By Isabella Culver | July 28 2025 As I am concluding my second term as an AmeriCorps Service Member, I am constantly in a state of reflection of the things I have learned and experienced the past two years. Both of my terms, while vastly different (my first term in rural Vermont and second term in Montana’s University network), both share commonalities in the education sector. My interactions with education-related missions at the United Way of Rutland County in Rutland, Vermont and at the Montana Campus Network for Civic Engagement located in Missoula, Montana, have made me come to the conclusion that early education is so much more than teaching curriculum to young students. While learning basic knowledge is vital to a child’s educational development, I have grown to realize that schools should also strive to be places of comfort, stability, and act as a resource for their students that provides students with life support that surpasses the bar of just being a place where new things are learned and grades are given.
While it ultimately should be the responsibility of the parent to take care of their child’s needs, we live in a world where this is unfortunately not guaranteed. Children cannot help the homelife they are born into, and do not have the means to make changes if they are not in a sustainable, safe, and nurturing environment. For many children, as I have learned through my AmeriCorps experience, see school as their safe space, their access to food, and an outlet to express themselves. Knowing this, we as a society cannot expect students to be successful in school if their basic needs are not being met. In other words, how is a student supposed to memorize their times tables or practice grammar if they are hungry and worrying about when their next meal will be? Why should we expect students to excel at standardized tests if they are afraid to leave school to go home? How is a student supposed to make friends and grow socially if they do not have proper shoes or clothing to go outside at recess and play among their peers?
There are many schools across the country that are making student well-being a priority by implementing special programs and offering additional resources, but this is in no way the standard or expected of schools. I have learned that funding for student well-being and support services is not guaranteed nor easily accessible across the United States.
I have served alongside programs whose priority is to ensure students have enough food to get through the weekend because they are unable to access food at home. Additionally, I have served alongside programs that offer additional support for students who need a space to express themselves or speak their mind because they do not feel safe to do so at home. Additionally, many of the programs that I served with relied on grant funding through other nonprofits, private entities, or generous donations–meaning this funding for these programs were outsourced and not inherently part of the school’s budget as a whole. These funding streams do not usually guarantee a sustainable program structure from year to year.
While all educational institutions should cultivate a safe and inclusive learning environment, early education should have a special focus on the environment they create in addition to the content they teach. Schools should prioritize checking in with their students emotionally in addition to the already existent emphasis on their intellectual progress. For I believe that emotional stability and overall well-being heavily influences a persons, especially a child’s, ability to learn. I believe that there are countless schools that believe in these values that focus on cultivating a well-rounded support system for their students, but many are struggling to find the means to actually implement these values in their schools through additional programming and specialized staff. My opinion has been shaped by my privilege to learn and understand the impact and success of these programs first hand in communities I have grown to love. I am hopeful that this kind of care and love for students I witnessed through my AmeriCorps service is something that becomes a standard for all schools across the United States.