Helping Students Read to Succeed

Hi all!  My name is Joe Servia.  I am a Michigan's AmeriCorps member with the Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency, or MARESA.  My fellow MARESA AmeriCorps members and I serve students in Marquette and Alger counties by providing reading skills assessment and literacy interventions one-on-one or in small groups.  Individually, I serve as a general and literacy tutor at three different educational facilities.  My service sites are Teaching Family Homes, Great Lakes Recovery Center, and the Marquette County Youth Home.  In addition to academic support, we serve our community through volunteer opportunities and monthly service-learning projects.

This has been a very exciting year for the MARESA AmeriCorps group.  Though our program has existed in the past, we are serving under a new grant which supports the MARESA “Get Ready, Get Reading” program.  This new grant gave us access to new resources and the ability to focus our service efforts where they were most beneficial for closing achievement gaps in student populations: reading ability.  Needless to say, all those involved in the program were ecstatic to provide a means to which schools could make evidence-based decisions about students receiving additional academic support to close achievement gaps.

To measure student reading ability, we utilize several different research-based reading intervention programs.  We administer reading benchmark assessments and progress monitoring assessments to students in kindergarten through sixth grade using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) program developed by the University of Oregon.  Based on the results of these assessments, we select students most likely to benefit from literacy intervention models to explicitly instruct using resources from a variety of sources.  In addition to DIBELS, we also utilize the REWARDS: Multi-syllabic Word Reading Strategies program to build fluency and comprehension. The structure of the “Get Ready, Get Reading” program is designed to provide students with below-average literacy skills with access to highly-trained individuals who can perform short-term literacy interventions so the student may continue to learn at the same pace as his or her peers in a regular classroom setting.   

 

Although the majority of our service takes place in the schools of Marquette and Alger Counties, we also take time once a month to plan and implement a service-learning project elsewhere in the community. These service-learning projects are planned by select MARESA AmeriCorps members and involve community collaboration and inclusion.  In the month of December, we participated in the TV6 Canathon which benefits food pantries in Marquette County by encouraging non-perishable food donations from the community. MARESA AmeriCorps members contributed by sorting food and stocking shelves at the Marquette Salvation Army on the final night of the Canathon.  This year the Canathon gathered more than 145,000 pounds of food.  To learn more about this project, view the news story here. 

My experience serving through AmeriCorps has reinvigorated a belief in the volunteering spirit of my community.  To have the opportunity to bring compassion into one child’s life each day is a gift to all involved.   By using my skills to provide children with a fair chance at success, I feel as though I have an opportunity to repay the community that provided me with an empowering environment to grow in as a child, and also as an adult.   My AmeriCorps experience has changed my outlook on selfless giving in my community and I look forward to sharing those experiences in hopes of incubating positivity through service within the community at a local, state and national level.

An Ameri-Experience to Remember

Ellen King is a former AmeriCorps*VISTA member who served at the Michigan Community Service Commission in 2010-2011. Following her year of service in Michigan, Ellen became an AmeriCorps NCCC member for the North Central Region. Read on to learn about her last year of service - which is very different than that of a Michigan's AmeriCorps member. 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be part of a team-based national service program? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live and work with 10-12 other people as you travel the country? I did, and that’s why I was interested in serving as an AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) member.

Hello! My name is Ellen King and I am in the final weeks of completing the 11 month NCCC program as a field team leader. For those of you who are not familiar with the program, you should visit Kaitlyn Sargent’s blog post from September. Whereas Kaitlyn served in Denver, Colorado, I served in Vinton, Iowa. Vinton serves the North Central Region of the United States, and Denver serves the Southern Region. Vinton and Denver are just two of the five AmeriCorps NCCC campuses (Vicksburg, MS, Sacramento, CA, and Perry Point, MD are the other three).

After completing a year of service with the Michigan Community Service Commission as the Learn and Serve AmeriCorps*VISTA, I knew I wanted to “get things done” by getting my hands dirty and working in the field. AmeriCorps NCCC addresses the critical needs of communities in the areas of urban and rural development, infrastructure improvement, energy conservation, disaster, and environmental stewardship. I’m not quite ready to reflect on my experience as a field team leader, so instead, what follows is an insight into my service experience.

As a team leader, I arrived on campus in January with the other 26 team leaders for a month long Team Leader Training. During this month, the staff held trainings on supervisory skills, the program itself, and even put us through situational scenarios. There were of course many other trainings, but actually going through the scenarios with the staff was in my opinion the best training as we prepared for the Corps members to arrive.

In February, roughly 200 Corps members arrived and the month-long Corps Training Institute began. Again, there were many trainings held for Corps members and team leaders as the whole Corps prepared for their first-round project in March. The Corps members were on campus for four days before they were assigned to their permanent teams. As a team leader, I was incredibly nervous to meet and even greet my team for the first time. Team reveal night went smoothly, and soon there were nine of us in “Oak 6,” our team name.

I did not really know what I was getting myself into until the day we arrived at our first-round project in Oxford, Michigan. My team had the opportunity to work at Crossroads for Youth, a treatment facility for at-risk youth. Not only did we get to plan and lead activities with the youth, but we also learned new tasks as we provided maintenance to the facilities.

Next, we travelled to Iowa City, Iowa where we worked with two project sponsors. We split our week by working three days for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and two days a week for the Johnson County Fairgrounds. While working with the USACE, we built trail, fixed erosion problems on the trail, and replaced stairs along the trail. For the fairgrounds, we helped prepare for the fair by painting barns, fencing, and the office.

After summer break, my team headed to Pierre, South Dakota where we provided support and helped supervise a summer day camp program at the Oahe Family YMCA. This was my favorite project by far - mostly because as 18-24 year-old adults, were allowed to behave as five year-olds for five weeks. Once we left Pierre, we served for 2 weeks with Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Our time was mostly spent helping to revitalize the exterior of an older home by replacing siding, scrapping and painting, and digging a trench for excess water.

In September, Oak 6 left for Milwaukee, Wisconsin to serve with the Milwaukee County Parks and the Nature Conservancy. The team provided ecological restoration for the organizations by removing invasive species (lots of buckthorn), constructing new hiking trails, and clearing and restoring an oak savannah.

It has been truly remarkable the number of places I have visited, the number of new skills I have obtained, and all of my experiences as a result. I will always remember using a sledge hammer for the first time in Oxford for scrap metal removal. I will always remember the view of Coralville Lake as we built new trail. I will always remember saying and hearing repeatedly “If you can hear my voice say quiet!” while we were in Pierre. And I will of course always remember what my back felt like after using a Pulaski on the trails in Milwaukee. But if I have learned anything this year, it is this: it’s not just about where I am or the service I am doing. It’s about who I am serving with and the relationships I build with them.

Becoming Champions for Change

Welcome back to the blog! I’m Kathleen Egan, and I’m wrapping up my 2nd year as an AmeriCorps*VISTA at the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC). During the past two years, I have also been a member of the Michigan AmeriCorps LeaderCorps, the host of this blog. During my years as a VISTA, I've been given so many great opportunities and I’ve also had the great pleasure of working with and meeting AmeriCorps*State, National, and VISTA members all over the state. These members, as well as many other Michiganders, are all striving to make Michigan stronger through non-profits, service, and volunteerism. I have been amazed by the amount of enthusiasm, and hard work happening all over Michigan.
 
There is one week in particular that is the most reflective of this for me. Though is it a crazy, busy week for everyone at the MCSC, this week has always been my favorite part. You see, during the week before Thanksgiving, the MCSC hosts the Mentor Michigan Annual Mentoring Conference, Michigan’s AmeriCorps Member Celebration, MCSC Commissioner Board Meeting, and the first Michigan AmeriCorps LeaderCorps meeting. As many of you readers know, planning one event is a big undertaking, but four back to back is a long (but fun!) marathon. Getting to participate these past 2 years has been a great way to see a diverse cross section of the good happening here in Michigan. I also like to think of this week as my AmeriVersary! My VISTA pre-service orientation (PSO) was 2 years ago during the Mentor Michigan Conference and Member Celebration so ending my second service term during these events was a fun and very cyclical way to end my service!

The first part of the week begins with the Mentor Michigan Conference. It’s amazing to see how many men and women are devoted to the next generation and passionate about providing quality support for mentors and mentees. This year I got to hang out with Smokey the Bear and the DNR folks, who brought games and other fun activities to showcase how you can use DNR programs to plan mentor/mentee activities. I also had the privilege to hear a mentee named Daveisha speak. Daveisha has done so much in the few years that she’s been matched with her mentor and was very succinct in her argument for the importance of mentoring in Michigan. In her words, "everyone deserves to be successful and a mentor can help you get there."

Member Celebration is day 2 and an amazing experience. There is something about the energy that builds when you get a state’s worth of AmeriCorps members in the same room…I’ve never felt anything like it! Every time I leave Celebration it not only reinvigorates my belief in the power of the AmeriCorps, but it also makes me feel as though each one of us is a super hero out to change our communities and country. This year, I had the great pleasure of leading the AmeriCorps trivia game show, and running a workshop with fellow LeaderCorps member Rachel Wenszlick that taught team builders, icebreakers and energizers to members. I had a blast, but the real fun was getting to hear what members will be doing during their service years, watching them meet fellow members from other programs, and hearing about the real reach AmeriCorps has in our state.

For most AmeriCorps members the day of Celebration ends after the swearing in Ceremony, but for LeaderCorps members we head straight on to our first meeting of the year. During this meeting, we begin mapping out the year ahead and getting to know each other. The LeaderCorps meeting is always a welcome calm after the chaos that is Celebration. This year's LeaderCorps was especially lucky as AmeriCorps National Director Bill Basl joined us as our guest for dinner! He shared with us the amazing involvement AmeriCorps has had with Hurricane Sandy, and how other versions of the LeaderCorps are operating across the country. Some of my proudest accomplishments during my VISTA year came from collaborations with fellow LeaderCorps members, and I am so thankful to have met so many amazing people through the group!

As you can tell, it is a very long week, but also incredibly rewarding. I feel so lucky to have been able to have been a part of it these past two years, and even luckier that my AmeriCorps*VISTA year ended during this week. There is nothing better than ending on a truly high energy, and fun note that is this week! I can’t begin to explain how much the past 2 years as a VISTA has meant to me and my life. I’ve made amazing life-long friends both at my service site and with other members. I can only hope that other AmeriCorps members enjoy their service as much as I have, but I know they won’t have an office as great as mine! :)

Reflections on Leadership

Hi, my name is Dan Drust, I’m the Program Director for the Schools of Hope AmeriCorps program in Grand Rapids, MI.  Before stepping into this role I was an AmeriCorps member for two terms and chosen for Michigan’s LeaderCorps in my second term. 

In reflecting on what made my time in AmeriCorps so meaningful and what element of my service really drove my development, many vignettes come to mind. I remember reporting to my site to teach a class (my service was in the area of adult English literacy) to find out that my room was occupied by a meeting and I had to find my own space for class. I remember holding enrollment sessions with standing room only.  I remember rising up as a leader on my team – a resource and example for new members. I remember finishing up last minute details for events I planned with colleagues hours before the event itself.  I remember missing deadlines. I remember being in meetings with the best and the brightest in my service community. In a word, I remember being humbled.

Did you catch that?  Did you see that I called myself a leader a few sentences before I said I was humbled?  You read it right.  Being a leader and an effective AmeriCorps member, in my experience, is all about humility, giving up control, and fostering trust.

 When you come into the AmeriCorps program you sign up to be a leader.  You make a statement about yourself and your intentions; you set an example to others by contributing to society and confronting some really tough issues.  I think that idea might scare people because when we think about leaders, we think about people who know a lot, have years of experience, and have a knack for imagining the future.  While that’s certainly true in some cases, it’s not true in all.  Leaders come from all backgrounds and experiences.  Good leaders recognize that they don’t have all the answers (sometimes, things are out of your control) and that they need help from their colleagues and subordinates (humility).

So what does this mean for real life, day-to-day service?  Don’t try to be a stand-alone-and-know-everything leader.  If you don’t have a solution, engage those around you, even those that you manage or serve, to find the answer.  Build trust with those people so they know their voice supports your leadership, and that your leadership supports their voice.  Be humble and open to not knowing all the answers.  If there is a product that your service will produce, it’s trusting relationships with those around you.  And it’s trusting relationships from which great leaders grow.

What It Means

Doug Nol is a Michigan's AmeriCorps member serving at the Goodwill Grand Rapids AmeriCorps Partnership.

As my time with AmeriCorps comes to a close, I remember thinking a specific question on the day that I started my term and many days before that. The question - what does it mean? I found myself continually wondering what the meaning of events were and am I showing success in life. But as I look now at everything I have accomplished since I began my AmeriCorps service, I find that my tone has changed. Instead of asking "what does it mean,” I am finding answers instead of questions. I no longer focus on if I have done something perfectly, but rather how the things I have done have been helpful to me. This significant difference in my thinking leaves me no longer asking "what does it mean" and instead knowing what is means.

Before AmeriCorps, I would often feel defeated because of my physical disability - cerebral palsy. While I knew in my heart that my disability did not define me, I also began to believe that my possibilities and capabilities were limited because of it and this made me question what I could do in life. Though I still sometimes struggle with that perception, after serving a year as an Employability Skills Coach for Goodwill's R.E.A.C.H. team,  I now believe in my strengths. During my service, I have been able to use my gifts of strong communications skills, relationship building, and an intuitive instinct to help our program participants see their strengths and how they can be used in the work place. Discovering these strengths empowers people who feel confined by their limitations and circumstances to find work and as a result of my service with Goodwill, I have acquired a passion for working in workforce development with people with physical and mental disadvantages. By helping these individuals to achieve Goodwill's motto of "Changing lives and communities through the power of work," I am ironically living out the motto myself. Who would have guessed?

Another thing my AmeriCorps service has meant for me is discovering what areas I needed growth in and striving to do better in those areas by learning from the friends I made in my AmeriCorps group. To spare my friends any embarrassment and protect the innocent, I have left their names out but I do want to share what I have learned from them and express my enthusiasm to live by their example. A couple of months after my AmeriCorps service began I was severely injured in an automobile accident and broke my left leg. Shortly after my return, the AmeriCorps members were expected to learn bus routes and walk around the downtown area learning about resources in the community. Needless to say many people, including myself, wondered if I could complete the task. I found that I could, in part because I had a friend who walked with me during that time, allowing me to lean on her whenever I needed to. While this gesture may have seemed small to her, it reminded me of the importance of self-sacrifice and being there to help people despite the personal discomforts or agendas we deal with on a daily basis.

Another friend taught me what it means to attentively be hospitable and continually make the choice to include others in our lives on a relational basis as well as a professional one as she has regularly asked me to be involved with events apart from work. I have always struggled with allowing myself to be vulnerable with people and opening up to show who I really am due to a fear of rejection. But after seeing the attentiveness of my friend and how important community is, I have begun to re-think that choice.

Last, but not least I have a friend who I would talk with on a daily basis and who constantly represented an attitude of caring and dedication. Though she ensured her tasks were completed efficiently, she would balance this by taking time to listen to me when I needed someone to talk to. I hope to carry on this example in my own life.
  

As you can see, I have a great deal of things over the past year about what it means -  from self-sacrifice and humility, to finding a personal and professional balance in my life. I want to thank AmeriCorps and Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids for all the life lessons learned this year and for equipping me to become a better servant to the community. Blessings to you all, and remember to live life fully.

Answering the Call to Serve

My name is Breannah Alexander and I am beginning my service as a 2012-2013 Mentor Michigan College Coaching Corps AmeriCorps member at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation.  In addition to my service as an AmeriCorps member, I have also had the pleasure of serving as a commissioner on the Michigan Community Service Commission board for the last five years.  Since I am at the very start of my service year, I will not reflect on what this year with AmeriCorps has meant to me quite yet, but instead tell you why I answered the call to serve.

    

During my senior year at Arthur Hill High School, I had the pleasure of being appointed to the Michigan Community Service Commission board to represent young people 25 and under who were engaged in some form of service across the state of Michigan.  Coming into this appointment, my philanthropic experience was exclusively from the service I had done as a Youth Advisory Council member at the Saginaw Community Foundation.  I had no concept of how involved the nonprofit sector was in the day to day work being accomplished in communities until I began to serve on the Commission and was introduced to AmeriCorps.

Through my service on the Commission, I was given a firsthand look at the impact of amazing individuals who had given a year (some even two) of their lives to bettering communities in need.  From Commission meetings where AmeriCorps members would discuss the difference they were making in the communities they served, to serving alongside members during the Russ Mawby Signature Service Project, I was given a gift – seeing incredible people create phenomenal change.

I continued my service on the Commission during my attendance at Grand Valley State University where the final piece was put into place as I sought to discover my greater purpose.  It was Spring Break 2012 and a group of about 30 college students, including myself, were sent as a part of a service-learning course to assist with disaster clean-up in Joplin, Missouri. I had never in my life been involved with a service site with such devastation.  We were working in an area where two-thirds of the town had been wiped out by a tornado and population loss so immense, sites that had been flattened were pseudo memorials. In doing disaster clean-up, we had the opportunity to interact with survivors who shared their pain but most importantly, their hope.  This hope transcended their circumstances and shined a light on the impact AmeriCorps members were having through their coordination of volunteers and disaster relief in that community.

That hope was my call to serve. In the year ahead, my AmeriCorps service will give me the opportunity to help kids in Grand Rapids Public Schools achieve their full potential. This service will also forever change the way I interact with others, as I hope to inspire people to make a difference in their own community.

Developing Leaders through Service

Kaitlyn Sargent is a Michigan native whose AmeriCorps service has been much different than that of our Michigan’s AmeriCorps members. Read on to learn about her service with AmeriCorps NCCC. 

My name is Kaitlyn Sargent and I was a 2011-12 AmeriCorps NCCC Corps member and am currently a 2012-13 NCCC Team Leader at the Southwest Region based in Denver, CO. NCCC stands for National Civilian Community Corps and members are between the ages of 18 and 24. Members spend 10 months serving in teams to strengthen communities and develop leaders through direct, team-based national and community service. As a Corps Member, I was able to see new places, do amazing things, form meaningful relationships, and give back to others all at the same time. 

Throughout the ten months of service, NCCC members participate in four different project assignments called “spikes.” I loved each and every one of my spikes and wouldn’t trade my experience for anything. When I reflect on my year of service, I feel extremely blessed to have been part of a great team (my second family!) and had incredible project assignments. My first spike was a camping project at Daisy State Park in Daisy, Arkansas. Daisy is a small town with a population of 118. Initially, I was not thrilled to live in a tent for over a month in a city too small for its own zip code in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas… As it turns out, my negative assumptions couldn’t have been more wrong. My team and I came to love Daisy and became a family in the process. Our service tasks at Daisy ranged from park maintenance to making 350 wreaths for a Christmas celebration in a neighboring city. When it came time to head back to Denver, my teammate and I were in tears in the back of the van not ready to say goodbye. 

After spending quality time back home in Michigan for the holidays, I was excited to return to Denver and start my next spike. Round two was spent at Denver Green School serving as a teacher assistant. The transition of working together as a team in isolated Daisy to working individually in classrooms was a bit of a struggle; but by the end of the two months at Denver Green School, we all came to love our classes and our individual experiences. 

Our third round was “shuffle round” in which teams get mixed up and Corps members have a say in their project assignment. I ended up getting my first-choice project with my roommate, Jenny, so I was very excited! This spike was a split project in Texas where part of the time was spent trail building at Big Bend National Park and the rest of the time was spent helping out at Grand Companions Humane Society in Ft. Davis. Again, the transition was rough as I went from a people project to an extremely isolated project. Big Bend was another camping project where we stayed in tents in the middle of the desert without any indoor access, cell service, or internet (which was quite an adjustment!).

Aside from the harsh living conditions, the work was more physically intense than anything I’ve experienced. We would wake up before the sun came up, hike up to four miles to get to our service site, work on building trails, hike back down, and go to bed. This was the routine for six weeks straight as we built more than half of the 2.7 mile Lone Mountain biking trail. Though it was a challenge, it is one I am happy to say that I accomplished. The rest of the time on this spike was spent with puppies at the Grand Companions Humane Society, which made all the previous challenges worth it! During our time here, we built a fence around the adoption center that will enable the dogs to have more space and freedom outdoors to play and exercise.  I enjoyed my time at Grand Companions so much that I even ended up adopting one of the dogs and shipping her home to my parents in Michigan!

My fourth and final round was spent at an Easter Seals summer camp for children and adults with disabilities in Empire, Colorado. This project was one of the most challenging projects for me, but without question, the most rewarding. My teammates and I were placed into this project not knowing what to expect, but we all came out loving it. We were essentially full-time counselors, serving up to 18 hours daily, six days a week. I spent half of the project as the sports and recreation coordinator and the other half as a counselor. The last week of camp, I had a camper with cerebral palsy and a developmental disability. He was in a wheelchair, nonverbal, and fed through a G-tube. My week spent with this camper was intense, but one that I will never forget. 

 

Over the course of my 10 months of service, I grew immensely as an individual. I completed tasks I would have never thought possible and had fun in the process. I was able to see places and do things I never would have without AmeriCorps. My experiences as a Corps member gave me the confidence and motivation to apply to be a team leader, which means I will be in charge of a team of 10 to 12 Corps members. I am now back in Denver beginning my journey as a team leader and I am feeling a multitude of emotions. I am excited for the adventures to come, but also anxious about taking on a lot more responsibility. Like my first year, I know there will be challenges that arise, but I now know I have the strength to persevere. AmeriCorps NCCC has had an amazing impact on my life thus far, and I can’t wait see what the next 11 months have in store for me!