Americorps

Parent Cafe
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<p>Not just as a resume booster, but I just want a change of pace. I haven’t done anything exceptional at school, and have worked for a CDC for a couple of years and have experience with urban conditions. I was just wondering if it would help my resume because the pay is exceptionally low, but they offer health insurance. School’s great and it’s a lot of fun, but I’m not really doing anything important. I’m really involved, but I want to take a break from school at some point, whether it be now or a gap year before grad/law school. I think it’d be more enjoyable to take the Americorps job than to a regular FT job. </p>

<p>I just want to know what kind of experiences people had with the program, because I think it’s a lot different than the advertisements and what not.</p>

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<p>There was nothing militaristic about the Americorps job S had. He went to work usually in slacks and one of his regular T-shirts. He’d wear a collared shirt if he had to go to a meeting with local government officials. He had some Americorps shirts that, I think, I had given him after he was accepted to the program. </p>

<p>He was involved in disaster prep and help. Some disasters occurred in areas a few hours away, and our city was a place that offered help. S staffed phones, and did other things – including helping at shelters – to help the disaster victims. </p>

<p>He also wrote a grant that resulted in a summer camp that he created, ran and organized. </p>

<p>He ran the city’s organization for teens interested in volunteering.</p>

<p>Americorps sent him to a state conference on volunteering, and paid for him to go through some kind of on-line training program in supervising volunteers.This was in addition to the basic Americorps training that he had gotten out of state.</p>

<p>My son had always loved to do community service, and also enjoyed working collaboratively. Through Americorps, he met many people who were movers and shakers in our community. At 18, he often was the youngest person at meetings with people like public officials, prominent business owners, etc. These could have led to excellent contacts for jobs, internships, etc. for S if he had an interest in eventually obtaining jobs in business or politics. </p>

<p>He enjoyed the fact that he got to do a variety of things as an Americorps volunteer. No day was exactly like any other. </p>

<p>My son loved being in Americorps, and he made phenomenal personal growth while in the program. Before being in Americorps, he was much shyer and much less assertive and also tended to procrastinate a lot, particularly with paperwork. After his gap year with Americorps, he went to college and dove into a variety of ECs (before, he had been someone who hesitate about diving into things), including demonstrating leadership even as a first semester freshman. He also got to know college administrators, professors, etc. because --due to his Americorps experience – he was comfortable relating in a very mature way with adults. His time management and organizational skills had skyrocketed, allowing him to work, be active in a variety of ECs – including some demanding ones – while maintaining a high gpa despite having a heavy partying roommate.</p>

<p>You need to talk to people who are in the Americorps program that has accepted you. Visit the program if you can. What you get out of Americorps depends a great deal upon the program and upon how you take advantage of it. If you’re a passive person who is basically doing Americorps to take a break between college and grad school, you probably won’t enjoy the program and won’t get a lot out of it.</p>

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<p>My son recently finished a year of Americorps. He’d have tolerated nothing militaristic! It was an interesting year of program development with afterschool literacy classes. Good work experience, recruiting volunteers, supervising, being part of an elementary school and working with kids. It had some of the frustrations that were part of any job. He enjoyed some of the diversity of experience, working with families of all backgrounds, using his Spanish, helping at a food bank. I was a bit jealous of the experiences-I’d love doing something along that line. Agree with NSM about meeting movers and shakers as well. </p>

<p>The educational benefit for those with loans or grad school coming up is quite useful. He was eligible for food stamps due to the low income while in the program, which I found ridiculous. Why not just pay them better?</p>

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<p>it isn’t supposed to be pay- it is a living stipend for a year of volunteer work.
Medical insurance is covered, an educational award to be used for tuition or loans is received after the year and educational training is part of the work.</p>

<p>People in the military aren’t paid very well either for their service which is considerably more onerous.</p>

<p>You don’t do community service for what * you* are going to get out of it.
Obviously OP is not interested in the service aspect- and the experience would not be a positive one because he is not open to other ways of thinking.</p>

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<p>“The educational benefit for those with loans or grad school coming up is quite useful. He was eligible for food stamps due to the low income while in the program, which I found ridiculous. Why not just pay them better?”</p>

<p>It’s volunteer work designed to attract people who’re interested in helping others, not doing good to do well.</p>

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<p>“Obviously OP is not interested in the service aspect- and the experience would not be a positive one because he is not open to other ways of thinking.”</p>

<p>Isn’t that comment not being open to other ways of thinking?</p>

<p>Isn’t an interest in Americorps implicit to an interest in service? I mean, why would I even entertain the offer if I wasn’t interested in the service element? Such “logic” would seem counterintuitive. Like why you feel the need to make such a brass assumption about a person you know nothing about. I always thought parents were, well, a little less judgemental and snarky.</p>

<p>I actually need some type of salary in order to pay my bills. Such as, I would need a car. If it weren’t paid how would I be able to afford insurance and gas to commute to work? Sure, service is great. And pay isn’t the incentive. But if there were no salary how would I be able to survive? I would think an adult would understand the need for some sort of monthly income in order to maintain some level of livlihood. Such as, you know, food. But I guess if you’re serving others you don’t need to sustain a reasonable rate of living. </p>

<p>Geeze I thought the snarky comments wouldn’t occur in the parents forum…</p>

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<p>“Isn’t an interest in Americorps implicit to an interest in service? I mean, why would I even entertain the offer if I wasn’t interested in the service element? Such “logic” would seem counterintuitive. Like why you feel the need to make such a brass assumption about a person you know nothing about. I always thought parents were, well, a little less judgemental and snarky.”</p>

<p>There are many people interested in opportunities like Americorps and Peace Corps because either they want the money (believe it or not there are people who do those things for the $. Most jobs don’t provide insurance, for example, but Americorps does. An attraction for some is the programs provide that will help pay for college or pay back college loans) or they want to boost their resumes and chances for good jobs or getting into graduate/professional schools.</p>

<p>I’ve met people who had little interest in service, but were interested in Americorps for purely selfish reasons. I’ve heard of people who served in the Peace Corps for similar selfish reasons.</p>

<p>"If it weren’t paid how would I be able to afford insurance and gas to commute to work? Sure, service is great. And pay isn’t the incentive. But if there were no salary how would I be able to survive? I would think an adult would understand the need for some sort of monthly income in order to maintain some level of livlihood. Such as, you know, food. But I guess if you’re serving others you don’t need to sustain a reasonable rate of living. "</p>

<p>Depending on where you work, it’s possible to be an Americorps volunteer without a car. I know a volunteer in Chicago who’s doing just that. </p>

<p>Americorps’ provides a stipend that allows its volunteers to live a low income lifestyle.</p>

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<p>The one I’m looking at requires transportation- it’s an urban center but the facilities are in the suburbs.</p>

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<p>I’ve been on this forum for a couple of years now and very few–if any–of these wonderful parents are judgmental or snarky. If you’re taking it that way, perhaps you need to do some self-examination into why their statements are bothering you.</p>

<p>This is just my opinion, but it seems that all you’re doing in this thread is finding reasons as to why this program is bad/not the right fit for you. It seems to me that someone who really wants the position and knows that this is what they want to do wouldn’t be in that frame of mind.</p>

<p>The fact is, just like everyone else has said, you don’t do Americorps or programs like it because of what you get out of it. We all know you need money to live on, but most programs either give you a stipend or will help you find another way to get said money. If all you can think about is what you will get out of it (whether that’s in a resume or money or anything like that), you need to find something else to do. You haven’t talked at all about what you’ll be doing or who you’ll be helping, and you’ve refused to talk about which Americorps program you’ll be in though you’ve been asked now…I think twice.</p>

<p>My point is that I don’t think you really want to be in Americorps, but you feel like you should be. So now you’re looking for reasons to validate your decision (ie, “Fascism”). Just my opinion.</p>

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<p>Based on your posts, I don’t think Americorps is a program that you’d enjoy doing. If you feel the need to take a gap year, probably another kind of experience would suit you better.</p>

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<p>I was an Americorps member for the past year, and am planning on doing it again.</p>

<p>The first thing that you need to understand about Americorps is that it is an umbrella organization that houses many different group. My program was through a partnership with the Red Cross. Other programs partner with Habitat for Humanity. NCCC, Vista, and even Teach for America are all Americorps groups (although TFA is quite different from the rest). You experience depends a lot on the program you choose. Programs like NCCC involve young adults living and traveling together to 4 different sites throughout the year. My program with the Red Cross had me living at home and commute every day to the site. Some program are full time, with 40 hours weeks. Some work part-time, or just for the summer. The main group dictating what the program is like is the sponsor organization, not Americorps as a whole. </p>

<p>For my program, I taught CPR/First Aid classes to other Americorps groups and community groups. I also taught Disaster Education courses and Shelter Management courses to partner organization. I worked in disaster zones and was trained as a shelter worker and Government Liaison. All of the training was included in the program. It was an awesome opportunity to teach the community about a subject I’m passionate about (Disaster Management). It also gave me experience in the field that I want to go into. I got to interact with lots of different people within the city of Los Angeles.</p>

<p>As for the “pay”, as previous posters have stated, you are not being paid wages in this program, but a living stipend. The idea of the stipend is that you will be living at the level of the people that you are serving, so that you can gain understanding of the challenges you face. The health insurance is fine, but not great. The educational award at the end is really nice. You also don’t have to pay off any student loans while in Americorps. You definitely don’t get into this program for the money- it’s barely enough to get by. Many members use food stamps. For most of the people in my group, we lived at home, so we didn’t have to pay rent. Without the support of parents, it would have been hard to get through. I’m lucky with the support I have that lets me do a program like this. </p>

<p>I never had to march or do group exercises (unless you count the basketball and soccer games we played on our completely paid for week long retreat). We had shirts that we would wear so that we would be identified as Red Cross workers in the community while teaching. When we were in the office, we wore business casual. I will admit that most of the members were of the Democrat persuasion, but that was never a real issue within the group. Someone who was conservative would still fit in and not be offended or worried about what they were doing. </p>

<p>I had an incredible time with the program, was able to give back to my community, and really learned a lot. However, if you aren’t willing to do hard work to help people for little money, you won’t enjoy the program.</p>

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<p>there is a wide variety of AmeriCorps programs… they are very different.</p>

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<p>^ Yeah. We still have no idea which one the OP is doing. <em>shrug</em></p>

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<p>Coaching soccer, he undoubtably is going through a local Americorps program, possibly one which is already in place at a community center or school.
They wouldn’t need a full time soccer coach, and since he didn’t specify doing anything else- it must be a part time funded position.</p>

<p>Ive noticed that the local neighborhood centers often have part time Americorps positions advertised, but why someone would want to do it who considers structure and uniforms " fascist", is beyond me.</p>

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<p>I did an AmeriCorps VISTA program after my bachelors. I joined one of the larger VISTA programs - there was about 20 VISTAs in my year, but we were spread throughout the entire state so there were only 2 other volunteers close to me. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. </p>

<p>My role was running a volunteer program in a public school. I loved the autonomy of my position - everything was on my shoulders - from writing grant RFPs to have funding for the program, to writing press releases, all recruiting activities, screening volunteers, pairing volunteers with roles in the school, working with the kids in my program, organizing events, volunteer recognition and all of the day-to-day administrative tasks. In addition to working in my school, I also had the chance to work with my sponsoring agency for the AmeriCorps program on some state-wide initiatives - some of them that I designed and some that were projects they needed assistance on.</p>

<p>My year was incredible. Not only did I feel like I knew just about every person in the community I was working in, but I also had opportunities to work with several high profile people throughout the state. The experiences and people I met were amazing. In addition to the daily tasks, there was lunch with the secretary of education and the governor, $1000/plate fundraiser invites paid for by leading business person, Multiple awards from the governor, having a US senator show up to one of my events, letter of appreciation from the vice president, organizing a major conference, etc… If I had stayed in that area of the country and wanted to work in the government, the contacts I made would’ve been huge.</p>

<p>We had all the standard AmeriCorps benefits, FREE medical insurance ($0 for copay for RX, $5 copay for OV, no copay when I was admitted to hospital from ER,) small stipend(around $10K back in 2003,) $5Kish Education Award, and Student Loan Forbearance. Plus my program was through a University and they had an added bonus of a guaranteed full graduate assistantships, if you were accepted at the University (full tuition + stipend for 20 hrs/wk.)</p>

<p>I highly recommend AmeriCorps based on my experience with it.</p>

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<p>I don’t know why I didn’t mention this previously, but probably the best part about my experience, was the improvement I saw in some of my kids. And their parents and teachers noted improvements even more so. And my volunteers expressed their enjoyment in participating. That had to be the best part. If this part isn’t important to you, you’re probably not the type who will get the most out of an AmeriCorps experience. </p>

<p>In my experience, there was no drug testing or military-like behavior. They did do a background check on you, as anyone who is going to work with children should have done, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. The degree of autonomy and chance to make my program succeed through my own efforts was far greater than any corporate job I’ve had. There wasn’t a uniform, but we did get a grey sweatshirt and grey hoodie to wear on the days when we were doing special service projects - we did a project roughly once a month, working with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, America Reads, Food Banks, etc. On training days, we were shorts, flip flops, t-shirts, etc. But every other day, we were office people, we dressed business casual or business as the occasion called.</p>

<p>I haven’t seen the ad, but there was absolutely ZERO in my experience that made it feel militaristic.</p>

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<p>My daughter was in CityYear which is one of the most structured programs- but she got alot out of it although if she was going to do it again she says she would do Americorps or TFA.</p>

<p>Her sister was accepted into NCCC- stationed in Denver but opted to do time abroad for a shorter time.</p>

<p>Since the application process is quite extensive, I am puzzled at why the research on whether the interest is there wasn’t done beforehand?</p>