​Hi again, everyone! My name is Emma Gregory and I am a first-year VISTA serving with Communities In Schools (CIS) of Michigan in Lansing. For those of you who don’t know, CIS is a nonprofit that works directly inside public schools providing resources and support for students, particularly those who are at risk of dropping out. I spend most of my time in Sexton High School in the Lansing School District. It has been such an amazing year getting to know students and developing projects! The school year is starting to wrap up but we still have many initiatives and projects to work on to finish out the year.
 
One our biggest projects that I have been working to develop throughout the year is the Sexton Clothing Closet. Many of the students at Sexton High School didn’t have proper attire for the winter so it was a priority of mine to provide access to warm clothes. This project began as a partnership with a community member and Sexton alumnus, Dionna Hardin, who was passionate about the issue. In the first month, she donated over $6,000 of clothing alone. Since then, the donations have been pouring in. I have worked particularly closely with the Westside Neighborhood association who, not only donate regularly, but participated in a Clothing Closet Workday on MLK Day. During the work day, they not only helped me organize the clothing closet, but rearranged our entire room to be more efficient. They have been an amazing to work with and I am blown away by the generosity of those in our community. We now have more clothing than we can fit in our classroom and even the extra storage space has become extremely crowded. I’d say, it’s a really good problem to have!
 
Besides being a resource for students in need, the clothing closet has become an attendance incentive. Because low attendance is such a huge issue at Sexton, CIS incorporates its improvement into many of our programs. In the clothing closet, students must earn clothes they want bringing a permission slip from their teacher that states the student has: been to every class that week, been on time to every class that week, or has had exemplary behavior in class that week. Students may also come to volunteer in the closet with permission from their teachers. Through this, I have had the opportunity to develop relationships with many of our refugee students, many of whom come to work in the clothing closet nearly every week.
 
I am particularly excited about being able to incorporate music into my service. Before starting my service year, I received a Bachelor in Music from Michigan State University and it is really important to me to include music in my work. For my VISTA Year Initiative, I have started the Sexton Music in Community Series. Every other week, a musician from the community comes in to perform for and talk with the band class. Many of these musicians are my former classmates. The students (and band director) have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with the visiting musicians. It is so much fun to watch this exchange because the students are so enthusiastic each time. They certainly do not hold back with their questions. Oftentimes students have song requests, such as when one student asked a saxophonist to play a jazzy version of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Other times, they have specific questions about their careers or ask for advice about college.
 
I have also had the opportunity to work with All of the Above (AOTA), a local hip hop education group, who will be hosting two sessions on beat making and rhyming for Sexton students. In order to participate students must have perfect attendance the week before each session. To kick off this program, AOTA came to Sexton during student lunch periods to tell them about the upcoming sessions. Each session became a rhyming circle with the artists and students. Students had the opportunity to freestyle in front of their peers. It was really exciting to see how supportive they were of each other. Even the music teacher joined in and did his own verse. This was by far my favorite day of my service year. The goal of this project is for students to feel empowered to create and have the opportunity for artistic expression.
 
I really didn’t expect to love working with students as much as I do. It’s honestly my favorite part of this job. I have developed particularly strong relationships with the refugee population at Sexton. I see many of these students everyday and I have learned more from these relationships than anything else this year. Whether they come to the CIS room to volunteer for the clothing closet, get help on their homework, or just to hang out, I know that my day will be a little brighter. 

 Hi everyone! My name is Emma Gregory and I am a first year VISTA serving with Communities In Schools of Michigan. I graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor’s in Music Performance this past May. I was very unsure of what I wanted to do next so I decided to take a gap year and do AmeriCorps. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made. Working with CIS of Michigan has been an amazing experience for me thus far and I am so excited to see what opportunities this year will bring. 

CIS of Michigan is a nonprofit that works directly inside public schools, helping vulnerable students and those at greatest risk of dropping out. Our mission statement is “to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.” I believe that the word “empower” is really the essence of what we do. The students we serve often come from situations of poverty and see barriers that work against their success. We work to provide our students with the individual tools and support they need to overcome these barriers. 

I am based in Sexton High School in the Lansing School District. Because we are new at Sexton, our year started out with a month long needs assessment. Before we could start building programs for our students, we needed to identify the specific needs of the school. We put out surveys, polls, and talked with students, teachers, and administration to figure out what are the biggest resources needed for students at Sexton. 

One thing we discovered through our needs assessment is that many of our students lack access to basic needs, such as food, water, clothing, and hygiene products. Providing this resource has been the focus of my projects. For example, I am working with NorthWest Initiatives to give our students Weekend Survival Kits, packs of food students can take home to their families over the weekend. I have also solicited food, water, and hygiene donations from various companies in the Lansing area. Having these items available in our office not only gives students access to these resources, but encourages students to come to our room. We are currently working on setting up a large clothing closet that will provide students with the opportunity to choose and try on items they are in need of. Our goal is to make this a safe and fun environment where students are not afraid or ashamed of coming to ask for items. 

Later this year, we are planning to build programs around careers. Because of our large absenteeism rate, we want our students to see the importance of going to class and doing well in high school. We are also planning to put on a Mental Health Week which give students tools to cope with difficult circumstances and break the stigma associated with mental health in our community. This week will involve modes of expression (arts, exercise, etc.), info on mental health resources in the area, and info on mental health careers. 

​I am really looking forward to these upcoming projects and getting to know the students at Sexton. I have had the opportunity to work with some of our students through volunteering with the Refugee Development Center and running clarinet sectionals for the marching band. This has been a great way build relationships with our students and learn more from the community I am involved in.