar JoAn Blake (pronounced “Joanne,” not “Joan”) does an excellent job at managing her time. This semester, she worked, took a few classes, spoke at outreach events for the Scholarship for Parents, AND of course manages parental responsibilities. She continually amazes people that meet her, and I also owe her a big THANK YOU for taking time to share her BU experience with the community.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!

Peace,

Lindsay

Stonehill College Comes to Boston University

I’m not going to talk about my program today. Part of what makes MACC enriching is the potential to collaborate with other AmeriCorps*VISTAs. If I cannot directly meet the needs of campus or community members through my program, I can tap into other resources in the MACC and/or BU networks.

Recently, I connected graduate students from BU’s School of Education (SED) to Kate Rafey, MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA at Stonehill College. It happened a few weeks ago when I received an email from an SED graduate student. She read my blog and asked me to speak about service learning as part of her group’s class presentation. Since my service is to coordinate a scholarship program rather than service learning, I asked other VISTAs who work with service learning if they could present for SED. Luckily, Kate volunteered for this opportunity.

Today I sat in on the class and listened to the hour-long class presentation. The students presented theories and research related to service learning. They touched on concepts by Eyler and Giles, which is a coincidence because Giles actually led a service-learning workshop at Campus Compact’s pre-service orientation back in July.

Kate spoke about her personal experience as Coordinator of Stonehill’s Office of Community-Based Learning (CBL). Not only did she illustrate the college’s commitment to social justice, she also explained how her work relates to MACC, AmeriCorps, and CNCS (Corporation for National and Community Service).

If you want to learn more about the work Kate is getting done, check out these resources!

CBL Site: http://www.stonehill.edu/x18172.xml

CBL Blog: http://communitybasedlearning.wordpress.com/

CBL on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stonehillCBL

I’m following Stonehill CBL on Twitter and you should too! If you don’t have an account, get one!

Happy Holidays!

Lindsay

Happy Thanksgiving from North Shore Community College

It’s the day after Thanksgiving – I was thinking, which is always good, about how Thanksgiving Dinner shouldn’t be called Thanksgiving Dinner. I’ve got a problem with the word “Dinner.” Thanksgiving only comes around once a year and we call it a dinner? Dinner just doesn’t do justice to the hallowed day of eating – a day to stuff your face and eat mashed potato’s with your fingers (as my niece probably did) celebration, she loves the SO BIG GAME; we use this to manipulate her into letting us wash her hands!

Thanksgiving’s like a small festival, especially if you’ve got a huge family as I do, but this year wasn’t as large as we’ve had in past years - we had anywhere between 8 and upwards of 20-25 people at our house. Over the past year family members have moved to Italy, spent it with boyfriends or girlfriends, or simply just wanted to keep it quiet. I hope that you had a wonderful holiday.

The times at North Shore Community College are changing. We only have two weeks left for this half of the academic year. I’ve definitely been hearing whispers of finals week. Today, as a matter of fact, the schedules for the fall final dates have been made available. This year is flying.

Putting the holiday aside and getting back in to the groove of things wasn’t too hard, the vacation was delightful and refreshing. I’ve been quite the busy bee, as we approach the next semester, my interface with students will go up.

I have two big projects underway: community service fair and a leadership series. The fair will occur at the Lynn Gym in February. The leadership series will be a variety of panel discussions, workshops, and finally guest speakers.

Student Leaders will follow a track for the series. We will offer three concentrations for student to follow, the concentration will be decided by the student, where they feel improvement is need :

Communication Skills Track

Programming Skills Track

Personal Track

Each track will require students to follow guidelines, depending on what track they take will determine which workshops they will attend. After they meet all the requirements of their track they will be rewarded with a certificate.

The planning aspect of this series will be “daunting Will” as my co-worker Victoria, Assistant Director of Student Life , says, but I say why not do something of this nature. Victoria thought of the having it set up as a track program. I thought the idea was brilliant, next thing you know it, Diana Kerry, Director of the Public Policy Institute, is now on board for helping in the efforts.

It’s a great time to be at North Shore Community College! I can’t wait to give students the chance to improve their leadership as well as connecting them with the community. Early Service Training is coming up next week. A time for us to reflect on this past semester’s progress and receive more training. It’s going to be a fun time.

Peace Out!

Will

AmeriCorps Opening Day

I attended Massachusetts AmeriCorps Opening Day this weekend! Since MACC VISTAs are mostly at different schools, we rarely see all of each other in one setting. Opening day was this past Friday at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College. MACC was among more than 100 other AmeriCorps programs in the state.

The highlight of the day for me was listening to a spoken word piece from the Youth Empowerment Corps at Untied Teen Equality Center (UTEC). A group of people from this organization read a piece written by a teenager in the program. I believe they said she was 16. I would paraphrase a few lines from it, but that could not do her writing justice. In a nutshell, it was a thought-provoking view of our society, the state of our economy, and the nature of our culture … and how she wants it to be transformed.

Also I enjoyed the performance by Essencia Dancing from Youth Start AmeriCorps Program Roca Inc. I liked how they incorporated dance routines from different genres like bachata and hip hop. I have eclectic taste in music so the performance definitely had my stamp of approval.

I liked how this opening day allowed members from some AmeriCorps programs to showcase their work.

Overall it was just a nice break to catch up with other VISTAs. I did not realize how much I had done in three months till I spoke to other VISTAs in MACC and other programs.

For the Scholarship for Parents, I have conducted information sessions at the Allston-Brighton Resource Center, the Williams School in Chelsea, and ABCD Hyde Park Head Start among other organizations. I have attended community events such as New Bostonians Community Day near Government Center, BPS Showcase for Schools, and BPS Parent University’s Kickoff. I have also gone to individual school events such as Trotter Elementary School’s coffee hour, Lee Elementary School’s parent council meeting, and Guild Elementary School’s open house.

This sounds like a dizzying list of schools and organizations, but that goes to show you how extensive this outreach has been. Whether I have traveled to Chelsea, Dorchester, Roxbury, East Boston, Hyde Park, or Brighton, there are parents with a strong desire to attain a college degree.

Whether they plan to apply for school this spring, next fall, or in a few years from now, it has been amazing to hear their stories and determination to fit college into their schedule either part-time or full-time. Some of them need or want to take more ESL courses or college-level courses before committing to a bachelor’s degree program, but at least they are starting to develop plans for themselves. For some, that is a huge step in itself.

- Lindsay

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.

and so it goes...

Well. I guess it's June, huh? It's been a long time since I've visited this blog. As the students left campus and all the craziness of campus happenings came to a close, I guess it didn't seem like there was much to update about. However, today was the last day of our Close of Service retreat at the Cape and as I sit at my desk, still thinking about the last three days (and the past year) I feel like this is the perfect time to re-visit this space. The retreat was a three day, fun filled wrap up to our spectacular year together as a Corps. We spent a bit of time congregated, celebrating all of our individual accomplishments as well as the accomplishments we made together. It was perfect, albeit tough.

It's been a really busy, crazy year and the past couple months have been especially insane. I am leaving Framingham State to transition into the role of one of the AmeriCorps*VISTA Leaders for MACC next year and so for the past month or so I have been finishing up my work at FSC while also getting things ready for the new Corps to come in July. It's been a really exciting time for me and in all that, I kind of forgot that the end with this Corps was coming and today it hit me like a ton of bricks. As we sat in a circle and had our final wrap up meeting, it was wonderful to hear about what all my fellow AmeriCorps*VISTAs were going to be doing next year and to share with them what I got out of this year. Hearing everyone talk about their plans one after another was like somebody slowly but surely turning the faucet on and by the time it got to me, I was an inarticulate emotional mess. I couldn't get my thoughts together and I'm sure I had a lot more to say to the group but tried to stop speaking as I was pretty sure I was making very little sense.

I just need to express (once more, as I have so many times before) how thankful I am for everything that I have gotten out of this year. The professional and personal growth I have experienced will only grow deeper with the year ahead and the relationships that I have made have been life changing and I can't imagine my life had I not chosen to do a year with MACC. I'm sure, like this morning, I am not even writing very coherently now. So, with that, I'll leave you. It's been quite a year. Here's to one more.

- Dana

National Volunteer Week and Awards

As the semester rolls to a close, I've been busy around campus working on events -- and even winning an award. The week of April 19-25th was National Volunteer week; I reached out to our community partners and set up several volunteer opportunities for our students. Points of Light is the organization that heads up National Volunteer Week. Monday, we spent some time helping out the Boston Marathon, helping in the Family Reunion area. Tuesday we volunteered with Red Cross Blood Services, and I ended up helping in a medical incident with a donor, which was exciting, but not the kind of excitement I was hoping for. Wednesday, which was Earth Day, we volunteered with Earthworks an organization that helps do urban gardening. With Earthworks, we helped get a garden at the Hennigan School in Jamaica Plain ready for spring, weeding and doing other prep work in the rain! Thursday there were two projects, we volunteered with Cradles to Crayons, making clothing packages for needy children across Massachusetts. My last event was with Boston Living Center, where we helped serve a meal to clients living with HIV or AIDS. On Friday, there was a student run annual event known as Good Neighbor Day, which gets volunteers out into the local community.

In addition, this week I got to attend the 17th Annual Beacon Awards Dinner, an awards dinner for students and student groups. I nominated my ASB Group for the Award. Overall it was a successful night for our office; we had 2 students involved with our office winning major Beacon Student Leadership awards -- 5 students were chosen out of a pool of 30. Our Beacon Voyages for Service ASB to Galveston, TX also won the Beacon Student Group Service Award. I've got a beacon award sitting on my desk! We are excited about the success of our office this year, and I know next year will be a success as well! Here is me with some students and the award!

A Busy Time of Year

The end of the school year is literally around the corner! We’ve been busy finishing up the final touches for several events over the next week. We have 3 students who applied and were recruited to BLAST (Beacon Leadership and Service Team) who were put in charge or created 3 different campus projects which will occur from this Saturday to next Friday. A few months ago they attended LeaderShape and now they are ready to make a big splash on campus! The projects include a leadership conference (which I will be presenting at, currently I’m working on my PowerPoint), a Health and Fitness Expo, and Good Neighbor Day (an annual day of volunteering). All of these events I am looking forward to! In addition I’ve secured volunteering sites Monday through Friday for National Volunteer Week. It will be a busy week, but I’m looking forward to getting outside, volunteering, and really having an overall great time!

~ Erika

Another day in the life...

Good morning! I just came off of a pretty busy weekend in Boston at the National Conference on Student Leadership. A fellow AmeriCorps*VISTA and I spent the weekend there as a partner of the conference tabling for AmeriCorps*VISTA and talking with students about the AmeriCorps*VISTA program. We got this gig from the AmeriCorps*VISTA outreach coordinator all the way down in PA after offering to help out at a career fair a few weeks ago. We got to stay at a fancy hotel and network with some pretty awesome people. One of the perks of being a AmeriCorps*VISTA!

March and April have arguably been the busiest months of my year thus far. After our return from Alternative Spring Break, things were pretty slow for about a week, but then the students came back and things sped up so quickly! With the end of the year approaching, all of the clubs that I work with are in a mad dash to spend the rest of their money, so I have had countless meetings with them regarding events they are planning, things they want to purchase, etc. It's been hectic, but also kind of neat to see what kinds of things they're doing. One of my clubs, Amnesty International, threw their annual human rights fest, AKA "Jamnesty" last night. It was really cool, they had a bunch of bands playing with petitions and educational literature in the back on some tables. Very simple, but cool to see them organizing for things that matter to them. One of my other students' clubs are hosting a Green Fest in two weeks, and I'm really excited about all of the stuff they'll have there!

In other news, a big part of our job as MACC*VISTAs is creating/maintaining sustainable partnerships with community agencies. I have been working with the United Way of Tri-County here in Framingham since my arrival in July. Things have been rocky and confusing for some time, regarding priorities and actually getting things done for the community. This past week, I had a meeting with my contact there and we went over our partnership agreement and sorted out what we have done and what we need to get done. We also talked about the path that the partnership is taking and whether or not we see it as necessarily beneficial for the two of us, and the Framingham community. I have felt for awhile that the partnership with the United Way was too limiting on the college and that we should be out in the community more, interacting and seeing what the community really needs from our students - something that given the current language of our agreement, hasn't really been happening. My colleague at the United Way was very receptive to what I was saying and agreed that our partnership could benefit from some restructuring to open it up a little more. Overall, it was a really productive meeting and I walked away feeling pretty hopeful. The students leave in the middle of May, and after that I hope to be able to get out and meet with some local CBOs a little more to identify their needs and how our students can assist them.

That's it for now... back to work!

Til next time,

Dana

Back to Volunteering -- Monthly Service Projects!

As I mentioned, I just got from ASB and came back to work this Wednesday. Right away, I had more service to do! I planned a small volunteer trip for our students Wednesday night. As part of our Monthly Service Projects program, our office organizes service projects for UMass Boston students once a month. This month we found ourselves at The Boston Living Center , an all around resource center for persons living with AIDS or HIV. We were there to serve dinner! Myself and 2 other UMass Boston students came and we worked with Franklin, the cook, in the kitchen. We prepared the dinner for the evening, making sure the food was ready to be put out. I got to serve at the juice bar and admired the variety of juice and other beverages available to clients. The students served the food to clients. We also got to try the awesome pesto pastas and cooked spinach. I really fell in love with the place and how well it is run. At the end of the night Bianca, one of the students, expressed her desire to continue volunteering there on a long term basis. That is a great success for me, as finding students long term service opportunities that match their interests is not necessarily an easy process.

I hope you future and present MACC AmeriCorps*VISTAs will make your way there! It is a great place to volunteer!

~Erika

Post Alternative Spring Break

I had quite a week last week, a week that is hard to put into words. After about 6 months of planning, Alternative Spring Break actually occurred. Ever since I was a student, I've found myself spending time planning and eventually going on ASB trips doing hurricane relief and rebuilding. Three years ago, I found myself in New Orleans leading a group of 11 other students on a Habitat for Humanity build in East New Orleans. Last year, I ended up in Waveland, Mississippi working on a house with a homeowner the entire week with 17 advisers and students. This year, with 12 students from UMass Boston, we made our way to Galveston, TX. We worked so hard the entire week.

Day 1 and 2 we gutted a house in Galveston for Ida, a retired nurse. She returned the favor by taking us all out to Golden Corral, a southern buffet chain (YUM). Day 3 we led students in replanting beach grasses on the beach (thanks to Artist Boat, a nonprofit based out of Galveston) in hopes of keeping the dunes together and growing (more than 15 feet washed away in the storm). We also painted primer on Rosa's home, another Galveston resident. Day 4 we found ourselves trekking out to Surfside Beach, a local beach community and hot spot for summer vacationers in TX. On the drive to Surfside we saw businesses, homes, and the road (we drove on the beach 3/4 the way) utterly destroyed. While in Surfside, students worked on painting and power washing the deck of the local town hall, and a smaller group put up sand fencing to help protect and rebuild the dunes. We returned Friday to paint Rosa's home with a final coat (Avocado green!).

While having this experience was the highlight of my year -- it was physically and emotionally draining all at the same time. I led reflections at night and slept little. I'm still tired today, I haven't had much time to recover. We AmeriCorps*VISTAs are always on duty!

We had fun too though! We checked out Nasa and the Kemah Boardwalk, went to the largest Rodeo in the US, and got a glimpse of the waters around Galveston on an air boat tour. Lastly, we ate so much good food (seafood, burgers, Sonic -- there are no Sonics in MA!). I miss TX and want to go back and help more, but I know that I felt better being able to serve alongside fellow AmeriCorps members there -- I met a fellow Maryland Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA and our amazing AmeriCorps*NCCC Leader Aparna while in TX.

I'm sharing a few videos of the experience on YouTube more are to come!


Yours in Service,

Erika

FSC has an Alt. Spring Break Weekend Get Away!

This past weekend, I took a group of nine students to Holyoke, MA to work on the farm at Nuestras Raices. This was the first Alternative Break trip of any kind for Framingham State College, which is why we decided to stay pretty local and also why we chose to just do a weekend. Given the culture of Framingham State students, this was also the best fit. That culture being one of very hard working students, who often use their spring break as a means to work extra hours and earn a good chunk of money.

I was really excited about the trip because not only was it new to me and FSC, but the 9 students who came on the trip were all very new to volunteering in general. I would say about 2 or 3 of them had any experience volunteering, and it was amazing to see the transformation in them just over two days. On Saturday morning, when asked why they were there, their answers were all pretty identical to each other's, "I wanted to do something different for spring break" or, "I like helping people." Very generic, very basic...not very thoughtful. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed as we went around the circle and I heard one after another repeat the same answer. However, I was really proud and touched on Sunday afternoon during our final reflection when their answers were all very unique and thought out. Each one of them showed with their responses in our reflection activity a personal attachment to the work they did over the weekend and a better understanding of why it mattered. I'd say this was probably my first proud moment as an advisor to college students, and I really loved it. I even love thinking about it now two days later!

On our trip we did a lot of great work. Half our group plotted out land for the farmers, and half the group cleaned up and took an inventory of tools in the sheds. The second day we moved a whole bunch of frame pieces for a new greenhouse they're building. We got a lot of work done in a very short period of time, and the people at the farm were very grateful for it.

I have to admit that while this project has definitely not been my favorite part of my AmeriCorps*VISTA year so far, I am very pleased that I decided to take it on. Looking back, it caused me a lot of stress and I remember thinking repeatedly, "I can't wait until this is all over." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that it's done with and have a huge feeling of relief because of that. However, even though it's not something I necessarily loved doing, it was a really great opportunity for me to gain a lot of skills that I didn't have before. Logistical thinking and being very detail oriented are not necessarily two of my stronger points. In planning any kind of trip, those two skills are very important and so I definitely appreciate the opportunity to fine tune those areas of my skill set.

I'll close with some photos of our trip - Enjoy!!

Spring Semester -- In High Gear

Hello AmeriCorps*VISTA Friends,

It has been a busy few weeks here in the office, with the director out of the office on vacation, I was in charge! A few weeks back at the beginning of February we had our office’s first ever spring volunteer fair (Spring Into Action: Volunteer and Opportunities Fair). Look at the cool poster I made!

Microsoft Publisher has become one of my biggest allies this year in advertising on UMass Boston’s Campus. School was out until the end of January, so things picked up real fast in the office.

The response to our autumn fair was so great we decided it was time for a spring fair. I was in charge of organizing it again, and surprisingly we had many new organizations present! Overall the fair went really well and turned out to be not too stressful despite the fact my supervisor was out sick, which meant I was running the fair literally all by myself! We had made connections with other organizations on campus too which was really nice, because they came to me asking to come to the fair and now I’m aligned with many of the student centers and offices on campus personally as I organized the fair.

Right now my work has been revolving around Alternative Break, with less than 1 month to the trip it is really push time to get everything done. We worked with a travel agent to book our plane tickets to Galveston and I just today reserved the vans we will be driving while down there. I’m sure I’ll have a ton of pictures to post once Alt. Break hits on the 15^th.

We’re also getting to that time of year where Corps members are starting to think about next year, and what is next. Many of the Corps members have been getting acceptance letters to graduate school, many are thinking about another year of service, and many can’t even wrap their heads around how far we’ve come.

Tomorrow is our half way point meeting with our Supervisors and MACC; I’m looking forward to tomorrow and how we are going to lay down sustainability for our programs into the future.

Yours in Service,

Erika

Wow - January already? This year is flying by. The students are having their first day of classes here at Framingham State for the spring semester and things are just beginning to get really busy.

The months of November and December seem to have been blended together in my head for some reason, most likely because I was out of the office most of the month of December for our Early Service Training (aka EST) and following that, our holiday break. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at EST in December. The entire MACC*VISTA family stayed together at the Essex Conference Center in Essex, MA for most of the week of the 8th. It was really great to be able to reconnect with many of the VISTAs that I don't get to see on a regular basis, and also to get to spend more time with even the VISTAs I have become pretty close with. The time out of the office to sort of reinvigorate our sense of purpose was also excellent. I very much enjoyed the discussions and insight brought about by all of the workshops that we had as well as just the really valuable conversations I had with my fellow VISTAs during downtime.

I'll even provide for you a cute photo of all of us. Don't ask me why we've all got our hands in the air like that, I really have no idea.

More on the FSC front, all the way back in November the United Way and my office (Student Involvement) co-sponsored a day of service. We had about 20 student volunteers and we visited about 4 different houses in the Framingham & Natick areas raking leaves for homebound elderly people. We were nervous because the original date that we were supposed to hold this event was rained out, so we were unsure if many of our volunteers would come back for the rain date - and many of them did! We had a great turn out and though it was a long, very cold, day all of the students were in great spirits throughout the entire thing and at the end went home smiling.

This was the first coordinated day of volunteering that we did with the United Way, with whom we have a partnership that involves getting students more involved in the local community. Many of the students that came belonged to clubs that are service oriented, but many of them were pretty new to the volunteering scene. It was a really great experience. We even made it to the local newspaper, very exciting!

Here are a few photos of my students hard at work. I assure you that I, too, worked diligently...but someone had to take the photos!

Til next time,

Dana