Hello! My name is Ann Roboski and I am a second-year AmeriCorps VISTA serving with Capital Area College Access Network (CapCAN) in Lansing, Michigan in the Pathways to Employment Program. I am serving at the Wilson Talent Center 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… to increase college and career readiness, participation, and completion.”

Last year, I split my time between Dansville High School and the Wilson Talent Center, while this year I will be spending all of my time at the Wilson Talent Center! The Wilson Talent Center offers career and technical education courses for high school juniors and seniors in the Ingham Intermediate School District area.

The Wilson Talent Center is operating online and in-person to protect individuals and communities and to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It’s been about two weeks since I’ve begun serving in-person at the Wilson Talent Center. I have really enjoyed being back in the building and seeing people again. I am no longer greeted with smiles as I walk down the halls but, crinkling eyes above masks are always a welcomed sight!

Although this is my second year as a College and Career Adviser, the position looks quite a bit different. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had to change my outreach initiatives with students and the Wilson Talent Center community. I now heavily utilize Google Voice, Google Hangouts, Zoom, social media, and email to provide resources and to connect with students.
​
Over the past few weeks, I have been spending my time planning virtual events for the school year, building connections at the career center, assisting students with college applications, and answering other college and career-related questions. I am excited to take on another year at the Wilson Talent Center with a new perspective and a sense of confidence!

Good day dear VISTA friends. My name is Samuel Howard serving my 9th month as a first year MNA VISTA.  My service site is the Dominican Literacy Center located in East Detroit. My main goal was to continue to recruit volunteer tutors as well as creating more connections with associations across the city.  Much has changed since my last blog in March.

Our school closed its doors early March for the Stay-at-home order.  We have since reopened with limited in-person tutoring and pre-testing.  Almost all of our services and classes have moved to online remote learning.  We even held our first graduation via Zoom in June which was nice. Switching to remote learning comes with its challenges.  Many low income Detroiters do not have easy access to the internet or the necessary computer skills/equipment to work effectively via remotely.  Our clientele are usually older and much less ‘tech-savvy’ than younger generations. 
​
Remote learning does have some advantages. This includes less time traveling to the school.  Some new tutors I have recently acquired even PREFER volunteering remotely.  That being said, many people are struggling to adjust to the circumstances. We have lost a very large percentage of our clientele (both students and tutors).  In fact, I have been tasked to find more students instead of tutors!

My service doesn’t really feel the same anymore.  All these changes have been disheartening for me as well.  I typically would rather avoid online anything and prefer to do things in person.  I really enjoyed traveling around Detroit; meeting new people and seeing new places.  All that seems to be on the wayside with no real idea if it will be coming back by the time I finish my service year.  However, I do feel that I’ve learned a lot from our current situation.  It’s important to keep going and innovating.

We are all doing our best to adapt in order to continue to serve the communities of Detroit.
​

Hello! My name is Christopher Castle, I am second-year VISTA serving as a VISTA leader with Michigan Nonprofit Association, or MNA. I have served with City Year Chicago and with Capital Area College Access Network or CapCAN. These two positions have brought me here to MNA. These positions were a huge part of my life, and they taught me important lessons that I’d like to share here.

City Year Chicago was a roller coaster of challenges and successes. City Year is a near-peer mentoring program that focused on improving the math and English skills of students learning in urban schools. The major lesson I learned working with City Year was perseverance. There were days where it felt hopeless and thankless. I am not going to lie, it was rough. Then I remember why I chose to serve with City Year. I remember my students that I helped. I see their smiling faces when they figured out a difficult problem. I remember all the times they came into our City Year room with smiles on their faces because they got to hang out with our team. I remember all the fun and great memories and it helps me focus on what is important.

CapCAN was a great experience and a shift from my time with City Year. CapCAN is all about college access- VISTAs are placed within high schools around the greater Lansing area where they advise high school seniors on how to obtain potential postsecondary opportunities. This included filing for FAFSA, college applications, and resumes. The year was going great, until COVID-19 attack the nation. CapCAN taught me the lesson of expecting the unexpected. Plans change, crazy things do happen, and we adapt. We switched to remote services, and we created a new platform for online advising for recent high school graduates and college students. Throughout my service year, it was filled with unexpected situations that arose. I had to plan for new staff members, new counselors, new events, and new partnerships. It was never a dull day at the school. CapCAN helped me prepare for the unexpected, and I had a great service year.
​
These lessons were the two that I took away during my service year. They taught me valuable lessons, and have molded me into the person I am today. I am beyond grateful for those opportunities, and I am hoping to learn more lessons in this position. Just as Winston Churchill says, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Hello! My name is Natalie Boag and I am a VISTA serving with Alternatives For Girls in Detroit, Michigan. Alternatives For Girls helps girls and young women access support, resources, and opportunities. Alternatives For Girls’s programs include a shelter for young women, prevention for ‘at-risk’ youth and outreach services for teens and young women engaged in high-risk activities.
 
It is now my 9th month of service, with three more months to go. Over the past month and a half, I have been working remotely due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Serving from home has its unique challenges, but I find myself extremely grateful to be sheltering at place in a safe location, with my family. I think often of those who do not have that luxury, and I am grateful for the work of Alternatives For Girls, who continue to provide essential services to the women and families who need it.
 
I serve in the prevention department, specifically with the Asset Building Program, a college preparedness program for girls in middle and high school. The Asset Building Program runs youth workshops on life skills and post-secondary readiness, like how to write a college essay or how to create a resume. The program also extensively engages the participant’s parents and caregivers through parent workshops. These workshops are intended to equip them to support their daughters, as many of the girls will be first-generation college students. Each participant in the program is set up with a 529 account, not only to encourage saving for college, but to encourage financial literacy through the acts of opening and maintaining a bank account. Lastly, each participant is matched with a mentor. I have been managing, training, and recruiting mentors for the last 9 months. This has not been an easy task, due to the high standards and lengthy application process. Mentoring is also a very unique volunteer opportunity- asking volunteers to form a relationship with a young person, and maintain that relationship for at least a year! For the last month I have had help, with the new addition of AFG’s mentor coordinator. I am proud to say we now have 23 mentors, and 22 mentor candidates who have applied, and are completing the application process.
 
During the ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’ order, I continue to work with the Mentor Coordinator to try to onboard our 22 mentor candidates. It is difficult, as we need TB tests to admit them as volunteers which is, unfortunately, something that cannot be completed at home. However, we have adapted our in-person mentor volunteer orientations to virtual zoom meetings, so we can get most mentor candidates ready to go when it is safe to do so.
 
This time has been beneficial for the things I have previously neglected on my VISTA Assignment Description (VAD). My time in the office was so focused on working with the mentors, that there were aspects of my VAD that I overlooked. I have been focusing on what I had not been able to accomplish before. Part of my VAD is researching local organizations working towards college access and success in Detroit. From my research, many of the organizations I am already familiar with, but some I am not, and I am excited to connect with these organizations in the coming weeks to see how our programs can collaborate.

Another component of my VAD is coming up with topics for the Asset Building Program youth workshops. I tried to find topics I thought would be relevant to both the girls and the goals of the program. Due to having more time on my hands, I have also started creating sample itineraries for each of the topics I came up with. This has been a really fun way to plan for future programming.
 
So far this year has brought many great opportunities, and I am excited to see what the next three months will bring!

​As we find ourselves in the midst of a pretty unprecedented time in recent history, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to live and serve in an uncertain world. Events are canceled, organizations are trying to provide services in a totally new way, and people are having to adapt in a constantly changing environment. For many folks that serve in AmeriCorps, the specific uncertainty in this situation is new, but the feeling of being uncertain is not. Almost by definition, giving a year of your life in service of your community is uncertain. The pay is low, the scope of work can be vast, and the community is often new to us. Even if we are serving in the community that we grew up in, often we take on a different role. We get to see another side to a community that is so well-known to us. Service is the foundation of AmeriCorps, but I would argue that it is a foundation built upon uncertainty.
 
A quick note before I get too far into this blog- this isn’t meant to make an equivalency between the uncertainties that I had as a VISTA member to the uncertainty that millions of people across the world are facing. This isn’t the same situation as someone who has lost a job, or a loved one, to this crisis. It’s not the same feeling as someone that is in an unsafe quarantine situation, or that struggles to provide for their children that are out of school. I recognize that this entire blog is predicated upon the fact that I don’t have to withstand that uncertainty, and I understand that the opportunity to choose uncertainty is something that not everyone has. But if you do happen to have the ability to choose uncertainty, my advice is to take that choice.
 
When I served in Alcona County last year, I was anything but certain that it was the right move. I was actually pretty convinced that it was not. I had just quit my job as an engineer and moved to a 400 person village in Northeastern Michigan. There was so little cell service in the area that I got lost twice just trying to make it back to I-75 (that’s also partially due to my intense inability to navigate without Google Maps). I started my service on the first day of school at Alcona High School, and as I sat in the principal’s office waiting to meet my new supervisor, I was pretty sure that I had made one of the dumbest decisions in my very short professional career. Spoiler alert- I was wrong. The year I spent in Alcona taught me more than I could have ever anticipated. I saw the struggles of a rural district that was trying to do its best to support students and their families. I learned about educators and staff that would go home at night thinking of ways to bridge the gap between the resources students needed and the funding they received. I saw how much a community relied on their school. I also learned more about Beyblades, Minecraft, teenager slang (apparently I’m old), and farming than I ever thought was possible. I navigated public assistance systems, picked up a series of second jobs, and understood the stress of having a $250 electric bill in the middle of winter. But I also learned the extent of my ability to bend instead of breaking. I learned how much I loved working with teenagers and hearing about their lives. And I learned that maybe making a major career move wasn’t the worst choice after all.
 
Starting this year as VISTA Leader, I was pretty certain that I’d like the work. There was a lot to learn, there were new people to work with, and I genuinely liked going to work every day. When my supervisor told me that she was leaving of the organization, I was elated for her, but also quickly back in familiar territory- uncertainty. I’ve spent the last six to eight months being uncertain. Not in my new supervisor, or in the support of my organization, or even in the VISTA members that I was tasked with supporting (seriously, they’re all amazing human beings that I’m lucky to serve with). I was uncertain in myself.
 
I wasn’t sure that I would be able to step up and fill a part of the incredibly big shoes that Maggie left. To be honest, I’m still not sure that I can fill those shoes. But part of handling that uncertainty meant learning to rely on the people around me- my coworkers, my fellow VISTA members, and other VISTA Leaders- all of whom gave help and support willingly. It meant that I learned how much work I could actually juggle and that I got better at thinking on my feet. I’ve been handed responsibility I wasn’t sure that I was ready for, and I was given the space to grow so that I could handle it.
 
As we move into the recruitment season, I get the privilege of chatting with potential members of next year’s cohort to get a better understanding of their background and interests. Candidates for these positions are often starting their careers, and aren’t much different from me when I started to look at AmeriCorps. So many of these people are also uncertain, and that’s okay. Change, especially risky change, can be hard and scary. Being uncertain doesn’t mean that the choice is a bad one, and owning up to uncertainty doesn’t mean that you’ll fail. It just means that you’re human.
 
Uncertainty isn’t always fun. It’s pretty much never comfortable. But, in the right dose, it can also bring true clarity to a situation. Serving in Alcona, I realized how much I love working with teenagers. I realized how passionate I was about service, justice, and equity. As a VISTA Leader, I learned how to grow under pressure and how to ask for help. I got to meet and serve with some of the coolest, kindest people that I’ve ever met. I’m a better human because of AmeriCorps VISTA, and I’m so grateful for the opportunities that it’s given me, especially the ability to choose uncertainty. 

Hello, my name is Loreal Burnett. I am a first-year VISTA serving with Atlantic Impact in Detroit. Atlantic Impact is an education and travel based organization that provides a college readiness program as well as youth workforce development. With the Our World program, the organization combines SAT Prep, college tours, FAFSA assistance, and mentorship with a study abroad experience for high school juniors. In contrast, the Our Town program provides high school seniors with skilled trade exposure through a series of hands-on field trips along with career advising.
 
Trying to explain the many programs and services offered by Atlantic Impact could take more time than this blog post permits, so I'll focus on my role as Outreach Coordinator. I mainly serve with the Our Town program, reaching out to potential school partners as well as maintaining the relationship with existing partners. Early in my VISTA year, I helped establish relationships with 5 of the nine local high schools we are currently partnered with, serving over 150 youth. I also help organize our monthly skilled trade field trips with each school by being the contact person between the schools and Atlantic Impact. These field trips are my favorite part of serving because I get to see first-hand how important and impactful our program is for the students. Helping the student learn about alternate career paths that are not always advertised as a viable first option for recent graduates has been a rewarding experience in itself. Not to mention hilarious watching some of the students using the many tools for the first time.
 
I also developed a monthly meeting for students of the Our World program following the study abroad trip. Atlantic Impact previously focused solely on the junior year leading up to the study abroad trip in the summer. I thought it essential to develop a program to help support the seniors during the college application process to ensure post-secondary enrollment. We now have a monthly meeting for the students, which started last fall that provides them with additional SAT prep for seniors interested in retaking the test, connecting students with college admission representatives for the schools they are interested in attending, help to complete college and scholarship applications. Our goal is to make sure that all of the students who participated in the study abroad program not only get accepted to a post-secondary institution but that they also have all of the resources needed to attend.
 
So, far in my VISTA year, my main challenge had been getting new partners on-board. When I first started at Atlantic Impact in August, I reached out to 64 local high school counselors and principals to market our program, and of that number, I had ten schools respond, and only five signed on to participate. Yet, with the unprecedented impact of COVID-19, I, like all of us, am now facing a new challenge of adjusting to this new work environment and brainstorming ways to continue serving our communities and host sites.
 
While I am unsure as to what the remainder of my VISTA year will look like exactly, I am glad to have had the opportunity to serve with my host site and our students. I have high hopes for the completion of our programs and seeing our hard work come to fruition. 

Hey fellow VISTAs! I’m Jordan Crandell, and I'm spending my service year at the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN). MCAN is an intermediary organization that provides resources, tools and support to high schools with the goal of helping students attain a college degree. Most of the projects I’m working on this year is focused on high school support and I spend a lot of time working on outreach and engagement to bring schools into our wide array of programming.

I’m really grateful for the opportunity that MCAN has given me to attend conferences, lectures and meetings as needed and I’ve been able to learn about college access in multiple different forums. As someone who is also academic and enjoys seeking out new information, this has really been a great opportunity for me!

Thus far, the work I’m doing on MCAN’s Impact Map has been the most impactful – yes yes, I know – on me. The Impact Map is an online resource that provides Statewide qualitative data about MCAN grantees, higher education institutions and tracks counselors who have been MCAN trained and where AdviseMI Advisers are. On the other side is quantitative data that shows Michigan’s progress towards Governor Whitmer’s Sixty by 30 attainment goal. This includes FAFSA Completion, SAT data, enrollment and completion rates. The map gives a great foundation for people to see what is really going on in the state when it comes to college access.

To accurately map out these metrics and programs, I hand mapped each school to its ISD, school district and State Senate and House district. Does this mean I sat on the floor in my office in front of a giant poster of Michigan and hand drew the districts? I sure did. Does this mean that I now have a very unique skillset to know what county/ISD/district/region a specific school is located? It does! For reference, the framework for this is an Excel spreadsheet with 15 unique tabs, 10-12 columns per tab and some of the tabs have no less than 1000 rows of unique data. This has caused headaches and frustrations for sure, but more importantly, it’s brought a unique awareness of inequities here in Michigan.
​
It’s not hard to see that the location of these districts has played a large role in students not have equal opportunity to apply, attend or receive a degree from a college or university. It’s heartbreaking, it’s infuriating and it’s something that either ignorantly, people can’t see or blatantly, don’t want to see. It’s also what makes this work so important. My VISTA service has highlighted these issues for me and has allowed me to show these issues to others to bring awareness to these issues in our society and start having dialogues about the massive cultural shifts that need to happen so every student can reach their potential through postsecondary education. 

​Hello! My name is Makayla and I am serving with Washtenaw Literacy, a free adult literacy agency that provides literacy and English support through a network of trained tutors.  Within Washtenaw Literacy, I work in a few different capacities.  I coordinate two English as a Second Language (ESL) open tutoring groups in Ann Arbor and conduct ESL learner orientations.
 
My VAD this year consists of creating and testing standardized protocol for Washtenaw Literacy’s new initiative called Low Skilled Adult Count (LoSAC). This initiative was created to help us track, on an annual basis, where adults in Washtenaw County who are documented to read below the 8th grade level are participating in social service delivery points, such as workforce, county jail, food distribution, homeless shelters, and health clinics.  This data taken together will help organizations throughout the county better understand the needs of adults in the community.  One of my main goals this year is to expand our reach outside of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to out-county agencies with this initiative. In order to do this, I am currently partnering with organizations across the county to administer the TOSCRF (Test of Silent Contextualized Reading Fluency) assessment.  This assessment takes about 7 minutes to complete and is 100% anonymous.  The assessment is scored based on a point system and then converted into an average reading level.  All TOSCRF scores collected will be used in our overall community assessment data and used to help organizations assess whether their clients qualify for free tutoring services.  If adults do qualify for our services, I point them in the direction of attending Open Tutoring groups or getting a personal tutor. I have successfully partnered with the Robert J. Delonis center, a homeless shelter and food pantry in downtown Ann Arbor, to administer the TOSCRF.  This process involved coming around meal times as well as when the Warming Center opened in the evening.  After administering the TOSCRF, I scored the assessments and brought them back to clients the following week.  If they qualified for our services, I conducted an onsite orientation with them to be matched with a personal tutor.  
 
I hope to continue partnering with other community organizations throughout the county and create a standardized process by the end of my VISTA year.  During my time with Washtenaw Literacy so far, I have gained valuable professional experience in communicating in the workplace and gained knowledge about my personal working preferences.