Just Show Up by Chris Boswell
Chris Boswell is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving at TRIO Upward Bound at the University of Montana. Traveling out here has been one heck of a shift for me. I’m far from home here and, as someone who has never lived outside of their home state before, moving out to Montana has been a big, massive shift for me. Still, my service here has been a major factor in helping me to adjust and acclimate to this new situation I find myself in. My service site is TRIO Upward Bound at the University of Montana. Our mission is to provide…
On Second-Year Service by Amelia Huba
Amelia is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with the Bozeman School District 7 If you told me in August 2022 that I would willingly sign up for a second year of service, it would have seemed unrealistic – I was already homesick on the 30-hour drive here! If you’d told me the same thing in January 2023 I would have laughed out loud. Why would I sign up to stay in a place where winters mean below zero degrees and where there are chances of snow through June? I came to Montana expecting to have one year of incredible experiences…
Nice Ghosts By Liv Sorenson
Liv is serving as a VISTA at the Clark Chateau in Butte, MT One dreary afternoon in Butte, I was working at the front desk on the ground floor of my service site, the Clark Chateau. It was sprinkling outside and something about the dampness had kept the usual trickle of tourists away. Still, working in a historical building is rather enchanting. On quiet days like that day, it often feels as though I’m a resident of some ancient castle. In fact, the Clark Chateau is likely modeled after the Château de Vizille, in Southwestern France. This Chateau, though, is…
Overcoming Barriers by Lindsey Hundemer
Lindsey Hundemer is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving at International Rescue Committee. I quickly realized as I started college that life will not take you in the direction that you always think it will. That is the only way that I can explain moving to Missoula, Montana directly after graduating from Clemson University in South Carolina. However, I know now that this is exactly what I need to be doing, working with refugee youth to help their educational and career goals become a reality. But this rewarding work does not come without its challenges. Luckily, I have found a community…
Fake It ‘Til You Make It? More Like Fake It ‘Til You Become It! by Emma Burck
Emma is a VISTA serving with DEQ Energy Office in Helena “How did I get here?” It was a random Tuesday afternoon when I had a moment of self awareness and thought to myself: “Am I really here right now?” I had been in service for about two weeks by then. I was sitting in a conference room listening in at one of the DEQ staff meetings. As a Rural Energy Outreach coordinator, meetings and conferences are weekly obligations. I looked around the colleagues sitting in the room, seemingly engaged in what was being discussed at the time, which clearly…
Trying to Make a Difference with Alex Lee
Alex Lee is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving with Poplar High School and Fort Peck Community College. For me, service is all about the relentless pursuit to help those who are in need. Service is about making a difference that lasts in a community, and actively making everyone’s lives better in the process. That’s why we all joined AmeriCorps, and that’s why we are all here in the middle of Montana, to help the impoverished and the disadvantaged. Well, at least that’s what I hope to do. It has been a little hard to find jobs, tasks, and projects to…
Progress with Griffin Seyfried
Griffin Seyfried is a VISTA serving with MSU Bozeman’s Student Engagement Office, Bozeman, MT My journey began during my final term in college. I was finishing off my degree in Environmental and Urban Studies in the little city of Chicago. I knew I wanted to pursue a career that would help me establish deep community ties while also planting myself as a resource and pillar to support those around me, but I couldn’t fight the itch to escape to America’s wilder west. The AmeriCorps emails seemed to fall in my inbox more heavily than Chicago’s snowiest Winters covering all the…
You Will Find Home Eventually by Almeida Paroubek
Almeida is a VISTA serving with the Native American Achievement Center at MSU Billings If you’ve never been to Billings, Montana, you might not know about the Rimrocks. I had no idea about them before the day I drove into town. I had a vague idea of what the geography was like closer to the Rockies, and when I looked at a few google images of Billings as I was preparing for the move, it didn’t seem like anything special. The rocky cliffs around the city matched my expectations of what mountains are like, real mountains. My experience with mountains…
Going West. by Jonny Dugger
Jonny is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Snqweyłmistn. The beginning was easy. Exciting. The start of a new adventure. Heading out west to do good. Making the choice to be in the service of the American government. Latching on to the hope of eliminating poverty, just as Lyndon B. Johnson hoped to do. Sixty years ago. The possibilities seemed full of promise. I felt like I had great potential. I would be able to help Snqweyłmistn, a non-profit on the Flathead Reservation, build a Salish immersion community for foster children that can address the intergenerational trauma caused by colonialism. …
Third Year of Service, Going Strong by Ethan Krenzer
Ethan is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with the Moving Mountains Foundation in Missoula. Now in my third year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Montana, the 2023/2024 period has me very excited. Moving from California to Butte during Summer 2021, the opportunity to serve with two different nonprofit organizations in that region of the state made me a better team member through learning how to grow capacity, promoting and advertising community events, and establishing community partnerships. While difficult to understand at first, being taught these skills was incredibly useful not only for my service work but also with…
Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone: Relocating from Introvert to Ambivert through Service by Raymond Knight
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” -Abraham Maslow The year 2019 saw me preparing myself to live in a Kenyan village for two years, teaching sign language and life skills to deaf Kenyan youth. That was the plan anyway, but COVID-19 saw to it that, that particular reality would not take place. Fortunately, I recalled bookmarking several favorite opportunity listings in the My AmeriCorps Portal. I began looking through them for assignments that interested, inspired, or challenged me—offering opportunities for personal…
I’m Not the Assistant by Laurie Koepplin
Laurie is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving with the University of Montana Western. When I began my first term of AmeriCorps service on April 4th, I was given a desk and space outside of the Director of Student Success’s office. People would walk into the Multicultural Center (where his office is located) and assume I was his personal assistant. He or she would ask, “When will the director be back?” “Will you take a message?” (Of course I did, I’m a helpful person.) We even had conversations about not needing to tell each other where we were going or when…
On Remembering by Robyn Michalec
Robyn is the 2022-2023 VISTA Leader Sometimes I think I am too nostalgic for my own good. I have the tendency to lean heavily on the fact that moments are fleeting– that the moment they happen, they’ll never happen again in the exact same way. Slowly they’ll fade until they’re just vague outlines of a time and place you once were. I try really hard not to let this ruin moments, which has been a pretty constant exercise of will the past couple of weeks as I have wrapped up my second year of service with Montana Campus Compact. Saying…
The Importance of Education Exposure for Children in Need by Kenneth Edmo
Kenneth is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving with Indigenous Research and STEM Education (IRSE) at the University of Montana. I was born and raised in Montana, spending most of my life on the Flathead Reservation. I have always been interested in ecology and wildlife. I graduated from Salish Kootenai College with a degree in wildlife and fisheries and eventually received a master’s degree in resource conservation at the University of Montana. Before I even began searching for positions in my field of study, I received an email from Montana Campus Compact about joining their team as an AmeriCorps College Coach….
Right On by Amelia Huba
Amelia is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with the Bozeman School District 7 August, 2023 already! Thinking about this time last year highlights how far I’ve come and just how much this first year has changed me. In August of 2022, I was planning my move across the country to a state I’d never visited to work and live with complete strangers. I was really excited about my position in the Bozeman school district building programming for homeless students – although I’ll admit, I was apprehensive about the co-VISTA who had signed on just weeks before the start date. I…
Wrapping Up and Reflecting Back on Service by Noell Evans
Noell is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with the City of Red Lodge With this month being my last full month of service, I have had to face some daunting realities that I have put off reflecting on up until this point — primarily, what do I have to show for all the work that I have accomplished? Entering my mid-twenties, I have been taking more time to think about where it is I want to go in life and what it is I have done and what I need to be doing in order to get to that point….
Battling the Jelly Monster by Zainab Jamal
Zainab is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving with the Broader Impacts Group. I was in the midst of a battle with the Jelly Monster. Side effects included staying in bed all day, playing Tetris, watching Twitch for the hours I was awake, and feeling complacent with where I was at the time. Why pursue my goals when the jelly was all-consuming—it didn’t matter what actions I took, I would eventually be engulfed by it. Why try? For a brief moment, I was able to escape the putrid tentacles of the jelly by taking a trip to Pakistan. While its smell…
Exploring, Developing, and Announcing Career Opportunities at the University of Montana Western and Beyond by Laurie Koepplin
Laurie is an AmeriCorps College Coach serving at the University of Montana Western. As I read other members’ blogs, it occurs to me that my experience in AmeriCorps looks different than theirs. Principally, I’m close to home in Dillon, Montana. Furthermore, I began this term in April because the position was initially unfilled in the fall. Finally, I stayed in education, my field of interest. I enjoy mentoring, advising, and coaching students. I relate to Matt Sjogren’s blog about focusing on the process and not an end goal. Some see success as an end product, i.e., “graduation is success.” I…
My Two Year Reflection by Ethan Krenzer
Two years serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in Butte, Montana, it has been a tough but rewarding experience. Moving from Orange County, California in Summer 2021, the opportunity to assist two different nonprofit organizations and learn from their talented and compassionate team members on how to grow capacity, raise awareness about what specific organization’s do and how it impacts their stakeholder community, fundraise through Community Night Events and Activities, and knowing when to pursue leads that will grow the organization’s reputation beyond their local level, has made me a better professional. Close to starting my third year of Montana…
Trusting the Process and Finding Balance in Service by Matt Sjogren
Matt is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with the Bozeman School District As I reflect on my eight and a half months of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Bozeman Public Schools, I have learned valuable lessons about mindset and the importance of finding balance. I grew up in Bend, Oregon before heading to Middlebury College in Vermont where I studied political science and Spanish. The COVID-19 pandemic struck in my final semester, and I watched my virtual graduation ceremony in May 2020 from home, and struggled to determine what path I wanted to take next. I was interested in…