REMEMBERING GEORGE PT. 2
I had the pleasure of working with George Dennison for nearly 20 years at the University of Montana. His visionary leadership and support for civic engagement programming provided the basis for all of my professional work at UM and statewide. Under his leadership, UM’s service learning and civic engagement initiatives were launched and institutionalized. In addition to being one of the founding presidents of Montana Campus Compact, he also created UM’s Volunteer Action Services office which later became the Office for Civic Engagement. Thousands of UM students each year continue to engage in volunteer and service learning activities because of the foundation…
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY 2017 IN MONTANA
Absorbing the lessonsWide eyes. Pointed fingers. Smiling faces. Enthusiastic hands coloring pictures and writing poems. Mouths agape and fumbling for words to formulate questions. These were the expressions and experiences of thousands of kindergarten through 4th grade students all over Montana during Montana Campus Compact’s Martin Luther King Jr. 2017 Read for Peace event. Read for Peace is an annual MLK service Day operation that utilizes the wonderful help of community volunteers, VISTAs, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members, college students and elected officials to read to elementary age students about the message, life, and legacy of Martin Luther King. Already…
REMEMBERING GEORGE DENNISON
George Dennison, 1935-2017. Photo by Erik-StenbakkenEarlier this month we lost George Dennison to non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Known to many of us a “President Dennison” or later, just “George” after enough years and when it didn’t feel strange or disrespectful. It’s hard to overstate the forward-thinking, future shaping work that George committed himself to. On a daily basis working for Campus Compact and with higher ed. in Montana I still feel the impact of his belief in service, civic engagement and higher education’s role in supporting American democracy, and global citizenship. The list of Dennison’s accomplishments while administering the University of Montana is…
MLK JR. DAY IN MONTANA
You probably know that Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is coming and while many schools, campuses and businesses are closed, we treat it as a day of service. Here in Montana, MTCC sponsors an event called Read for Peace that was started by an MTCC VISTA named Bess Pallares several years back. Across the state, our campuses and their national service members, students, staff, faculty and volunteers work with nearby elementary schools to read about Dr. Kings, his words, ideas and legacy. After the reading, these volunteers work with kids to do either an art project or poem…
MTCC VISTA SPOTLIGHT: SCARLETT DAY-ALEMAN IN LAME DEER
Scarlett Day-Aleman is a Compact AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Lame Deer public schools on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation in southeastern Montana. What started out for Scarlett as a summer AmeriCorps placement with The Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne in Lame Deer has transitioned into a full-time position as a VISTA in the same community. Scarlett has excelled in her new role – building an after school program for the public schools, leveraging community volunteers to help with sustainable growth of the programs, and initiating a reading program for students to read to stray dogs to boost…
LIFE AFTER VISTA: DOING WHAT YOU LOVE
Sara Feilzer is an MTCC VISTA Alum currently working for Exploration Works in Helena, MT. Her passion for teaching science to young Montanans has been an inspiration to everyone she works with. We would like to highlight her past and current accomplishments and thank her for her service to Montana communities.When and where did you serve your term as a Compact AmeriCorps VISTA?I served from July 2015 to July 2016 in Missoula with spectrUM Discovery Area, a hands-on science center focused on encouraging the next generation of Montanans to pursue higher education and hopefully a career in STEM (Science Technology…
BITTERROOT COLLEGE HOSTS COMMUNITY FORUM
Several staff members from MTCC’s Network Office spent an inspiring day in Hamilton, Montana with an inspiring crew of folks like Tim Peterson from Bitterroot Collective Impact, Dan Griffin from the Valley Veterans Service Center, Allen Bjergo from the Bitter Root Resource Conservation and Development Area, and Roch Turner and Kate Johnson from Bitterroot College. Kate’s serving her second term as an AmeriCorps VISTA and helped organize the conference, and Roch’s an MTCC VISTA alum.At the conference we heard from dedicated leaders like Susan Hay Patrick from the United Way of Missoula County, Deb Halliday from the Office of Public…
CREATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING SUPPORTING YOUNG MOTHERS
Carly Hosford-Israel began her MTCC VISTA service with Fort Peck Community College and Poplar Schools in July of 2016. Within the past three months, Carly’s vision and determination to empower students and individuals for educational attainment has been outstanding and with no lack of regular ups and downs. Carly has demonstrated resilience and a wide range of capabilities to support her VISTA service term. The creative freedom and capacity building elements AmeriCorps VISTA provides can be daunting, however for Carly it has been an open invitation to tackle some long standing issues facing the Poplar community and to make big…
MILESTONE: ONE MILLION AMERICORPS MEMBERS!
We’re excited to have been a part of the now 1,000,000 Americans who have served with AmeriCorps over its 21 years. We started here, in Montana as AmeriCorps began with a student engagement program called Campus Corps, moved on to support literacy with Montana Reads, and worked with our Colorado partners with the UCAN Serve program, our Washington friends with Students In Service, and Mountain West with the Compact Service Corps. Now we run a program that’s just called MTCC AmeriCorps, and we focus on high school graduation, postsecondary access and college completion. Over those past twenty or so years…
MTCC VISTA National Day of Service
Over the 9/11 remembrance weekend, MTCC VISTA members across Montana collaborated to lend their hands in service to a wide range of community betterment work. Ideally, given the success of this year’s National Day of Service, every weekend would see VISTA members engaging in service work to directly impact the communities where they live. The purpose of service is threefold: to create solidarity amongst individuals doing service; to better existing methods of community empowerment and intervention; and to plant and cultivate the seed of service within each of our members and those they knowingly or unknowingly influence every day.We’d like…
GIVING COMMUNITIES “BIG MICROPHONES”
This year, Campus Compact recognizes Robin Saha, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, as the 2016 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award Recipient.Saha’s engaged scholarship sits at the intersection of environmental justice, health and policy, emphasizing advocacy for marginalized communities. His nationally recognized work shed light on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and has been cited in Fortune Magazine, the Boston Globe, and the Huffington Post.Using Geographic Information Systems, Saha has worked to establish quantitative methods for assessing racial and socioeconomic disparities in locations with environmental hazards. Dr. Saha, in partnership with Robert Bullard and…
BEGINNING MY SERVICE
Hi everyone! My name is Margaret and I am the new senior AmeriCorps Leader located in the Montana Campus Compact office. I just started at the beginning of September. I am a Montana girl. I grew up in Cascade and was already in Missoula when I began my AmeriCorps application process. I graduated from The University of Montana in 2014 with a degree in Marketing, Management and a certificate in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. I love hiking, running and backpacking with my adventure dog Keta, she is a rescue from Alaska. I love a great cup of coffee and…
ROOM TO GROW: A SERVICE STORY BY CARA GETCHES
Below is a story of service from Cara Getches, one of our VISTA Summer Associates with the Helena YMCA. Cara’s experience as an AmeriCorps VISTA was full of meaning, reflection and growth on multiple levels. We appreciate the commitment she took to serve underprivileged youth and praise the impact she had in their lives and the community at large. Here is a link to a video Cara produced for the YMCA Summer Literacy Initiative. The Password to access the video is: YMCA__________________________________________Room to GrowBy Carolyn GetchesCampus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA, Summer 2016For years, serving with AmeriCorps was on my list of things to do. Like…
MONTANA PROFESSOR ROBIN SAHA WINS NATIONAL EHRLICH AWARD
Dr. Robin Saha, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana has been selected to receive the 2016 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award. More about Saha’s work and this prestigious award can be found on the Campus Compact website.The Ehrlich award is made annually to recognize one faculty member and up to four finalists for exemplary leadership in advancing student civic learning, conducting community-based research, fostering reciprocal partnerships, building institutional commitments to engagement, and enhancing higher education’s contributions to the public good. The award is named in honor of Thomas Ehrlich, former chair of the Campus Compact…
COMPACT VISTA ALUM IAN LAWRENCE CHECKS IN
We at the Montana Campus Compact network office recently got thank you notes from Ian Lawrence on his last day of VISTA service. I sent him back a handful of questions as a follow up, and what follows are his inspiring answers.—————————————————————-Where did you do your VISTA service?I did my VISTA service in Lame Deer, Montana, a small district situated on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.How was higher education a part of your service? Higher education became an integral part of my service when I realized that, for young native people living in poverty, education is oftentimes the only route they…
CHECKING IN WITH AMERICORPS LEADER SHANADA HICKS
Our staff member Lacy Fiore checked in with AmeriCorps Leader Shanada Hicks to see how her service is going. Shanada comes to Montana from Denver, CO and serves with Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming and Rocky Mountain College. Keep reading to learn more about her service to Montana:_____________________________________________________________________Where are you serving and what does a typical day look like?I am serving in Billings, MT. A typical day starts with preparing materials and lesson plans for our Girl Scout Troops. The best part is getting to engage the girls in these activates. I enjoy watching them learn and expand their…
GOODBYE AND THANK YOU TO OUR SUMMER ASSOCIATES AND MEMBERS
Community service and bonding is the source of change from the ground up. A trickle up approach that changes the heart more so than the wallet. In this way AmeriCorps Summer Associates not only fight the material and monetary pressures of living in poverty but also empower others to open their hearts to the possibility of community inclusion. Throughout the summer, 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…
ROCKY HOSTING SERVICE LEARNING WORKSHOP
Rocky’s beautiful campus.You may already know that through your CEO’s affiliation your campus is a member of Campus Compact, a national (and Montana) network advancing the public purposes of higher education. Our state Compact office offers training, programs, awards and scholarships to our members to support their work to address needs in our communities and educate students for civic and social responsibility.We are excited this month to offer a Service Learning Professional Development Workshop in eastern Montana for faculty, staff and administrators from the Campus Compact network. Rocky Mountain College will host the event on Friday, August 12. The workshop…
LITTLE BIG HORN COLLEGE HOSTS AMERICORPS TRAINING
MTCC AmeriCorps at Little Bighorn CollegeThe wind was unforgivingly whipping across the plains while a young native woman with long black hair flowing in the wind rode a bare back on a horse up a hill riddled with white markers at the Little Big Horn Battlefield. The stories of the battle echoed throughout the rental car over the radio speakers synced to a cell phone. Each historical marker had a corresponding stop number which changed the story to that location. Being surrounded by the narrative of this clash of cultures and being placed in the story by proximity, “over the…
ERIK SWANSON, VISTA WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA AND MISSOULA PUBLIC LIBRARY MAKERSPACE, CHECKS-IN
Erik Swanson tabling at U of M Volunteer FairErik Swanson started his year of service as a Montana Campus Compact (MTCC) VISTA back in July of 2015. Erik has made a ridiculously significant positive impact within his service site, the Missoula Public Library MakerSpace. The MakerSpace supports STEM learning, and provides resurces and tools to support innovative ideas to become reality. Erik has grown the MakerSpace’s capacity and increased its volunteer involvement, hours donated, and classes offered to levels the MakersSpace has never seen before.Here is what Erik had to say about his service: What is your background and what led…