​Hello! I am Sophia Mackoul, a first-year AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with the Capital Area College Access Network (CapCAN) in Lansing, Michigan. CapCAN’s mission is “making completion of post-secondary education an achievable reality for all residents of the capital area… to increase college and career readiness, participation, and completion.” I graduated from Michigan State University in 2019 with a degree in apparel design and began my career as a stylist. As time passed and the pandemic began, I realized my desire to give back to the community that had given so much to me. With the help of Ann Roboski, I found my way to CapCAN!

I was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan. My father and his family immigrated here from Lebanon in the ’70s to escape the civil war. They moved into a small home in Lansing, where my Grandfather found work on the assembly line at General Motors. To learn English, he took ESL classes at a local community center. My father and his siblings went to school at Sexton High School, where their teachers and community helped guide them through a challenging cultural transition.

My Grandfather recently passed away and, I have been giving a lot of thought to the sacrifices he made for our family. Leaving his life and family behind in search of new hope is no small feat. Hope was the guide for a better life for his children and future generations. He was a hard worker and fiercely independent, declining help from anyone. That being said, I can’t help but think about the community behind them supporting them through a difficult transition. Who knows how differently things could have been without their support and that motivates me every day while completing my service year.

I am the college and career advisor at Dansville and Potterville High Schools. My service year looks different than I imagined with virtual events, meetings, and tons of Zoom boxes, but extremely rewarding! I am grateful for the opportunity to give back to a community that has given my family so much! I enter each day of my service with generosity, as my Grandfather and community have.  

When I stepped into an AmeriCorps VISTA role with MCAN (Michigan College Access Network), I had no idea what to expect. I graduated from Calvin University in 2019 with a degree in secondary education focused on history and social studies and here I was taking on a role in data and technology. Until I began this role, most of my experience with data came from a childhood full of playing multiple sports. Now I was jumping into a role where the cornerstone of my work revolved around collecting and using data to help my host site better understand what was and is happening in the field of college access. It was a pretty significant change.
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Very quickly upon beginning to serve at MCAN, I was introduced to the impact map, which the previous VISTA had rebuilt and launched during her term of service. For those unfamiliar with the impact map, I would highly recommend checking it out. The map pulls in education data from multiple partners across the state in areas such as college completion, persistence, FAFSA completion, and many other metrics and then the impact map organizes the data by areas such as the county, region, and legislative district (among many other uses). My role has been the upkeep of the map, which I quickly learned is not an easy task.

But it is an important one. Keeping the impact map updated with the most recent data allows others, such as school counselors, administrators, and state legislators, to see an accurate measure of where their students are at and areas they can improve. By building and sustaining data systems such as the impact map for others to see, I know that I am contributing towards MCAN and Governor Whitmer’s goal of Sixty by 30 (sixty percent attainment by 2030), and COVID-19 has only made this more of an urgent goal.  In doing this, I know I am helping to build a future that is data-driven, but also better for those who otherwise would not have gone on to college.

Hello! My name is Roxanne Osga and I am serving with Mackinac Economic Alliance (MEA) in St. Ignace, MI (the city you enter when you cross the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula). I have been working with many Michigan business groups, local and regional such as Michigan Works, Small Business Development Center of Michigan, Michigan’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to name a few. A big goal for MEA is to find creative ways to help add employment to the area off-season (so not during the big tourist season).  
 
Mackinac County is in a unique situation in which they are at 2% unemployment (below the state average) in the summer and 20 - 40% unemployment (well above the state average) in the off-season winter time. One idea is creating a wintertime business that creates locally handmade items that could be sold in the boutique and tourist shops in the summer. This would utilize displaced workers and raise their income potential.  
 
I am also working with the local schools to pivot the previously held Trade School Expo to a virtual event that would be open to the area public as well. This event was held face to face in 2018 and 2019, but with current COVID-19 restrictions, it makes sense to change the format. Facilitating an online event will be a new and exciting experience for me and I’m looking forward to the challenge learning how it all works.  
 
I have also recently assisted in scoring the Michigan Small Business Survival Grants for Mackinac County. We had $85,500 to award in our county and were given points to allocate based on our local priorities. Reading their stories in their applications gave me great insight into the impact of COVID-19 on our local businesses. 
 
I have also been asked to lead a grant writing team that consists of stakeholders in the area and we are currently creating a strategy to tackle multiple projects planned for Mackinac County. Our first project will be working on the Iron Belle Corridor trail. This trail travels through St. Ignace and connects with the state wide Iron Belle trail system. This trail will help us connect to the local State Park, allowing tourists and families a pathway off the busy roads, and will hopefully increase the foot traffic to local businesses.  
 
It is very exciting to work on several different facets; it’s never a dull day in Mackinac County.  ​

​My dog Rudy lived for more than 15 years… 15 years is a long time no matter how it’s measured.  Every morning when I let him out, he’d run across the grass towards the back of the garage – tail wagging, nose to the ground — as if it was the first time he’d ever been outside and there was some exciting, new discovery just waiting to be experienced.
 
Every morning… for 15-plus years… a lesson indeed.
 
This is how we should feel as we serve our communities – now as VISTAs and in the future as part of the nonprofit sector.
 
Every day brings amazing opportunities to learn… to grow… to discover.  In turn, we bring passion… ideas… impact – collectively improving the quality of life in our community.
 
Simplistic?  Exaggeration?  Naivety?  Hardly…
 
Think for a moment of the great transforming forces for change in our national life – civil rights, the women’s vote, and environmentalism are historically great examples – and ask where they came from.  In every instance their origins are to be found not in the constructs of government, but rather in the organized impulse of free groups of ordinary citizens that first came together in faith-based, civic and other local charitable organizations.
 
More than any other group, it’s the local charity which can truly provide accountability, responsiveness, flexibility, and adaptation to local circumstances – and constant innovation.  It’s the local charity which can insist on individual results rather than uniform requirements.  And it’s the local charity which can convene, mobilize, and link the interests and resources of businesses, schools, churches, and families in a single neighborhood.
 
These local charities are the ones we – as VISTAs – serve.
 
As we approach the mid-year of that service, remember – always strive to be like my Rudy.
 
Always…
 
If we do, we’ll contribute in ways we can’t imagine… and we’ll have the time of our lives!
 
A lesson indeed.

As a first-year MNA AmeriCorps VISTA with Detroit College Access Network (DCAN), I’ve had to explore things out of my comfort zone and develop skills I never thought I’d gain.

For one, I’ve had to learn the value of numbers and data. As a former English and Spanish undergrad student, this was a tough sell for me! 

In my role with DCAN, a large portion of my work revolves around data collection and calculating growth and change through numbers. For the last few months I have captured weekly updates in FAFSA completion for each school in the city of Detroit. Another major project of mine has been data collection for various metrics for all Detroit schools. Most agencies that produce state or federal data designate by district, not city -- and there are multiple districts within Detroit -- so DCAN has to collect their own aggregate data for the city (combined totals of all schools in Detroit). My citywide data sets cover six academic years and pull information on more than 30 different variables (like number of graduating seniors, percentage of students enrolled in two-year and four-year colleges, etc.) for all of the 50+ schools in Detroit. In short, that’s a lot of numbers!

All of the numbers that I pull and calculate helps inform DCAN’s work. The data tells us where there are deficits and where we can make improvements. 

I’m fortunate to have a wonderful supervisor who walked me through how to find data and where to record it. We have great systems in place to automatically calculate percentages and numbers needed to reach goals, and the visualization of our FAFSA spreadsheet makes it easy to understand. The DCAN team has supported me in my data collection work by providing one-on-one and group training about the importance of data and how best to work in programs like Excel and Google Sheets. I never thought I’d say that I know how to create formulas to calculate aggregate data. Five months ago I wouldn’t have even known what that meant! It’s been a wonderful surprise to learn that I enjoy working with numbers. 

Other projects I’ve worked on at DCAN involve social media content creation and implementing month-long campaigns, like our Scholarship of the Day in November. I also work on developing new resources to share with our community, like college readiness checklists, college success guides, and reading lists. 

It’s been a wonderful few months with DCAN, learning and growing both professionally and personally, and I look forward to new projects and opportunities in the remainder of my service year. 

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Greetings! My name is Mitch Port, a first-year AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Washtenaw Literacy in Ypsilanti, MI. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a degree in Psychology and started working as a recruiter soon after graduation. I was looking to make an impact in the community around me. While I enjoyed recruiting, I had a desire to gain a better understanding of nonprofits and wanted to be closer to my family, which is what led me to start as a VISTA with Washtenaw Literacy. 

Moving to Michigan at the same time that I started my service year has given me a unique perspective of my new community. As I began to learn more about illiteracy through my work, I could only imagine how someone with low-literacy skills would navigate a situation similar to mine. Moving is stressful for everyone, but I imagine that everything from navigating a new city to changing your address to finding employment would be more difficult and more stressful for individuals with low-literacy skills. After completing the moving-related tasks, it further instilled the importance of the work that Washtenaw Literacy is doing. 

Even though I have been serving with Washtenaw Literacy in a virtual capacity, that has not stopped me from hitting the ground running. Thus far, I have been working on producing a podcast releasing in the coming weeks, which will focus on barriers to learning. For the first season of the podcast, I've been providing feedback on episodes, writing content for breaks in the episodes, and preparing to upload the season onto a hosting platform. For season two of the podcast, I look forward to taking a more hands-on role by conducting interviews and editing episodes myself. Additionally, I've been planning and executing social media content to increase Washtenaw Literacy’s reach. In December, we completed our Twelve Days of Virtual Learning posts. These highlighted our virtual literacy programming and challenges that adult literacy learners have faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When Washtenaw Literacy went virtual in March of 2020, they began implementing Slack, a digital workspace platform, for tutors to use as a resource and interact with staff and fellow tutors. I took over leading the evaluation of the Tutor Slack after the start of my VISTA service. This has involved running focus groups and distributing surveys; feedback that we collect will help us make changes to the Slack workspace so it is a better tool in the future.  

While I am no longer a recruiter, it is nice having some responsibilities that relate to volunteer recruitment. In addition to social media, I am also the point of contact for volunteers after completing volunteer orientation and registering existing tutors for Virtual Tutor Training. 

I am so grateful for the learning and growth experiences that I have had over the last few months and look forward to what the next few have to offer. 

Hi everybody!
 
My name is Lindsay Regalado. I am a first-year AmeriCorps VISTA serving with Detroit College Access Network (DCAN). I just graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelors in Communication and a concentration in Organizational Communication. After I graduated, I started a lovely job search. I knew I wanted to work for a nonprofit, but I wasn’t sure what exactly it was that I wanted to do or where I wanted to be. Then, I came across the opportunity to serve as a VISTA with DCAN and am beyond grateful and happy that I did!
 
I am learning new skills, understanding more about the nonprofit world, and meeting new people. The projects I have been working on have been fun while challenging at times. The challenging part stems from COVID-19. A lot of kids are not going to school right now, or are not putting in the efforts they normally do because school is virtual. This makes a few of my projects more challenging because I have to figure out how to engage and reach kids in new, fun ways.
 
My fellow VISTA co-worker, Olivia Tubaro, and I have been working hard on DCAN’s social media. It has been very rewarding to see our presence and following grow! As well as our quality of content and posts. Coming up with new posts each week is harder than it seems, so it’s great to see our hard work paying off!
 
These past few months at DCAN have been a great experience. I can’t wait to see what the next few will bring!