Hello! My name is Ashley McCloud, and I am serving at the University of Michigan-Flint (UM-Flint) University Outreach Department, as a liaison between UM-Flint and the Community Education Initiative (CEI) lead by the Crim Fitness Foundation.

I am really excited to be starting my second year with MNA. I enjoyed last year and I know this year will be even better. This year I will be focusing on college access and success for Flint students. One of the ways that I am doing that is working to grow the work-study tutor program. In my last blog I spoke briefly about having the opportunity to place tutors within the Flint Community Schools. I’ll explain a little more about how I was able to work with UM-Flint’s Financial Aid department and the Community Education Initiative to successfully place tutors in the schools last year and how the program is growing this year. 

Every month I attend community partner meetings at each of the Flint Community schools and during each meeting they speak about needing tutors for reading because one of their goals is to increase the reading levels of 3rd graders. I thought it would be a great opportunity for UM-Flint students to earn volunteer hours as a tutor and get involved in the community.  I decided to post the opportunity to the UM-Flint Mgagement page which is a platform similar to Facebook where students can find out about events and opportunities on campus. Then I sent an email out to the entire campus and I received quite a few of responses for students interested in becoming a tutor. However, I soon realized that because the tutoring program wasn’t sponsored by the university I wasn’t supposed to send the email out to campus as a whole. My mistake ended up being a blessing because Mary from financial aid saw the email and informed me that if any of the interested students were eligible for work-study they could get paid to be a tutor. It turns out that the university is required to have 7% of work-study students off campus focusing on reading and math with K-12 students and this opportunity was a perfect fit to meet the requirement.

 From that moment on I worked with Mary to determine students that were eligible for work-study and get them hired. I had the pleasure of interviewing and hiring UM-Flint students along with developing a training to prepare students to begin tutoring. I have been able to hire and train seven work-study students and I am currently in process of hiring at least two more this semester. I have also recently learned of an opportunity for students who are not eligible for work-study to get paid through a grant at Neithercut Elementary school to tutor K-6th grade students. I’m excited about this opportunity because it will allow more UM-Flint students to get out in the community and make a difference. 
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Throughout the process of getting the tutor program started I realized that mistakes aren’t always as terrible as you might think, I mean we probably wouldn’t have potato chips, popsicles, x-rays or penicillin otherwise! So for those of you starting your first year as AmeriCorps members don’t be afraid to make mistakes it can turn out to be something great! 

​Hi everyone! It’s Ashley McCloud, I’m currently serving at the University of Michigan-Flint (UM-Flint) University Outreach Department. I thought I’d use this blog to talk about my teetering journey through AmeriCorps this past year.

When I originally found out about the chance to become an AmeriCorps I was excited about the opportunity because I thoroughly enjoy volunteer work and helping various communities. I remember reading over the position description and doing research about AmeriCorps and I thought this was a fascinating program. Then came the interview where I was overwhelmed with information about the position and the task that I would have to complete throughout my year of service. In that moment I thought there’s no way I could do this; and I didn’t feel I had the skills to successfully fill the position. So I decided not to take the position and leave it to someone who could probably do better than me. Having said that, before I decided to officially decline the offer for the position I was reminded that I was not given the spirit of fear, so I decided to take on the challenge. I mean I made it through undergrad without giving up so I figured I could take on one year of service.

 I do not regret my decision at all! I am so happy that I didn’t let the fear of failure deter me from such an amazing opportunity.  I’ve done things I never thought I would do including engaging 1,148 Flint K-12 students in programing, leveraging $1,984 in monetary and in-kind donations, recruiting nearly 300 volunteers, created an after-school program, hired/trained 6 work-students and more! I also met wonderful people from all over the state and even outside of the state and learned new things that I don’t think I would have been able to if it weren’t for AmeriCorps.
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I feel like these past 11 months has caused me to get out of my comfort zone in so many ways, it’s seriously amazing the things you can accomplish when you don’t let the fear of failure control you. I’ve been using my experience of getting out of my comfort zone in my everyday life, and it’s given some nice opportunities to do things I wouldn’t normally do.  I’ve also decided that I will be doing a second year and I hope that this next year is even more amazing than this year has been. 

​Hello! My name is Ashley McCloud, and I am serving at the University of Michigan-Flint (UM-Flint) University Outreach Department, as liaison between UM-Flint and the Community Education Initiative (CEI) lead by the Crim Fitness Foundation. CEI is a program that strives to make Flint Community Schools the hub of neighborhoods. My role is to support the programs at the Flint Community Schools by bringing in UM-Flint students and faculty into the schools. During my first 2 months of service I’ve created some great connections with a couple of the schools. For example, I have been in support of a club at Brownell K-2 Elementary School called Afrobella. Afrobella is a club that focuses on natural hair care and building self-confidence in females and males. UM-Flints ’Afrobella club has volunteered to help run Brownell’s Afrobella club beginning in the winter 2018 semester. Students at Brownell and UM-Flint are excited for the opportunity to work with each other.

I’ve also been a part of strengthening a partnership with Pierce Elementary School. Last year UM-Flint’s Student Dance Organization did a workshop with 20 students and everyone enjoyed it so much they are looking forward to expanding workshops. One of the first expansions on dance program will be that on November 30th, 2017 Pierce Elementary Students will take a field trip to see the SDO showcase. SDO students will also be providing after school classes for a 5-10 week period to students ages K-6 during the winter 2018 semester.  I’m very excited about this partnership because I attended Pierce Elementary school and I’m so happy to be able to give back to a school that gave so much to me.
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That was just a couple of the cool things that I have been doing but there are several other programs that I am supporting within the Flint Community Schools and I’m excited to see where the programs will go throughout the next year!