Tag: 2023-2024

I began my service at Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Montana in September. For the past five to six months, I have had the pleasure of getting to know this community on the reservation. One of my favorite things about service so far has been getting to know a whole new culture and the people…

Here at the start of my second year at my host site, it’s interesting to look back and take stock of where I am now and what I need to do. My project is helping the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana develop a Climate Resilience Plan*. For context, climate resilience positions are newer to VISTA,…

Now six months into my third year with AmeriCorps Montana as a VISTA, sharing my experience in the program is something I have attempted to do in the past. The opportunity to serve with three separate nonprofit organizations has been a great opportunity to give back. While the experience has made me a better team…

In the community of Missoula, Montana, Soft Landing Missoula stands as a welcoming place for refugees and immigrants. As a dedicated member of this organization, my experience has been both rewarding and transformative, particularly through my involvement with the Girls

As the heat begins to push into me, my only thought is escape. It is too hot in here, I don’t know if can take it, I think I want to leave, I want to leave, I can leave if I want, there is nothing keeping me in this place, i can leave, take a…

“You’re up for anything!” I’ve heard this from many people, many times. It’s a compliment, but it’s also a nice way to say that I’m the person who asks when and where to show up and what I should wear. I’m the person who follows along. I’m the person who agrees to the plans after…

This past week we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday meant to honor the life and accomplishments of MLK. As a prominent civil rights figure, Dr. King’s tireless efforts towards equality through peaceful protest led to groundbreaking changes in the United States. The holiday in his name was first observed on Jan…

“Your wheels are spinning in place.” This is what a friend and colleague said to me as we chatted in his office in-between classes this past Spring semester. Three years had passed since I graduated college in May 2020, at the heights of the COVID pandemic, and I had only a negligible cluster of professional…

It’s always mattered to me where I live. From an early age was enamored with the idea of moving away from Iowa, leaving forever, and going to live in a utopian city somewhere. For a long time, this perfect escape was Canada, a mythical place where some aunts and uncles  lived and where my dad…

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.” ― Stephen Hawking. As we reached the midway point in the COVID19 hysteria that gripped the nation, (and the world at large), mandatory quarantines left all of us with lots of extra time on our hands. Like many around me, my idle…

Lately, I’ve been reading at least an article a day from the online publication: Inside Higher Ed. Every article in the student success section relates to being a College Coach. Today’s article highlights something that I experienced firsthand yesterday. Shawn VanDerziel, President and CEO of National Association of Colleges and Employers, stated that, “We have…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

“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…

There is something special about being on the road here in Montana. In such a vast state, with large distances between population centers, the road inevitably becomes a key aspect of your life. Where I serve, in the northern Hi-Line region near Canada, travel takes a considerable amount of your time. For nearly a year…

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…

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.

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,…