Allyson Hubbell - Leaving a Legacy in Her Home Town!

​Hello everybody! My name is Allyson Hubbell and I am serving at Carson City-Crystal Schools in Carson City, MI and I am also partnered with the Montcalm Teen Center. This year has been such a whirlwind and full of so many adventures! To say that it has been an eye opening experience is an understatement. It has been such an honor to serve my hometown this year and work with so many incredible students.
 
At my host site, I work with a group of students on the Leadership Team. This year, a few of my Leadership Team students had the opportunity to attend the National Youth Leadership Conference in Washington DC and I am so excited that they were able to do so. The four students that attended spent a week there meeting with other students, going to different panels and learning so many valuable lessons and information that they brought back and helped implement into our own Leadership program. In addition to students attending this conference, the Leadership team also runs the recycling program and works on various other service projects throughout the year. One of those projects was the “Leaving Your Legacy” project. The students came up with the idea to let each senior paint a brick in one of the school building hallways to promote school spirit and also say thank you to the graduating class. The team worked to get the project approved as well as working out various details to push the project forward. The last two weeks before the senior’s last day, they were able to paint a brick in the science wing hallway. Some painted an inspiring message, others painted pictures that represented their “legacy” at Carson City-Crystal High School or even something that represents their future. It was an exciting project for everyone involved, especially the younger students that are now looking forward to painting their own brick before they graduate from high school.
 
We also just recently held our 2nd annual Relay for Life. We were able to have students Pre-K through 12th grade participate for a short while during school hours before the opening ceremony and had many people from the community join in on the fun! More excitingly, we reached our fundraising goal for the event and brought in a little more than $15,000!  It was an incredible event and such a fun night for all those that participated!
 
Looking back at this year, it is has been such an honor to get to know and work with all of these awesome students. I am so proud of all of their hard work this year and it was so awesome to see them grow as the year progressed. We accomplished so much in the span of a school year and it was heartwarming to watch students get excited to participate in service projects and give back to our community. I will be sad to see my year of service as a VISTA come to an end, but I am so excited for the experiences that have shaped me for my next adventure!