Hi everyone, Jackie Hubbard here! I’m serving at Kent ISD in Grand Rapids. Kent ISD is an intermediate school district, which assists local school districts in providing programs and services. According to a quick Google search, there are 57 ISDs in Michigan. I spend most of my time in Project NorthStar, which is an organization housed within the ISD that connects youths to resources and services they need to overcome life barriers.

All of this “services and resources” talk sounds very broad - that’s because it is. We basically direct 16- to 24-year-olds to the right people/organizations that will help them overcome their life barriers, whether that’s related to unemployment, homelessness, pregnancy, or anything else that may be keeping them from flourishing.

As a VISTA, it’s my responsibility to develop our “Get Real!” financial literacy programming. Get Real! is a budgeting activity we take to high schools and organizations where students budget various life costs based on the average income of a career they’re most interested in pursuing. This is meant to be an activity that helps teens get a sense of what real-life expenses are. Since August, we’ve held an event at four high schools and have three more events planned for the spring. It’s been fun and fascinating for me personally to watch students move through the booths and have “aha” moments - some of which become evident when I hear loud groans after they go bankrupt, or see wide eyes after they discover how much childcare costs. Based on our post surveys, the vast majority of students have reported that, after participating in Get Real!, they had a much better understanding of budgeting, financial aid, and the financial effects of marriage and children.
 
In addition to developing Get Real!, I have been grant writing, reviving Project NorthStar’s social media, writing youth success stories, creating volunteer partnerships with other businesses and organizations, and helping adult education create a monthly newsletter. Since I have a background in teaching and writing, I’ve really enjoyed these nontraditional education & writing experiences at Kent ISD. I love that every day looks a little different, and I get to meet new people constantly. 
 
I’ve learned this year that working in the nonprofit sector requires you to sit in messes. Our work is often messy because we serve people in messy situations. Although these messes can sometimes be frustrating, draining or tedious, they have also restored my hope in us - much more than any stability has. Our messes can bring out the best and worst in us, but I’m surrounded by people at the ISD who are dedicated to putting their best foot forward in the face of adversity so that youth can experience tangible hope.
 
Being an AmeriCorps VISTA has not been easy, but I’ve been made better in these shared messes as they’ve taught me that hope is always within reach.

Hi all, this is Megan Rochlitz! I’m a first-year VISTA serving with the Mackinac Economic Alliance in Saint Ignace, Michigan. A lot of folks from downstate ask where in the Upper Peninsula Saint Ignace is- it is quite literally the first town off of the Mackinac Bridge. It’s the county seat of Mackinac County, where my host site aims “to foster economic growth through a public and private partnership dedicated to providing innovative leadership, vision, education and promotion of economic development.” Right now, my service is centered on developing resources or events that will help the residents of the county improve their professional and economic opportunities.
 
My first service project was conducting surveys with working people who lived in Mackinac County. One objective of the surveys was to gain an understanding of the different obstacles to employment people experience. Based on the conversations I got to have, the biggest obstacle and frustration people have is the lack of year-round options in the area. Well, that’s the simple way to put it anyway. You have issues like lack of affordable housing, high childcare costs, a relatively homogeneous economy, and more all in the mix. In Mackinac County, you can really get an idea of how economic problems intersect and get knotted together. Being up here reminds of the small town my dad grew up in and the problems that area’s been dealing with for years. My role as a VISTA with MEA is to cultivate paths out of the mess while identifying how to clean it up. There are a few projects I’m working on that focus on the former and a couple of pipe-dreams that may address aspects of the latter given time and more brainstorming.
 
The previous MEA VISTA, Trish Sanders, put together a vocational trades information fair that I helped out with back in November. It was an opportunity for high school students in the county to meet with different representatives and ask questions about different career paths they could take. I’m looking into planning a spring fair with an afternoon or evening session geared towards adults in the community.  Timing would be key with an event like this given the area’s reliance on spring and summer tourism. The ideal outcome for the student session would be to get students interested in summer job shadowing, applying for a trades job, or set up for a training program. For the adults, they would be exposed to different career paths to consider while they work during the season. I’d like to get people thinking about what they could do in the off-season that would set them up for consistent and better-paying employment.
 
As VISTAs we’re in a position to put projects into motion that will keep growing after we leave service. We continue the work our predecessors did while putting our own spin on it. I’m looking forward to developing more projects of my own going into the second half of this service year.

​Hello everyone! My name is June Urdy and I am a second-year AmeriCorps VISTA serving the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan (GSSEM). The mission of Girl Scouts: “Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place”. My service assignment includes: developing programming for 6th-8th grade girls and their parents promoting college readiness, recruiting community volunteers, contributing to/facilitating badge activities focused on college readiness, and creating/promoting community service opportunities for girls. 
 
I have been working on programming, using community partners whenever possible. In January, we repeated the “Sewing for Service” workshop. A professional sewing instructor, myself, and several troop leaders helped the girls learn basic machine sewing. The girls made a pillowcase for themselves, to practice and get comfortable with the sewing machine. This was the first time most of them had ever used a sewing machine. Then they completed an additional pillowcase to donate to a child at the homeless shelter or the Whaley Children’s Center. The girls were excited to complete two pillowcases in such a short time period; many expressed a desire to do more sewing in the future. This activity could be the beginning of a future career in clothing construction or design.
 
In February, the girls have the option to attend badge workshops focused on public speaking, created with the help of some very talented volunteers from Flint Community Players. Developing public speaking skills boosts confidence and is important in many future careers. The two badge workshops, Troupe Performer and Public Speaker, will be hosted at the Flint Community Players workshop. The Troup Performer badge workshop, for 9th & 10th grade girls, includes the preparation and practice to perform a play as a staged reading (no memorizing requited).  The Public Speaking badge workshop, for 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls, includes practicing vocalization games, charades and a chance to read a short speech on stage. The girls will get to choose the speech and practice before the presentation. Both badge workshops will include a tour of the facility, meeting with people who work in various capacities in the facility and an opportunity to speak /perform onstage in the “black box” theater. At the end of the workshop, the girls will complete the requirements to earn the badge. These activities could be the beginning of a variety of future careers in theater or public speaking.
 
Planning is in process for a cooperative learning experience for the girls and their parents at a local credit union. The financial literacy activities will happen in celebration of Money Smart Week. (April 4th to 11th, 2020). Also in April, I will be helping at one of the activity stations at a local nature center, for Global Youth Service Day. The girls will have the opportunity to spend the day doing a variety of service projects such as: making laundry soap, planting seeds for the nature center garden, sewing pillowcases to donate and making greeting cards for senior citizens.  
 
As spring approaches, I look forward to making sure the “seeds” I have planted (partnerships, programs, and new activities) have everything needed to thrive and grow into the future. Together we are doing great things. 

Hello everyone, this is Mitchell Emery, serving at the Flint & Genesee Literacy Network in downtown Flint. Whenever anyone hears the word Flint, the first thing they always think of is the Water Crisis. It’s true, the situation was horrible and the fallout continues to leave a profound impact on the community. However, Flint’s challenges run much deeper than just the water, particularly with regard to literacy.  In 2019, only 18% of students in Flint were considered to be proficient in English Language Arts and this problem continues well into adulthood. It stifles any upward mobility and perpetuates poverty. This is why my host site, the Flint & Genesee Literacy Network was founded in 2014.
               
The network serves as the backbone to a community-wide collective impact literacy campaign. My host site does not provide direct programming, but rather builds capacity in partners who improve the lives of individuals, children, and families of Flint. To do this, we facilitate professional learning communities where partners have the opportunity to learn from one another and create shared goals, strategies and common measures in order to make a real impact in the community. We also administer large convenings of education providers in Flint, to foster collaboration and provide training. Finally, we engage in individual technical assistance by helping partnering organizations build strategic plans and execute them. For instance, we are working with the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, which is relocating residents from a poor housing project to a mixed-income community and connecting them to education and workforce opportunities. We have formed advisory groups, tracked data, and are now working to carry out a plan that could move hundreds out of poverty.
 
The actual work I do at the Literacy Network can vary greatly, but to one degree or another, I support all of our activities.  Specifically, I have several areas that I regularly focus on. One is to monitor the Network’s performance accountability by tracking data, following the progress of our work plan, and receiving constant feedback and evaluations from partners. I gather information to see what the impact of our efforts is on the community so that utilizing results-based accountability we can reevaluate and improve our strategies. I also provide direct support to our partners, such as the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, by tracking the information of their target residents, which ensures that their needs can be fully met. I regularly participate in partner meetings, helping with whatever needs to be done.  Additionally, I have worked to build out our communication systems by creating ways for our partners to share success stories, administering the Network’s website and improving our online presence.
 
I grew up in the area right outside of Flint and following my graduation from college, I knew I wanted to serve in the city. What I didn’t expect is where my service would take me. My service at the Network is a unique opportunity to build capacity in an organization dedicated to capacity building. On the one hand, there is less contact with the service population than most VISTAs have, but at the same time, it gives me a community-wide picture of what is really going on in Flint. I know what organizations are doing and am witnessing the gradual progress that the city is making. It allows me to see that I am not just one VISTA serving on a project that will help some people in need, but rather that I am a broader movement that is working to eliminate poverty.
 
My work can be a scattered process, but I have learned a lot. I have seen the impact our efforts have had on the community and how people’s lives are improving. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve and I am excited to see what the future holds.

​Hello, everyone! My name is Gabrielle VanHoesen, and I am a first-year AmeriCorps VISTA serving at SEMCA Michigan Works! in Taylor, Michigan. At SEMCA, I serve in the Youth Programs department where I get to work on workforce development programs and college access and success initiatives for youth in our designated service area.
 
So far during my term, I have contributed to events that I think will have an enduring positive impact on the young people who have been in attendance.  I was part of a committee that sent over three thousand youth to manufacturing sites across Southeast Michigan to learn about careers in manufacturing and how to acquire the necessary skills at postsecondary institutions to get those jobs. I also helped plan Wayne County’s Regional College and Career Fair, which provided nearly three hundred students the opportunity to speak one-on-one with college, scholarship, and career representatives. Finally, I was able to provide support to a healthcare panel as they spoke to local high school students about their diverse careers and the varied obstacles they overcame to accomplish their goals. These highlighted events as well as other activities that I have had the pleasure to contribute to during my service term have been very fulfilling for me both professionally and personally because this work exposes young people to opportunities that are engaging and informative, and I know exposure will help them choose the best path to follow to build a productive, fulfilling life.
 
I now look forward to a FAFSA Fiesta event that I am planning, an event aimed to provide more youth college access through removing economic barriers. This event will take place at the end of this month on January 30th at a local high school. I am partnering with a college adviser placed there to incentivize seniors to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on time. Seniors will receive food and have an opportunity to win prizes after they submit their FAFSA applications. Although the event is designed for students to complete a serious task, it is the latter portion that I look forward to the most – the fun part. I just find it amazing that this “little” three-hour event may well be a major turning point in a student’s life. This is why I love this work!

Hi- Natalie Boag here, MNA VISTA serving at Alternatives For Girls located in Southwest Detroit.

As 2020 starts off to such devastating and overwhelming news I hope everyone is doing OK and managing to remain positive.

“Think globally, act locally” has been one of my favorite quotes to drive my year service. While this quote usually refers to environmental activism, small acts you do in and around your community slowly lead to bigger change, I think it can also be applied to our VISTA year. We are taking action to help our own communities, which will slowly lead to national and even global change. That is what I think of when the news gets tough.

Alternatives For Girls' mission statement is to “help homeless and high-risk girls and young women avoid violence, teen pregnancy and exploitation, and help them to explore and access the support, recourses and opportunities necessary to be safe, to grow strong and to make positive choices in their lives”. AFG is not only a shelter for women, but it also has outreach and prevention services. I am providing capacity building services to the Asset Building Program, a college preparedness program for young women in middle and high school. The program has four main components: youth workshops, parent engagement workshops, encouraging financial literacy through 529 saving accounts and mentoring. AFG matches contributions made to 529 savings accounts up to $500. The Asset Building Program is currently merging with another program in prevention, the After School Program, which would take us from 36 participants to over 90 participants. The idea behind this being every middle and high school participant in prevention programs at AFG should be preparing for post-secondary success. This transition is very exciting but also a bit daunting!

So far in my service year, things have gone well. The program has undergone many changes and transitions over the course of the last few months, and I am proud to have contributed to a small part of the changes! My main responsibly is managing the volunteers who serve as mentors to the participants. While I have other small roles: planning college tours, managing the report card tracking system and building partnerships, mentoring is definitely a priority. I provide training for the mentors every other month, and a mentor-mentee event on the month the training does not occur. I manage the mentors by responding to all inquiries, and completing a match support phone call, or reviewing the mentor log they submit.

When I started, there were about 10 active mentors. This month we will be onboarding 22 (!) new volunteers. It is challenging to recruit and engage mentor candidates due to a very lengthy application process. The process can take several months, which causes many volunteers to lose interest. Mentoring is also a very uniquely demanding experience, emotionally, so I imagine it is hard for many women to make the commitment. It is a great success that we will be able to match so many participants with mentors in the upcoming weeks. It is currently the calm before the storm, many mentor candidates are finishing those last few steps of the application process, and then we will begin to interview each one and try to match them with the right participant. After that, a match meeting occurs with myself, the participant, their parent, and the mentor. It is very challenging to schedule this meeting with 1 group, so I imagine for 22 it will extremely difficult. I have to get them done fast, as I have had mentors drop the program if it does not occur quickly.
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This year, I have been able to participate in many trainings, and professional development sessions on college access and success. It is amazing to see how many organizations around Detroit and the state are working to increase not only the number of students from Detroit attending college but also making sure they have the tools to succeed while in college.

So that is my life here at AFG! 

Hi everyone! This is Dimitar Jakimovski, and I'm serving at Downtown Boxing Gym in Detroit.

I remember when I first learned about the Downtown Boxing Gym, during my phone interview with two AmeriCorps VISTA leaders. I was expressing what I was hoping to accomplish during my service year. I wanted real, hands-on experience with the community of East Detroit, my home community, and more than anything, I wanted my service year to change me fundamentally as a person. I expressed this to Maggie, who told me about the DBG. “Every day will be different,” she told me. And oh boy, was she right. I was introduced to an incredible after school youth program, dedicated to helping the lives of kids on the east side, allowing them to have a space to receive academic tutoring and work on their physical fitness through the sport of boxing.
 
There’s no greater gift than walking into work and being presented a new problem which has popped up concerning one of the kids we serve, and then getting to work to help solve it. The gym’s motto, “We Train Kids for Life,” guides how we go about tackling issues that come up. We are of the opinion that we are there to help provide a structure for the pupil to fix their own problem. We give ideas, provide opportunities, or empathize with our kids, spurring in them a desire to tackle their own issues knowing that we’re right there behind them in case they ever need anything.
 
This role is further demonstrated in my own position at the gym. I am a college and career readiness coach, meaning it’s part of my job to develop and implement a curriculum to be taught in the classroom that gives our kids, most of whom don’t know much about college or careers, an idea of what they want to do in life. It’s not our job to tell our kids what to do, but to present them with the knowledge and options to be able to make that decision for themselves.
 
We preach self-advocacy, that is, the ability to face the world with the keen ability to dictate what you want your future to look like. We pull back the curtains, giving a glimpse of what life after high school might look like. Earlier in my service year, I took our kids on our first college tour of the year to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, my alma mater. It was strange to be arriving on a bus with kids from the east side to a place that I had lived a much different life, and showing them around campus was a treat. I pointed everywhere that I had gone, things I had done. We went to the dining hall where a younger student with whom I was having lunch was dipping french fries into chocolate ice cream, exclaiming “I love college!” We finished the campus tour on the field of the Big House, a place well known to me, as I was in the Michigan Marching Band all four years of University. In the MMB, we have a tradition of doing a 100-yard dash in the stadium, endzone to endzone. One of the coolest experiences of my life was sharing that tradition with my students, and running endzone to endzone with them.
 
And I think that’s the most incredible part of AmeriCorps service for me. It truly is a bridge between my past and my future. I’m a kid from the east side, just like so many of my pupils- sometimes, I have to remind myself that I’m the adult in the room. I get to have conversations with kids where we can share our experiences and talk about what the future looks like for us. We get to work together, celebrate our past, what we’ve seen, and prepare for the future, one-speed bag at a time.

​Hello all, I am Pam Ill and I am doing my AmeriCorps VISTA service in a rural high school (Vassar) in the Thumb of Michigan. I am helping to design a system for 1st Generation and low-income students to be successful in their next steps (college, getting licenses, apprenticeships, skilled jobs and/or military).  Full disclosure, I have lived in the town where I am doing my service for more than twenty years!  One of my favorite movies in the whole world is Forrest Gump because in a very earthy way it talks about the realities of life and how to deal with them in a most positive manner.  My service year so far makes me think of the most famous line from that movie:  “Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you are going to get”.   For me, my year of service is my box of chocolates.  Because I have lived here most of my married life, I never faced the reality of the poverty and inconsistent family life that is part of my town’s culture.  I now see it head-on as I help to pack grocery bags for weekends and Christmas presents for some of our most needy students.  I help take care of the clothes closet that makes sure all students have warm clothes, prom dresses and current fashions that allow them to fit in. 
 
I also thought that I would be a solo worker trying to make a difference on my own and that too is exactly the opposite of what my service is like. I am serving as part of a large team that includes a Community Liaison to our School Improvement Grant, an MCAN adviser helping with the next step plans, and a MI Works teacher/adviser helping with technical and internship opportunities.  The first few weeks were tough for all of us as we jockeyed for our spots and tried to figure out how our piece of the puzzle “fit”.  We are now very comfortable as a team and I clearly see my role is to connect with students recently in college and the community and hook them to our juniors and seniors so everyone gets support, but especially those just beginning their next steps.  The MCAN Adviser and MI Workers adviser are helping students to find their dreams; I am working to help students implement them. 
 
One of the largest joys of my service was an ensemble evening we put together for students and parents called the Next Step Palooza.  We had food, a craft project, 5 military and college advisers and a financial aid officer all together at the school.  We were told parents and students would not come.  We had the largest gathering of juniors and seniors and their families for a college-style event in many years, perhaps ever.  We can savor our service victories this year because life is peaks and valleys.  While you never know what kind of chocolate you are going to have on a given day, you know some of them will be wonderful!  I truly believe I am getting more from my service at Vassar than I am giving.

Hello all, this is Kay Davis, and I'm serving with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Detroit. 

​​I had already applied for a job with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Detroit (BBBSMD) before I thought about becoming an AmeriCorps VISTA. So, I am excited to serve with a well known and respected mentoring organization. I’d been looking to make yet another career change. This time I was looking outside corporate America for something that offered intrinsic value.

Many of us talk about giving back and paying it forward. What should our legacy be? Environmental? Humanitarian? Philanthropic? What and how do each of us preserve for the generations that follow? I enjoy helping people. I don’t have money to give and time is limited, but kindness can be shared incrementally and often.
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I don’t work directly with the LITTLEs. My position is to create avenues to resources that support families. I am getting to know communities throughout the tri-county area. I enjoy learning about the missions of other agencies and how they see their roles. We are a community made up of parents/guardians, BIGs, and agencies developing partnerships to help youth.

Being a VISTA has allowed me to work with like-minded people. Human-Centered Design has given me a new tool. Ask people what they need and allow them to be a part of the creative process, instead of assuming you have all the answers.

Hello, my name is Christopher Castle. I am a first-year VISTA member with Michigan Non-Profit Association serving with the Capital Area College Access Network (CapCAN) in Lansing, MI. I am serving at Charlotte High School as a college and career adviser. CapCAN’s mission is, “making completion of post-secondary education an achievable reality for all residents of the capital area… and to increase college and career readiness, participation, and completion” and I love being part of making this vision a reality.
 
I honestly cannot believe it is already November! Time has flown by since I started in August. Charlotte is a first-year partnership with CapCAN. My job includes helping forge this new partnership and to listen to the needs of the school and community.  I have met with students, faculty, and community partners, as well as introduced students to local colleges including, but not limited to: Lansing Community College, Olivet College, Kettering University, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan,
 
It is always amazing to hear what Michigan has to offer our students and all of the different partnerships. I am not a native Michigander, and so I have been loving learning more about the opportunities for students and finding good placements for students after high school. Recently a group of students and I toured OIivet College, and I was thankful for the college opening their doors and hosting the students and showing all they had to offer.  We had twenty-seven students attend the trip! (Pictures below)
 
October was college admissions month and Charlotte fully embraced it! We created a lot of cool events for our students including a FAFSA week, college recruiter visits, and a trip to a college! This was just the start of college-focused events; I am planning new and fun events every week to help the students. I just finished a FAFSA night where I had the financial aid officer from Lansing Community College came to help the parents and students complete FAFSA. I am loving my position here, and I can’t wait for what the next year holds for me in this position.