Hello! My name is Rachael Wilber, and I am a second-year AmeriCorps member serving with the Superior AmeriCorps program in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I am originally from Ontonagon, Mich. and currently live in Calumet, Mich. Superior AmeriCorps currently has 46 full-time members, the majority of whom serve in school districts throughout Houghton and Baraga counties. We have a handful of members in other counties serving through nonprofit agencies as well.
I am one of the members that have been placed in a nonprofit. I serve as a program coordinator for the High Five program at Big Brothers Big Sisters. I match volunteer high school mentors with elementary school children who have been referred to me by their teachers. We meet once a week for one hour. The students work as mentoring matches by working on homework, playing games, making crafts, and/or just hanging out! This provides additional one-on-one time to the elementary students while providing a sense of responsibility for the mentors. I train the mentors for four weeks (one hour per week) prior to introducing the matches, which meet for the entire school year. Last year I saw some amazing transformations and I look forward to seeing even more this year!
On November 17th, I had the opportunity to attend the Michigan’s AmeriCorps Member Celebration along with seven other members from my program. We left Wednesday morning and arrived in Lansing that evening. On Thursday morning, we checked in at the Member Celebration and had a one-of-a-kind experience. After the morning kick-off, we went to our choice of several workshops. They all seemed wonderful! I chose a workshop called “Zombie to Zen,” which discussed methods for calming your mind when feeling overwhelmed. After the workshop, we had a very moving keynote speaker, Craig Bowman, who is the president of Common Ground Consulting. He was absolutely phenomenal! After Craig’s talk and lunch, we went to another set of workshops. I went to a workshop about teambuilding that was led by three members, including a fellow LeaderCorps member, Kathleen Egan. It was very informative and maybe even a little fun… ok, it was a blast!!! The day ended with the swearing-in ceremony led by Acting CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Robert Velasco.
As a LeaderCorps member, I stayed after the Member Celebration for the LeaderCorps meeting, which took place Thursday evening and all day Friday.
I think LeaderCorps is going to be my favorite part of my AmeriCorps experience. We have only met once (or at least MOST of us have only met once), but the chemistry was surreal. Not only were we very proactive and motivated in our discussions about projects and goals for the year, but we were also cracking jokes and laughing within minutes of meeting each other. This is a very lighthearted group that is looking forward to “getting things done!”I truly love being an AmeriCorps member. I have the wonderful opportunity to serve in not only one, but three school districts. This has allowed me to experience different subsets of the local students and get to know different administrators. I am currently working on my Masters in Elementary Education so I have also been able to make connections for observing classrooms and student teaching. AmeriCorps has opened so many doors for me and I hope our program continues for MANY years! There are so many people that would benefit from it as much as I have (not to mention the folks out there we actually serve!). Oh, and did I mention AmeriCorps is where I have met my best friends? I’m amazed by the connections that are made when you get together with a group of people that want to make a difference in their communities!
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