I DON’T WANNA MAKE THAT: THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN VISION AND REALITY BY CHANDLER PADGETT
As I approach a quarter year of service, I look back on what I’ve done so far with both wonder and a good deal of amusement. From the wackiness of helping build an escape room and making a spider out of a hay bale to the doldrums of mopping and serving yogurt, my time in Sidney has been an interesting experience. Out of it all, the service I’m most passionate about and have had the most fun with is my art history program.The program started with lofty goals and aspirations—we would tour the world through the lens of significant art,…
A TELESCOPE LOOKING IN BY EVERETT WALKER
I find myself at odds with how to really convey much of anything in this blog. I’m here to serve, I felt a call and had to find where that call was coming from. I’m almost thirty with 3 kids and I’m married. I used to sit in a cubicle and sell insurance over the phone and I was good at it. I can connect with people quickly and serve his/her needs in about twenty minutes, another ten to get the policy or policies rolling and after 11 hours in the building I would clock out and go home with…
MY AMERICORPS SERVICE THROUGH THE WORDS OF BEAT POETS BY AMBER DECHAINE
“None of us understand what we are doing, but we do beautiful things anyways” -Allan Ginsberg. That is how my year of service began. Confusion and chaos amongst paperwork and packing boxes. I was unsure of what I was committing to and how I would budget bills and expenses with only a living stipend at my disposal. It wasn’t until orientation that it began to sink in. Three days spent with people I have never met. Team building, sharing meals, service learning. In those three days we learned about our mutual connection. The passion to give something of ourselves to those…
Alumni Spotlight: Emily Clark
Emily served as both an AmeriCorps Leader at Montana Campus Compact, and later as a staff member! Of the service year, Emily said “I was able to witness inspirational community service occurring across the vast state of Montana. MTCC college student members served a breadth of community needs: from health classes at the Poplar Wellness Center with Fort Peck Community College to the TRIO peer tutoring at UM Western in Dillon. MTCC fostered collaborations between non-profits and college campuses to meet community needs and encouraged student members to be proactive citizens. I feel fortunate to have met many engaged and charitable Montanas while…
Alumni Spotlight: Sydne Campbell
Sydne served as a Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA at Fort Peck Community College from 2004-2005. Of the service year, Sydne said “It helped me to be able to work with those from other areas of the United States and see what we do have in common as one. It gave me a positive encouraging push to strive to help others in a positive way. It helped me to give back to my community and the organization.”Sydne currently works as a Legal Assistant/Administrative Assistant at the Fort Peck Tribes Chairman’s Office. Thanks for your service, Sydne!
Almuni Spotlight: Katie Koga
Katie served as a Campus Compact AmeriCorps Team Leader at The University of Montana from 2010-2011. Reflecting on the service year, Katie said “This experience helped shape my view of public service and what it looks like for different individuals. Following my time with Campus Corps, I transitioned to working for a social justice organization, addressing issues of prejudice, oppression, and discrimination. As I’m transitioning to a career in healthcare, my service experience continues to strengthen my commitment to work that serves and benefits the public while engaging me as a community member.”Katie is a current student at the University of Montana, in the pre-nursing…
Alumni Spotlight: Jon Stephani
Jon served as an AmeriCorps Team Leader at The University of Montana Western from 2009-2011, and was a staff member at Montana Campus Compact from 2013-2015. Reflecting on service, Jon said “I would not be where I am today without my experience with the Montana Campus Compact. My two years of National Service set the stage for my future career. While serving, I was involved in many training and development opportunities that allowed me to build skills in Situational Leadership, Group and Team Dynamics, and Project Planning and Implementation. National Service pushed me to become not grow professionally, but to become a better person. As a staff…
Alumni Spotlight: Jennifer Gardner Newbold
Jennifer was an AmeriCorps Leader with the University of Montana Campus Corps from 1999-2000. Reflecting on service, Jennifer said “It really solidified in me a sense of responsibility to my community. I was always civic-minded, but my second year with AmeriCorps as an AmeriCorps Leader with Campus Compact really instilled in me a lifelong sense of duty in me. I think that’s because I developed a deep appreciation for service through my time with AmeriCorps. You see so many needs met, but also so many needs left unfulfilled. You learn that you actually can – and do – make a difference. It…
Alumni Spotlight: Jenny Eck
Jenny served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Poverello Center, Inc. from 2004-2005. Reflecting on the service year, Jenny said “The work I did during my year as an AmeriCorps VISTA helped me prepare for future employment in many ways. It was my first job in a professional office setting, and my first job in the nonprofit sector. It was also how I gained experience in grant writing and fundraising. I have since gone on to build on those skills I first learned at the Poverello Center.””When I come across people in the professional world who were once VISTA’s, I often know it right…
GUEST POST: NEWMAN CIVIC FELLOW SOPHIE MOON CHECKS IN.
Thanks to Campus Compact and the University of Montana, last week I was able to attend the Newman Civic Fellows Conference in Boston, Massachusetts as the University of Montana’s Newman Civic Fellow.Held at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, the conference brought together student leaders from across the country to celebrate our work and strategize for the future. Fellows had the special opportunity of debating current issues, such as the DREAM Act and the Farm Bill, in a way that closely resembled real-life deliberations in the Senate. We also toured the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and used the space to…
GAMIFYING EDUCATION BY DAYTON SMITH
I had never heard the phrase “gamify education” before I joined the Tech4Good team at Salish Kootenai College.Gamifying education is a trendy term for efforts to create immersive, engaging experiences as opposed to traditional lecture or classroom learning and it’s something I continue to enjoy implementing into our various programs at. Another term commonly used to describe the practices in place at Tech4Good and in the Digital Design Technology department is “experiential learning”.Our keystone program at Flathead Tech4Good, now in its third year, is called Gaming the Future. The goal of this yearlong project is to gamify our educational opportunities…
PAYING IT FORWARD BY ADAM MAES
For just over two months now I have been serving at Montana Tech in Butte, Montana. This is not new territory for me; I was born and raised in Anaconda, MT just 20 miles away. After completing a first term of service last year in Havre, MT I wasn’t sure I wanted to complete a second. However, I felt it was my “duty” to perform one more round of AmeriCorps service – specifically at this site.I was raised in a low-income household and neither of my parents went to college. As a result, I was never sure I would go…
THANK YOU AMERICORPS BY NICOLE LEMASTER
One week ago I hit my two month mark in Missoula Montana, two thousand miles from my old Kentucky home. And of course, it started snowing transforming this valley in the Rockies into a widespread blanket of white. It went from a Kentucky September fall day to a Kentucky harsh winter day in the middle of February. Can you tell that I feel unprepared for the winter that is here? However, that’s a part of the experience I wanted when I signed up to be an AmeriCorps Leader at the SpecrtrUM Discovery Area here in Missoula Montana six months ago….
EXPANDING YOUR COMFORT ZONE
What do you want to get out of service? This question is often asked when members are at the beginning of their service year. Some members say professional development, others may say the experience to travel to a new community. When I think of service, expanding my comfort zone comes to mind. It is human nature to want to stay in a familiarized state. Being pushed into a new situation can be scary sometimes. Last week Montana Campus Compact (MTCC) hosted a training called “FRAME: Expanding your Comfort Zone”. This training is to help challenge our AmeriCorps Leaders and VISTAs to…
DISILLUSIONMENT AND EMPATHY BY SABRINA QUIMBY
We all fear the unknown, but some people live it everyday, not knowing when their next meal will be or if they are going to wake up the next day. I personally feared failure in the face of ambition when I made my decision to serve Montana Campus Compact under AmeriCorps as a leader for Flagship. I feared not being able to make it here after wanting this for two years because of my financial situation, but sometimes you just have to go for it anyways.Two flights and a car ride later, I was here not knowing what to expect. Running an after-school…
CHASING CURIOSITY BY JORDAN FERNANDEZ
It was a brisk and grey day at the end of September when Head Start came for a class to help illustrate positive parent and child interactions. Outside, the hills were dressed with heavy clouds, while the Missoula valley floor felt the sprinkle of light rain. The seasons were changing and you could feel it in the crisp breeze. I had been serving as a MTCC AmeriCorps Leader at Empower Place (as part of Broader Impacts Group, SpectrUM, Missoula Food Bank, and Community Center) for a few weeks.A family came in that early fall morning that really shifted my perspective…
SERVICE MEMBERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON SEPTEMBER 11TH
In honor of the national day of service observed on September 11th, Montana Campus Compact national service members spent the last few weeks engaging in service projects around the state. VISTA members Rachel Juel, Eli Bowe, Andrew Prior, Kaleigh Mency, and Yanet Eudave Marin collaborated with other service members and a local farm to harvest 982 pounds of apples for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank in Bozeman.Members in the Flathead Valley, Navraj Kaler, JJ Dynneson, and Courtney Olson also collaborated with service members from other projects to volunteer at the Montana Dragon Boat Festival in Lakeside, an event sponsored by…
SERVICE MEMBERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON SEPTEMBER 11
VISTA members at the Missoula Food BankIn honor of the national day of service observed on September 11th, Montana Campus Compact national service members spent the last few weeks engaging in service projects around the state. VISTA members Rachel Juel, Eli Bowe, Andrew Prior, Kaleigh Mency, and Yanet Eudave Marin collaborated with other service members and a local farm to harvest 982 pounds of apples for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank in Bozeman.Members in the Flathead Valley, Navraj Kaler, JJ Dynneson, and Courtney Olson also collaborated with service members from other projects to volunteer at the Montana Dragon Boat Festival…
CAMP REACH MORE CHALLENGES YOUTH TO REACH HIGHER
(Guest blog by Gina Wiezel , MTCC AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate with Missoula Parks and Recreation)The Montana CampusCompact Summer VISTA and AmeriCorps Program offers Montana students and residents the opportunity to serve in their local communities, or across the state, to help run summer learning loss prevention camps, summer feeding programs, and summer college prep camps. This summer 53 national service members participated in diverse activities to help Montana community organizations fight local poverty, including increasing tutoring and mentoring resources, managing various summer activities and support services for children and families, supporting feeding programs to help alleviate hunger within the…
BATTLING HUNGER AND BUILDING COMMUNITY IN THE GALLATIN VALLEY!
Guest blog by Aubree Pierce, MTCC AmeriCorps VISTA with Montana State University___________________________________________My project is at the MSU campus food pantry, Bounty of the Bridgers (BoB). We began having pop-up pantries in October of 2017 so we are making adjustments and trying to improve the pantry as we go. My role with this project has been integral in building capacity and creating sustainability for the BoB Pantry. Through this project I have developed relationships with many campus and community partners who have helped push this project forward and are helping create permanence and sustainability on campus. These relationships as well as…