AmeriCorps Was My Turning Point

Since we are highlighting Turning Point posts for our National Conference on Volunteering and Service we are specifically highlighting current or past AmeriCorps members for AmeriCorps Week. Today’s post comes from Michael Nealis, Interactive Strategy Coordinator with Points of Light. He served as an AmeriCorps member with Volunteer Maryland from 2008-2010

Visit the Americorps Alums blog and the HandsOn Network blog to read other versions of Michael’s story how AmeriCorps Works and has influenced his life.

Five years ago, the only thing I knew about volunteering came from papers published in academic journals. I was an ivory tower academic studying social networks and people’s perceptions of volunteering.

When I left grad school it was tough finding a job. I heard about AmeriCorps and figured it would be a great way to learn more about how volunteering actually works for when I would be in my PhD program.

My interview with Volunteer Maryland was terrifying, but that was nothing compared to how I felt after two weeks of training. This group of people were dedicated to the causes they worked with and passionate about the power of volunteering to change communities.

As if the interview and training process wasn’t frightening enough, my first day serving at the Maryland Department of the Environment was even scarier. I met the Secretary of the Environment who was an alumna of the program that I was serving in, and found out the only resources they had to support their idea was a volunteer waiver form.

No big deal, right? Build a volunteer program from nothing, compare yourself to dedicated and passionate people, and have a cabinet-level politician be invested in the work that you’re doing? No problem.

I took a little bit of time to freak out and then got to work. After a few months, there was a fairly strong program that used a small group of volunteers to manage large amounts of information efficiently. So, I decided to take a week out of the office to test if my program could run on its own and help a fellow AmeriCorps member with a project they were working on.

I spent a week working with 2,000 other people to rebuild a community playground that had been destroyed by arson. I thought I was going to swing a hammer for a week, but I got assigned to work in a tool shed.

I thought it was going to be boring. It turns out it was one of the best jobs on the site.

You see, everyone who showed up needed to come by the tool shed for something, so I ended up talking to just about everyone who showed up. I got to hear their stories about why volunteering is important to them and hear why they came back to rebuild the playground they’d originally worked on. It was a great experience getting to know complete strangers who were working for some idea of what is good—of how their world ought to be rather than simply accepting how their world was.

I volunteered for five days in a row. On the sixth day, I got a lot of phone calls asking me how to do things or how to fix some of the power tools. It was the first time that I realized that I was valued not just as a volunteer, but as a volunteer with a specific skill set that was beneficial to the project I was working on.

The people I worked with changed how I thought about community.

Before I worked on the playground, I thought your community was just the place you lived. I learned that community is the place that you care about, and that you care about making better. I learned that volunteers are valuable, not only for the work that they do, but for all of the skills that they bring with them to an organization. It’s something that I always knew, but finally began to really understand.

Working on the project made me realize that I wanted to keep working with volunteers. It was my turning point that made me realize how volunteers were a powerful force in their communities, and a big part of why I signed up for a second year in AmeriCorps with Volunteer Maryland, and why I’m still supporting the work that volunteers do across the country.

My Turning Point: How Americorps Worked for Me…

Today’s post is written by Ken Tran, the current External Relations Coordinator with AmeriCorps Alums. He served as a National Direct AmeriCorps member with the Get HandsOn Campaign in 2010-2011 at Points of Light. He fancies volunteerism, hashtags, strong coffee, and of course, Beyonce.

AmeriCorps members go through plenty of “aha!” moments (as dubbed by Oprah), during our service years. Those situations are when the imaginary light bulb finally lights up and we realize that what we’re doing has purpose and direction. That our actions are positively impacting those around us and that the effects of our service will be felt long after we have left.

I signed up for a National Direct AmeriCorps position with the Get HandsOn Campaign in Oct 2010, not really knowing what I was going to get myself into. Like most recent college graduates in our economy, I took one of the first opportunities offered to me. I got my BA at UC Irvine in June 2010 without a job lined up and moving across the country to Atlanta, Ga. with my friends sounded like a great opportunity. I could dive right into the real world, while increasing my chances of hanging with my girl, NeNe Leakes. The latter has yet to happen, but my Turning Point has!

During my AmeriCorps term, as a way to fulfill my 1,700 hours, I helped one of my peers with a school-based tutoring program through HandsOn Atlanta. Initially, I saw my AmeriCorps position as a job and didn’t see the impacts of my actions contributing to the greater benefit of my local community. I wasn’t doing the “traditional” volunteer service that most members would commit to during their AmeriCorps year, so it was nice to get out of the office and serve in my community. It wasn’t until I met the students at this school that I realized that my service could mean the world to one community.

The school that the weekend tutoring program was held at was incredibly diverse, with students representing more than 35 countries. Most were South Asian refugees, as that county of metro-Atlanta has a huge refugee population. On my first day at the program, I immediately got noticed by most of the students, as I looked a lot like most of them. With a majority black/ white dichotomy, most of the students had never seen an Asian-American, let alone one that was older than their elementary peers. One student, a 1^st generation Vietnamese student with an adorable bowl cut, we’ll call him “Tommy”, stared at me for a bit, before coming up and saying, “You look like the same language as me!” Though technically incorrect, that quote has stayed with me since, as I realized the impact of my service as a minority in AmeriCorps and working directly in a minority population.

Volunteering at that school twice a month throughout my service year helped lay the foundation for the type of work that I want to continue on as an AmeriCorps Alum. As a citizen of color, born in the U.S., I want to help be a role model for younger generations, as they are learning to find their place in our national community. I want to keep service an integral part of my life, because at every step, I want to be able to be an example to those “Tommy’s” and other students, that they can keep pushing forward and be successful when the odds seem difficult. I want them to see how “AmeriCorps Works” in my life and continues to shape the intentions behind my actions.

I invite you all to join AmeriCorps Alums as we celebrate AmeriCorps Week, March 10-18. This year’s theme of AmeriCorps Works resonates with the mission of AmeriCorps Alums as we celebrate how our service has helped get us to where we are today. Join or register a local AmeriCorps Week event in your community and find out more ways to connect with Alums in your area.

My Turning Point: An All-American Vantage-Point

Todays’ turning point is written by Keith Lee, the Points of Light volunteer of the week.  We are highlighting his story for the upcoming Americorps Week.  Keith is an Americorps  member currently at West Suburban PADS (Maywood, IL) & Chicago Cares. He is a physician in training, dancer and traveler hobbyist. 

I have lived in the three largest cities in the United States: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago and have spent countless summers in the South. Although each city is uniquely diverse in resources, citizens, and geography – the hearts of the American people are filled with compassion to serve one another. It was in my home town of Joliet, Ill., that I learned the importance of community and more importantly community involvement.

My mother was a single mother working hard to support and raise her children. However, there was never a moment were I felt like I was raised only by my mother. The community surrounded my family and helped out where needed with excellent effort and compassionate hearts. This example would make a lasting impression on me causing a contagious servant heart.

Years later while still in high school, I remember riding a bus filled with eager community members to the state capital to join a protest and lobby for change in the school system addressing achievement gaps, resource allocation, and the list rolls on. After rolling 600 miles, long days, and a lot frustration, nothing happened. Yes, I understood and was constantly told that change was gradual, but there was work to be done. So, at the age of 16 I began to tutor at an after school program to elementary and middle school students in the areas of math, science, and reading. I became a peer mentor to youth at a community center and spent a couple days a week playing basketball and talking with the kids. I went to soup kitchens cooked food and cleaned. My community provided clothes to the disadvantaged and computer and technology training to the community at large. I was also a volunteer videographer filming community events and broadcasting on local community television.

This lifestyle of volunteering continued as I lived, traveled, and studied across America. In 2008, I made a personal pledge to consciously volunteer 72 hours a month to my community: local, state, country. Three years later, my pledge became a lifestyle as I serve as an Americorps member at West Suburban PADS in Maywood, Ill.  By sharing talents and time unselfishly the community becomes strong and is able to function better. As a result, a student does not struggle in math class, a homeless family is fed and given shelter, a garden is planted, and a computer is repaired. Service unites a community, fills the gap when there’s no budget, and inspires others to serve. Points of Lights embodies community service and a collaboration of government, corporations, and citizens that will no longer stand and watch but take action. I am a point of light.

Find  Americorps Week volunteer opportunities to get involved in!  Learn about where AmeriCorps can take you by joining our AmeriCorps Works Career Panel webinar hosted by @BenDuda on 3/13: http://bitly.com/xo7TIz

My Turning Point Came When I Realized that the Having the Ability to Help Meant Also Having Responsibility to Help

Today’s Turning Point comes from guest writer, Max Wallack, 15, a 2011 Hasbro Community Action Hero, an award recognizing outstanding young service leaders presented by Hasbro in partnership with generationOn, the global youth service division of Points of Light. Today is the last day to submit nominations for the 2012 Hasbro Community Action Heroes, nominate a youth by 5pm EST!

I have sometimes been asked when the moment first happened that I realized I couldn’t just stand by and watch the needs of others go unmet. For me, this moment came when I was very young. At 5 years old, I was named a Davidson Young Scholar and invited to a conference in Nevada. At that point, being a Davidson Young Scholar meant, to me, only that I was smart, but I had pretty much figured that out on my own during the parent/teacher conference that ensued when I got into big trouble in nursery school for reading my classmates’ confidential records (out loud when the teacher was out of the room).  I didn’t realize that in only a few months, in Nevada, I would have an experience that would help me define who I am.

That summer, I traveled to Nevada with my parents, where I met about 20 other Davidson Young Scholars, as well as Jan Davidson, the founder of the organization. Jan and her husband, Bob, had become very wealthy as the developers of a children’s educational software company, and they had decided to invest their money into an organization to support the needs of gifted students. I attended a presentation given by Jan, where she said that the reason they were investing in these students is that they felt that, if these students were encouraged, they would be the ones most capable of contributing positively to society.

To this day, I remember Jan saying she believes that “anyone who has the ability to help another person, has the responsibility to help them.” Interestingly, no one else remembers Jan saying exactly those words, not my parents, not my Davidson counselor, not anyone that was there. Apparently, that’s just the way my 5-year-old mind understood what Jan was saying. Nevertheless, it was at that moment I understood that it was my responsibility to do whatever I could to help others and make the world a better place.

Ever since then, I have made it a point of being observant of those around me and “filing away” in my mind whenever I notice a need being unmet. When I was 6, I noticed my great-grandmother was having trouble getting into our minivan, so I built her a special step, The Great Granny Booster Step, with a handle attached. The next year, the special step won a prize and I was invited to Chicago. While there, I saw many homeless people living in the underground highway system under the Million Dollar Mile shopping district. At my acceptance speech, I remember saying that it was my responsibility to do something to help these homeless people. Five years, I later I invented the Home Dome, a shelter for homeless people and victims of disaster, that won first prize in the Intel/BKFK Trash to Treasure contest.

Many similar scenarios have been repeated, continuing to my current project, PuzzlesToRemember, which distributes puzzles to more than 700 facilitates that care for Alzheimer patients across North America in an effort to ameliorate the affects of memory loss, and my work as an Alzheimer’s Research Intern, but it all boils down to a few elements. First, I realized at age 5 that everyone has the responsibility to do what he/she can to help others. Next, that to identify a need, one has to be observant. Third, that microphilanthropy, doing just some little thing that helps, is a very powerful force. If everyone would do just some little thing that they recognize as helpful to others, the world would be a much better place.