Science, Try It! By Chase Campbell
Chase Campbell is an AmeriCorps Leader serving with Broader Impacts Group in Missoula, Montana. Listen to a day in the life of her service year!
The Unfrettables by David Mariani
David serves at Great Falls College MSU MTCC AmeriCorps at Great Falls College MSU operates out of the Office of Student Engagement and oversees the Great Falls College MSU Food Pantry. Students are welcome to find me for food, hygiene products, and meaningful human interaction, all freely given with no strings attached. Once in a while, I throw in some words of wisdom as a bonus. I recently had a student visit me at the food pantry with a few needs. My service always comes with a genuine concern for an individual’s wellbeing, so my trips to the pantry usually…
The Kindness of Strangers by Donna Stuccio
Donna serves in Browning, MT at Blackfeet Community College I grew up on a quiet little street in the coal mine region of northeast Pennsylvania that dead ended at railroad tracks. The coal cars would wobble and rock as they shook the ground below me. I would rush to collect coal that toppled from the overflowing cars. The deep black anthracite would come in handy for hopscotch. It was the 1960’s, years before jumbo sticks of colorful chalk were the norm. While counting cars, I anxiously waited for the end of the train and the always gracious man in the…
The Value in my Authenticity by Robyn Michalec
I came out of the closet when I was 16 in a Wisconsin town that did not embrace its LGBTQ+ community. In many instances, it outright rejected those who came out of the closet. Fortunately, I have an overwhelmingly supportive family, and I only lost a couple of friends as I embraced my identity as a queer woman for the first time in my life. Despite my luck in receiving unwavering love from my family and many of my friends, I was not shielded from the backlash of my community. I was harassed, bullied, and threatened by classmates and community…
Why Not?: A Journey of Autonomy by Omiah Mitchell
Omiah serves at Dawson Community College with Dawson’s Promise These past two years have been unlike anything I have ever experienced before. My mind would have never been able to conceive what has occurred in this world during these past two years. At first it was wonderful to rest and just be still. Then, life quickly became a mundane redundant routine. Wake up. Shower. Log in to zoom. Log off. Sleep. Repeat. I began asking myself, “Is this really what life is going to be like?” “Is this all there is?” These supposed formative years were condensed into something that…
The Language of Dreamers by Katey Funderburgh
Katey Funderburgh serves at Salish Kootenai College Upward Bound The inside of my wrist is tattooed with a pencil. Cliché, perhaps, for an English major, but more important to me now than it was when I got it in 2019. It was the start of my Junior year, and I was reeling from an Emily Dickinson poetry class that had shattered my world and proved to me that I had something to say. My tiny pencil tattoo commemorates the discovery of my own voice. Today, the Montana leaves are colored like millions of tiny wildfires and I am 956 miles from my…
Not sewing swimsuits by Fisher Ream
My first full week of VISTA service began with the State of Montana Arboretum (SMA) Committee Retreat in the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, roughly forty minutes from the University campus. The Committee of a dozen members spent the day working on a three year vision for the State of Montana Arboretum. The facilitator, unfamiliar with the work of the Arboretum Committee, asked us first to describe the operating environment for the SMA. She said that this narrative summary would ensure that we, as a committee, were not “inside sewing swimsuits while there’s a snowstorm outside”. That is, I suppose, that the…
Southwest Gal in Big Sky Country by Jade Begay
Have you ever had a feeling of uncertainty? Like you’re struggling to find who you are and what you are called to do? If so, I am right there with you. Society expects us from an early age to know who and what we want to be when we grow up, but I have come to find it is never too late to discover who you’re meant to be and what you’re called to do. I made my decision to become an AmeriCorps VISTA for this specific reason. I graduated from undergrad and spent three years working in a field…
Choose Humanity By George Lindbom
George is an AmeriCorps Leader serving with the International Rescue Committee in Missoula. There is a bright yellow sign hanging in the middle of the offices of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) – Missoula branch. It reads: “NO HATE. NO FEAR. REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE. #ChooseHumanity.” This sign lays out the perfect structure for me to use for self-reflection on my first month of service as a Montana Campus Compact AmeriCorps Leader. NO HATE. There is simply no time or place for hatred when serving as a volunteer with the IRC. I am fortunate to work with and serve a variety…
Why Service in AmeriCorps Matters Now More Than Ever By Ethan Krenzer
Close to reaching my third month of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Montana Campus Compact (MTCC), volunteering during the 2021/2022 year is a significant time to serve. I am so glad/grateful that federal programs and organizations like this one exist. With everything going on across the country, what the United States of America really needs right now, are individuals generous with their time and the willingness to help underserved Americans attain necessary resources while working at or below the poverty line. In trying to address the need that so many citizens of this country have right now, AmeriCorps…
Still Awkward by Alyx Chandler
Post-grad school life is awkward and consciously humbling, in some good ways and other much harder ways. Can I afford to live alone? No. Can I even afford to live above ground, in somewhere other than a basement? Most definitely not. But am I equipped with years of therapy under my belt, a good sense of humor and at last, a confidence that energizes me? Yes. ***** Even today, I can be on the more awkward side, saying things a little too late, being a little too earnest. But now, I have fun with it, know how to crack people…
Blog Post: Stevens Youth Center 2020 Americorps Vista
I first applied to be an Americorps Summer Vista because amidst COVID-19 I wanted to help in some way. While sitting at home in Pittsburgh, I felt lost and unproductive while self isolating due to COVID-10. While researching what I could do to be a useful community member amidst a pandemic, Americorps popped up. I was excited and eager to venture into a community different from my own and support students over the summer. Ultimately, I was seeking to go outside of my comfort zone and contribute in whatever way I could. Fast forward a few months and I am…
What I Learned From Three Years of Volunteering By Sarah Poole
I started my service journey more than three years ago, when I decided to join the Peace Corps with my partner. We accepted positions in the Nepal Food Security program, where we practiced sustainable agriculture with community members, encouraged folks to eat more nutritious meals, built improved cook stoves, and educated people on menstrual hygiene and gender equality. An experience of a lifetime that taught me about a world much different from where I grew up and what I knew in Montana. I think it is only fair and honest to say that I learned so much more from the…
What I’ve Learned in Six Months by Gabe Alderson
When I joined the Montana Campus Compact AmeriCorps program, I was looking to not only make a change in the world, but a change in myself and how I viewed my role in the world. I had been working for years in the private sector chasing money and reputation, which is what I had originally wanted for most of my young life, but it was leaving me with a lingering sense of emptiness that couldn’t be satisfied with money or career aspirations. When I joined AmeriCorps, it was nearly instantaneously that life changed, and the lingering sense of emptiness began…
MTCC VISTAs in Service to Combat COVID-19 Crisis
Two of our VISTAs, Sarah Poole, serving with the University of Montana Food Pantry, and Haransh Singh, serving at OCHE, are dedicating their service to combating issues that have arisen due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Before the outbreak, Haransh spent the majority of his service developing positive mental health programs for students within the Montana University System. Sarah spent her time in service before the outbreak organizing the UM Food pantry by training pantry volunteers, taking inventory of food donations and other such important pantry functions. Since the outbreak, Haransh has continued creating positive mental health programs, now through a…
“Community” by Sara Feilzer, MTCC AmeriCorps and VISTA Alum
Playing with Dry Ice in Potions class! Thinking back on my year of service with spectrUM Discovery Area in Missoula, one theme really stands out to me, community. The community of support from my AmeriCorps family, the community of scientists and coworkers and the community of Missoula, which is truly like no other. I grew up in Missoula and when I graduated from Big Sky High School it only made sense to continue my education at the University of Montana. Right away (actually, while I was still in high school!) I started volunteering at spectrUM, UM’s hands-on science center, and…
Who Would Have Ever Thought by Laurie Berg
In the summer after my college graduation, I was working at a bed and breakfast and trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life, now that I held a degree. I really had no idea what was next. I found myself looking at tons of jobs, but nothing looked exciting. I somehow came across some AmeriCorps programs, and eventually I was only looking at those programs. When you make an AmeriCorps profile, cohorts all across America reach out to you with a message similar to: “come serve with us!” That’s what the messages sound like,…
you’ve got mail by Bri Howerton
My relationship with the United States Postal Service has been a tumultuous one. A new piece of mail in my box nearly every day not actually addressed to me, ever increasing postage prices, medical bills which arrive beyond their due date. The most egregious offense, though, was the failure of a “stop package” order put in by my aunt when I first moved to Great Falls. The package had been labeled with an incorrect address, so she shelled out the fee to have it held at the post office. The package wasn’t stopped, whisked away to its unintended home. Multiple…
The Warrior’s Way by Joe Wagner
When I started my service year I was lost. I was a lost warrior, a United States Marine fighting a battle I didn’t understand. It’s so funny to think about now, because of how the story turned out. But anyways it is always good to start from the beginning. That is where this story begins. To begin, after my time in active service, I would have never thought of giving back to the community. I understood the sacrifices my brothers and sisters in service made, but the general American public, no way they never knew hardships, they didn’t know…
Spring 2020 Community Building Institute
Montana Campus Compact is happy to announce that our Spring 2020 Community Building Institute (CBI) begins next week! CBI is a six-part training for National Service members and community organization professionals; sessions focus on transitioning community-based projects from ideas to well-supported and developed programs. Through this lens, CBI supports sustainable development of community-based initiatives. Below is an overview of CBI offerings: Feb. 18th, 11AM-12:15PM: Community Assessment with Dr. Laurie Walker Learn about tools and techniques to assess and understand the needs of a community. Dr. Laurie Walker will guide us through how to look at what resources exist, and what…