A Day in the Life of an AmeriCorps Member

A Story of Service from RI Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA Member

RICC AmeriCorps*VISTA Member:  Khadiyjah Jordan
VISTA Host Site:  Community College of Rhode Island, Center for Excellence and College Readiness
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As a VISTA, I have the opportunity to be on the ground level of initiatives taken on by my host site (Community College of Rhode Island). At CCRI (Community College of Rhode Island) I work part-time in two offices, one of which being the Center for Excellence and College Readiness (CECR). CECR is a newly formed statewide hub for research, programming, and the development of best practices related to early college readiness and high school student preparation. CECR takes on a number of initiatives such as the College Access Network-Rhode Island (CAN-RI), which is a statewide college access network group designed to provide professional development opportunities for college access practitioners.

Being able to be on the ground level of CAN-RI has been an amazing experience thus far. I recently planned a panel event on adult education titled, “The Changing Role of Adult Education in RI College Access.” While event planning is not exactly a stroll in the park, it was thrilling and exciting to be able to gather a room of approximately 30 practitioners and observers of adult education.

Something remarkable happened at that event; on a Monday afternoon four panelists from statewide adult learning programs engaged with the audience about the educational challenges and needs of students, the needs of their organizations as well as other adult learning programs, and ways to collaborate. By the end of the event those in attendance were able to identify specific needs and ask those present in the room for assistance.

For instance, the whole group identified more longitudinal research as a necessity for effectively serving their population. Just as soon as this need was expressed, ideas were given. The keynote speaker—Administrator at the Office of Adult Basic Education and GED programs at the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE)—immediately said he has data on the 35 RIDE funded adult education programs. As soon as that comment came to an end someone suggested that a newly formed web portal that helps Rhode Islanders access education (WaytogoRI) serve as an access point to find new students that are seeking education and track where they go and how they use services available.

Input and ideas stretched beyond the confines of the room that day and will continue to do so. As I packed my materials at the end of the event, I was able to witness the immediate impact of my work. Everyone else departed to return to their busy workdays but a table of practitioners from schools and non-profits sat around a table on a conference call talking about what they have learned and ideas for collaboration. One of those individuals is the Associate Dean at the URI Feinstein College of Continuing Education, who later told me that the event brought to life statistics she has always known with stories that seem all too familiar to her stories.

In gathering those individuals for a luncheon event on a Monday afternoon I was not only able to educate myself and others, but also create a space in which those that previously worked adjacent to one another can now work with one another. The collaborations stemming from this event will better serve adult learners so that they are adequately equipped to participate in Rhode Island’s economy to make it more robust.

- Rhode Island Campus Compact

A Story of Service from RI Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA Member

RICC AmeriCorps*VISTA Member:  Rachel Stern
VISTA Host Site:  Rhode Island School of Design, Project Open Door
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A few weeks ago I received an email from my supervisor Dr. Paul Sproll requesting that I help organize a college tour for a group of students from the Paul Cuffee Middle School.  It was a slight shift from my normal focus, but I agreed anyway — even though they would be arriving in only a few days!

I set to work on the project and at 10:00 the evening before nothing I had planned had worked out.  At the last moment the emails came in: RISD students were excited to meet with this group of art-passionate students and talk with them about their path to college!

The next day I met with an incredibly bright and enthusiastic group and we were able to go to the Nature Lab, the Fleet Library, some Foundation Studies Studios, and even duck into the Museum and the RISD Store.

After our tour we went back to the Project Open Door Studio where a group of RISD students both sophomores and seniors showed their work and answered the middle schoolers’ questions.  The day ended with a great studio activity that the RISD students designed and ran. The whole class clamored that POD needed to expand to include middle school students.  They all wanted to go to RISD and wanted to start now with POD.

After saying farewell to the students I was able to reflect on the day and realized that this was exactly what was in my original project assignment:  to inform high school students about opportunities in education and careers in art and design and to encourage them to begin that path through RISD’s Project Open Door.

Since that day I have run three such programs for different school groups, successfully highlighting POD’s college access efforts to the wider RISD community. Many of the visiting high school students asked to apply to POD for next semester.

This programming is the moment I felt I hit my stride at Project Open Door – I am excited to continue to develop and grow in this work and most importantly to see new groups of students become activated in a campus that is part of their community but too often out of their reach.

- Rhode Island Campus Compact

A Day in the Life of a City Year Corps Member

At 6am I wake up. I put on my uniform, make breakfast, and pack my lunch. At 7:15, my teammate picks me up and we are at Roger Williams Middle School by 7:30. I meet with my nine-member team for a few minutes to go over announcements for the day, and then we disperse to begin our morning programs. I run a drawing group in the cafeteria during breakfast (7:30-8am); my teammates lead other activities, including chess tournaments, basketball in the gym, and glee club.

During first period I work with a group of boys and we go over vocabulary and spelling. They are bright and pick things up quickly, but have difficulty sitting still throughout the 50-minute class and resort to distracting their classmates. I redirect their attention by allowing them to tell me a bit about their current favorite video game: Call of Duty Black Ops.

I spend periods 2 and 3 in a literacy intervention class with many students for whom English is a second language. As the teacher runs through the fast-paced curriculum, I circulate throughout the room, making sure no one falls behind in their workbook. When one girl refuses to continue her work and begins to disrupt the efficient flow of the class, I offer to take a quick walk with her. She and I walk up and down the hallways for almost ten minutes and she shares her many concerns with me: that she will be held back another year, that her mom won’t buy her new clothes for the holidays, that her best friend wants to be best friends with the new girl who transferred from Gilbert Stuart Middle School, and that she has to bully other to avoid being bullied herself.

During lunch I sit with my 6^th grade mentees, an 11-year-old girl and a 14-year old girl who are best friends. We discuss how their days are going, what kind of grades they’ve been getting, and how they feel about the atmosphere of the school. As we talk, I teach them how to make friendship bracelets using embroidery floss and multicolored pony beads.

When school gets out, I am waiting in the cafeteria with the rest of my team for the afterschool programming to begin. I work with sixth graders. Today we have a chance to go outside and enjoy the last of the nice weather, so we play kickball and make fall leaf collages. The students begin busing home around 5:15. I meet with my team to debrief and we reflect on the previous hours- the good moments, the stressful situations, hilarious things our students said. The day ends around 6pm. I go home to prepare myself for tomorrow.

-Emeline Allen (City Year Rhode Island)

A Day in the Life of a Mount Hope Learning Center Corps Member

I walked into Mrs. B’s second grade class on Friday a little nervous.  Before anyone suspects that I’m writing this blog through the eyes of my 8 year old self, let me say that my service is at a community learning center that runs an after school program at an elementary school.  With that said, the principal of the school gave us some vague directions to “help out” for the day.  I told Mrs. B that I was there to “help out” and asked if I could give her a hand with anything.  A bit flustered, she said “I’ll let you help some of the boys review their reading.”

Before I knew it, four boys were sitting on the reading rug in a semi-circle with their legs folded and books in hand.  They looked at me as if I were to look at Tom Brady (and yes, I have an unhealthy obsession with Tom Brady).  I was a king to them.  It was these boys who reminded me of what our educational trainer, Bill, had said to me earlier in the week:  “You’re going to love 2^nd graders.”

But after a few dizzying hours of reading and math tutoring, lunch, recess, and gym class, I was ready to tell Bill that he had me all wrong.  I was ready to tell him that I had a college degree, had written a 68 page thesis, and had high aspirations to go onto graduate school.  I was ready to tell him that 2^nd graders were beneath me…literally.  Twenty-five kids were in search of one-on-one attention and had started to pull me in different directions.  I wanted to tell Bill his idea of positive reinforcement was a joke.

But again, something that he said earlier in the week popped up into my head.  He told me that the goal isn’t to get them to be adults at the age of eight.  He said we shouldn’t expect a second grader to be conscious of the consequences of all of their actions.  The goal, instead, is to put them on the road to self-regulation, and let second grade be a place for them to learn and grow.  I tried to remind myself of this as I sat in the desk that was no taller than my kneecap.  I didn’t need to pretend that I liked kids anymore.  I didn’t need to go running to Bill.  I didn’t need to find a new job.  I needed to come back again.

-Matt Jose (Mount Hope Learning Center)