Campus Corps AmeriCorps Alum Jill Washburn

Today is a special birthday around here, AmeriCorps turned twenty! It’d be old enough to vote, drive and register for selective service if it were a person. The AmeriCorps program had its roots in the War on Poverty programs of the the early 1960s, and when it was signed into law in 2014, it marked a huge expansion of National Service programs.

I often tell folks that AmeriCorps is kind of the younger, bigger cousin of VISTA, or “Volunteers In Service To America.” VISTA is correctly referred to as a domestic version of the Peace Corps, placing folks in one-year terms building capacity to move people out of poverty. The other huge part of that back story is the Senior Corps programs, like the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Foster Grandparents and Senior Companions. Collectively, these programs get referred to as “National Service,” and as VISTA currently resides administratively part of AmeriCorps, so too will the Senior Corps programs eventually.

At the more interesting local level, the affiliates of the Montana Campus Compact have been lucky to host both robust AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA programs in our twenty year history. In fact, much of the Compact’s ability to “get things done for America*” (*that’s AC’s tag line) has been due to the strong support of the AmeriCorps programs, which has in turn leveraged millions of state and local dollars to address our most challenging problems.

Currently, MTCC AmeriCorps VISTAs focus on college access and success, STEM initiatives and projects that support veterans and military families.

MTCC VISTA Alum Roch Tuner

Montana’s AmeriCorps Alums chapter used the occasion of this 20th anniversary to honor some exemplary alumni, among whom are MTCC’s own: Jill Washburn (Campus Corps AmeriCorps), Wendy Jeschke (Campus Corps AmeriCorps), Jon Stephani (Campus Corps AmeriCorps), Charles “Roch” Turner (MTCC AmeriCorps VISTA), and Sandra Cain (Campus Corps AmeriCorps). Hear hear!