Inside this issue Justin Henry .................. 2 Robby Salorio ................ 3 Hannah Reckhow............ 4 Alex Prolman ................. 4 Julie Markarian............... 5 Emily Johnson................ 6 Brandy Oswald ............... 7 Marcella Houghton.......... 8 Daron Blake................... 9 Nikita Griffin .................. 10 Ashley Piatt ................... 10 Anna Berg ..................... 11 Michelle Sayles .............. 12 Allie Pflughoeft ............... 13 Sara Dillingham ............. 14 Member Accomplishments .................................... 15 Mark Hengstler .............. 16 Sara Pierce .................... 17 Ryan Morra.................... 18 Kate Cahalane ............... 19 Amanda Udoff ................ 19 Alaina Wermers.............. 20 Steph Olsen ................... 21 Hilary Watson ................ 22 Victoria Davis ............... 22 Caitlin Wyneken ............. 23 Ali Siegel ....................... 24 Ashton Kulesa ................ 25 Professional Development and Trainings ................ 26 Dear Readers, I am happy to bring you the first of three newsletters featuring the 2013-2014 Vermont Youth Tomorrow A*VISTA Program (VYT) team. VYT is an anti-poverty, national service program supporting 30 A*VISTA members at community-based organizations, schools, and municipalities throughout Vermont. Following orientation in August, VYT members hit the ground running and began building capacity at their organizations and in their communities. In just three months, they have organized fundraisers, developed new programs, and connected youth with numerous opportunities. I have been fortunate enough to visit each member of the team at their sites, and I continue to be amazed by the breadth of skills and experience they bring to their service. Their visions for the year ahead are inspiring and extensive and their enthusiasm is pro- found. I can’t wait to see what they do this year. In this issue, members were asked to introduce themselves and what led them to service, and to describe their vision for how their service year will help their organizations more effectively alleviate poverty. Please take a moment to check out the accomplishments of last year’s team as well – the numbers say it all. In service, Anna Houston VYT VISTA Leader Newsletter Editor VYT VOICES Fall 2013 Volume 12, Issue 1 Vermont Youth Tomorrow A*VISTA Program
In this issue, members of the 2013-2014 Vermont Youth Tomorrow AmeriCorps VISTA team introduce themselves, discuss what drew them to VISTA, and explain how they hope their year of service will help to alleviate poverty.
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Transcript
Inside this issue
Justin Henry .................. 2
Robby Salorio ................ 3
Hannah Reckhow............ 4
Alex Prolman ................. 4
Julie Markarian ............... 5
Emily Johnson ................ 6
Brandy Oswald ............... 7
Marcella Houghton .......... 8
Daron Blake ................... 9
Nikita Griffin .................. 10
Ashley Piatt ................... 10
Anna Berg ..................... 11
Michelle Sayles .............. 12
Allie Pflughoeft ............... 13
Sara Dillingham ............. 14
Member Accomplishments
.................................... 15
Mark Hengstler .............. 16
Sara Pierce .................... 17
Ryan Morra .................... 18
Kate Cahalane ............... 19
Amanda Udoff ................ 19
Alaina Wermers.............. 20
Steph Olsen ................... 21
Hilary Watson ................ 22
Victoria Davis ............... 22
Caitlin Wyneken ............. 23
Ali Siegel ....................... 24
Ashton Kulesa ................ 25
Professional Development
and Trainings ................ 26
Dear Readers,
I am happy to bring you the first of three newsletters featuring the
2013-2014 Vermont Youth Tomorrow A*VISTA Program (VYT) team. VYT is an anti-poverty, national service program supporting 30 A*VISTA members at community-based organizations, schools, and municipalities
throughout Vermont.
Following orientation in August, VYT members hit the ground running and began building capacity at their organizations and in their communities. In just three months, they have organized fundraisers,
developed new programs, and connected youth with numerous opportunities. I have been fortunate enough to visit each member of
the team at their sites, and I continue to be amazed by the breadth of skills and experience they bring to their service. Their visions for the year ahead are inspiring and extensive and their enthusiasm is pro-
found. I can’t wait to see what they do this year.
In this issue, members were asked to introduce themselves and what led them to service, and to describe their vision for how their service
year will help their organizations more effectively alleviate poverty. Please take a moment to check out the accomplishments of last year’s
team as well – the numbers say it all.
In service, Anna Houston
VYT VISTA Leader Newsletter Editor
VYT VOICES
Fall 2013
Volume 12, Issue 1
Vermont Youth Tomorrow
A*VISTA Program
Alaina Wermers,
A*VISTA
City of Winooski
Community Service
Department
In college I spent a considerable
amount of time working as a
community organizer and an
advocate on issues concerning
poverty, homelessness, and
social justice. After graduating
college I wanted to use my skills
I had acquired to continue to help
others - but I was unsure of just
where I could have an impact. I
found a position with AmeriCorps
VISTA in Montana at a mental
health center. I served specifi-
cally at a drop-in center assisting
those experiencing homeless-
ness. Being immersed into a new
community, and having the op-
portunity to learn from those who
have dedicated their lives to the
war on poverty inspired me to
continue my VISTA service. See-
ing the challenges facing those in
poverty, as well as the institu-
tions that provide needed ser-
vices, also further resolved my
desire to continue in a service
capacity.
I discovered a position with
Vermont Youth Tomorrow sta-
tioned at the Vermont Coalition
to End Homelessness and Ver-
mont Affordable Housing Coali-
tion. The position I applied for
seemed like quite the opportunity
to continue working on homeless-
ness and housing issues, to de-
velop skills concerning communi-
ty outreach and communication,
and to learn about the non-profit
world in Vermont (both coalitions
combined having 90 plus organi-
zations as members). In my
short time at this VISTA position,
I can say I have not been disap-
pointed.
Being able to travel a bit across
the state of Vermont and to see
firsthand the needs facing our
service providers and state
agencies has made it apparent to
me the importance of programs
such as Vermont Youth Tomor-
row. This program has given me
the opportunity to build systems
to better improve communica-
tions between both of the coali-
tions I serve, to work on projects
such as improving the count of
youth homelessness, and to in-
crease information and access to
affordable housing.
I am very excited to continue my
year with Vermont Youth
Tomorrow and hope my service
makes a positive impact in these
tough economic times for the
most vulnerable Vermonters.
Justin Henry, VYT A*VISTA member
Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and the Vermont
Affordable Housing Coalition (Burlington, VT )
AmeriShares Each month members are given an opportunity to
plan and lead an AmeriShare presentation. Members
choose a topic of their choice and then gain
experiencing in researching, planning, and
facilitating a presentation.
This year, members have facilitated the following
presentations: managing stress through making low-
cost stress balls; making apple print cards using
gleaned apples (pictured left).
Page 2
After working in the private
sector for a little over two
years and being told in April I
would be losing my job in New
York City I began to think
about what I really wanted to
do with my life. I had studied
International Relations and
Spanish in college and hadn’t
been using either since I had
finished school. This was when
I decided I wanted to serve
with AmeriCorps and do
something with some meaning.
Browsing through all of the list-
ings on the AmeriCorps website
I came across the Migrant Edu-
cation Program, part of VYT.
The program serves families
and out-of-school youth who
move throughout the state for
agricultural work with educa-
tional resources. They were
looking for a VISTA to serve as
a volunteer coordinator primar-
ily to support the Latino out-of-
school youth population. It
was the perfect fit. The position
offered me the opportunity to
use my Spanish and work with
a sector of society I had always
admired and wanted to learn
more about; it also gave me
the chance to move to
Vermont, a place I had never
been.
Now that I am a few months in
to my year of service, I have a
much better vision of what I
would like my service to look
like. As we discussed at the
PSO and continue to discuss at
VYT training, poverty is an in-
credibly complex issue with
many faces and shapes, and in
the state of Vermont the faces
of Latino migrant workers are
often hidden. My goal for this
year of service is to provide
these men, women, and youth
with educational services that
will allow them to go above and
beyond what they may believe
possible. I want to provide
these incredibly hard workers
with access to education
through dedicated volunteers
who they can develop friend-
ships with and to ensure those
friendships continue.
An aspect of poverty we some-
times do not recognize is isola-
tion. The isolation of the Latino
migrant farm worker is an as-
pect of poverty that can be
eliminated by providing a
friendly face who cannot only
give the gift of education but
also can be someone to laugh
with, talk with, play soccer
with, and bring some
semblance of normalcy into the
life of the student. Through
this we can eliminate that
isolation and bring some joy to
lives of our students who give
us so much through their hard
work.
Latino migrant workers are
such an integral part of Ver-
mont’s economy and society
that it is time for us to pay it
forward through our own hard
work and service.
Robby Salorio, VYT A*VISTA member
UVM Extension— Vermont Migrant Education Program
(Berlin, VT )
The isolation of the Latino migrant farm worker is an aspect of poverty that can be
eliminated by providing a friendly face who cannot only give the gift of education but also
can be someone to laugh with, talk with, play soccer with, and bring some semblance of
normalcy into the life of the student.
Page 3
Alex Prolman and Hannah Reckhow, VYT A*VISTA members
enVision Montpelier (Montpelier, VT)
Page 7
I am Alex. I am Hannah.
We both left the warm security of infinity in
1991.
I am a catamount alumnus; my degree says things like “Community Entrepreneur” and “Food Systems” and “Ecological Agricul-
ture” but,
I am a pachyderm alumnus; my degree says things like “Cathedrals” and “Materiality” and “Green Urban
Design” but,
That is only slightly more descriptive of us than is our collection of books, or music, or
grocery bills.
I enjoy biking, baking, canning and planning.
I enjoy playing, and working, and being,
and standing
But it is our inner drives that have brought
us here.
I am motivated by a sharp sense of responsibility, justice, and the fleeting
bursts of defiant hope in a society that is by any measure on the decline.
I am motivated by the promise of a more
efficient world - of a built environment that does not block health or happiness.
And now we are VISTAs with the Montpelier
Department of Planning and Community Development.
I was drawn by Montpelier’s repute as a forward-thinking capital, and by the chance
to contribute, and by the opportunity to learn and experience what it takes to
operate a city equitably.
I was drawn by the compelling idea of combining city planning and volunteer
service to create an even more powerful tool to alleviate poverty.
We were drawn by the enVision program’s ambition, by the process of creating and following through on a hundred year plan that includes the entire community and all
its assets.
Sometimes it is like herding cats. Opinionated cats.
Cranky cats. Distracted, frustrated, silly cats.
(O feral felines, why must thou not herd
easy?)
But the process is the point: inclusive de-mocracy is hard, and messy. Still, it is the
goal.
The goal is to promote food justice, The goal is to provide access to basic
needs,
The goal is to transition from a way of life that provides much for few, to one that
provides enough for all.
To a way by which the community meets its needs through ecologically regenerative
practices
To a city that is well connected with itself and its needs
And all of Montpelier’s many voices are a part of this urgent, slow, byzantine game.
Page 4
Julie Markarian, VYT A*VISTA member
Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports (Burlington, VT)
My name is Julie Markarian; I’m a Massachusetts trans-
plant living in Burlington, Vermont and serving at my dream site for the year.
Thanks to AmeriCorps VISTA, I am serving with Vermont
Adaptive Ski and Sports, a nonprofit that mirrors my be-lief in the power of play. Ver-
mont Adaptive is dedicated to empowering individuals with
all levels of physical and
cognitive abilities through sports and recreation, and over the course of my service
year, I hope to gain skills in therapeutic recreation and
non-profit capacity building, while networking and enjoying lasting friendships with our
participants, volunteers, and affiliates. The programs offered through Vermont
Adaptive aim to increase
confidence, independence,
and overall quality of life for our participants and their sup-port networks (family, friends,
etc.); we equal the playing field and allow people to get out and recreate by address-
ing and breaking down obsta-cles that have oftentimes
stood in their way. When peo-ple face financial hardships, recreating moves to the bot-
tom of the list of importance in day-to-day life, replaced by
the need to pay bills, put food on the table, and simply sur-vive. Add a disability to that
instructors. We work as a team to encourage in-dependence, freedom,
confidence, and happi-
ness through our fun outings,
and allow people to simply be who they are. Increasing the quality of life for all of our
participants is our mission, but this especially rings true for our participants who are
low-income. Allowing people to have a safe space to
recreate and play helps to refuel from the mental toll their hardships and struggles
have taken on them, while helping them feel a sense of
self-worth and accomplish-ment. Feelings of pride in one’s abilities raise a level of
confidence that may have
been broken down due to poverty, so helping people feel good about who they are
and what they are capable of doing is a stepping stone towards fighting the battle to
transcend or alleviate poverty. Working with participants who
have faced unimaginable hardships and who are still fighting the odds with grace,
compassion, and humor reminds me every day of the
importance of providing a means of play to every body out there!
Helping people feel good about who they are and what they are capable of doing is a
stepping stone towards fighting the battle to alleviate poverty.
Julie (far left)
and race
participants
at the Bolton
5K to benefit
VT Adaptive.
Page 5
Hello! I am serving as the Farm to School
Coordinator VISTA at the Schoolhouse Learning
Center in South Burlington. I came to VISTA
service in a roundabout way: I have always
loved gardening, and I grew up helping my par-
ents with their veggie garden at our home in Or-
egon. I did a lot of service at community gar-
dens throughout middle and high school, and
when home for breaks during college. I gradu-
ated from college with a geology-chemistry de-
gree and then went to New Zealand on a vege-
table horticultural internship working on a
small, family-run vegetable farm. When I re-
turned to the U.S. and began job searching, I
started volunteering again at the community
garden in my hometown and the idea popped
into my head to look for AmeriCorps positions
related to school and community gardens. And
here I am!
My service will help my site alleviate poverty by
starting a farm to school education program that
will give preschool and elementary students the
foundation they need to make healthy eating
and food choices. The program,
“Farm, Forest, Food,” has kids en-
gaged in learning where food
comes from, how to grow and pre-
pare food into healthy meals, and
enjoying, exploring and learning
about nature. We are collabo-
rating with Bread and Butter Farm
in developing a hands-on farm to
school curriculum that hopefully
can be used as a framework for
other schools and preschools in
the area wanting to start farm
to school programs.
We are now a month in to our Farm,
Forest, Food program and it’s exciting to
see how engaged the kids are and
already how the program is prompting
them to think more about what they eat and
where it comes from. They are enjoying the
time they spend in the forest, on the farm, and
in the kitchen, and have been really enthusiastic
about our “food of the day” activity, where I
bring in a food, we talk about the food, and then
plot its origin by sticking a picture of it up on a
Vermont, U.S., or world map.
I have already heard a few stories from parents
about how their kids are changing the way they
look at food. A mother at the school came up to
me last week and told me about how she was
grocery shopping with her daughter, and in the
produce section her daughter started talking
about the energy required to transport an apple
all the way from Argentina and how it makes so
much more sense to buy local. Another parent
told me that after the first day her son’s class
was in the kitchen helping to prepare apple
sauce, her son (a notoriously picky eater and
sugar-lover) came home and wanted to make
applesauce and when it was done, ate it without
adding any sugar. I hope that these stories
continue into the year.
Emily Johnson, VYT A*VISTA member
The Schoolhouse Learning Center (South Burlington, VT)
Page 6
Emily plants cover crops in the school garden with
three and four year-old preschool students.
Hi everyone, I’m Brandy Oswald, the VYT Ameri-Corps VISTA for Operation: Military Kids. I am a twenty-something University of Vermont gradu-
ate with a B.A. in French. I‘m currently a third of the way through my coursework for a Master’s
Degree in Public Administration. Hopefully, upon completion of my year of service, I will complete my MPA at the University of Vermont.
I have much experience working in the state of
Vermont. Previously, I have worked as a Legisla-
tive Intern with Vermont State Representative Kesha Ram planning fundraisers, performing cam-paign duties, drafting legislation, and more. I
have also worked as an Intern at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. At the Chamber I worked
most closely with the Legislative Assistant, the Events Coordinator, and the Tourism Department.
I decided to pursue a year of service with Ameri-Corps VISTA because I have lived in poverty my entire life. Growing up as the oldest of three chil-
dren to a young single mother, I know the strug-
gles of poverty. As a child I never knew my fami-
ly was in poverty. My mother, being the incredi-bly strong woman that she is, did a wonderful job to ensure that her children never went without (or
at least when we did, that it went unnoticed by us children). I knew that if there was any relief that I could give to struggling single mothers like my
own, and impoverished families in general, that I wanted to do all I could to give that much de-served assistance.
This is where AmeriCorps VISTA played a crucial
role. As the VISTA serving with Operation: Mili-tary Kids I hope to give military families the sup-
port that they deserve. Vermont’s military popu-
lation often goes overlooked because they are mostly National Guard members, and for the most part, are assimilated into civilian life. Without
proper access to military and community support systems these military families are more apt to fall into poverty than the “average” civilian. (I
put “average” in quotations because, well, good luck defining that word in today's crazy world!)
For the next year, I will work to build Operation: Military Kids’ capacity so that they can more
effectively support Vermont’s military families. I have already begun to push our Regional Team to explore more effective outreach methods,
re-organizing the organization’s database systems, and re-focusing the intent of the organi-
zation. I will also lend support to Operation: Mili-tary Kids’ AmeriCorps State and National Member in the form of volunteer recruitment, screening,
training, and management.
Operation: Military Kids is an amazing organiza-
tion with great potential. I will be spending the next year ensuring that the organization has all the tools needed to reach its full potential.
Brandy Oswald, VYT A*VISTA member
University of Vermont Extension 4H — Operation: Military Kids
(Burlington, VT)
Page 7
Bra
nd
y a
t he
r site, O
pe
ratio
n: M
ilitary
Kid
s.
Marcella Houghton, VYT A*VISTA member
Laraway Youth and Family Services and Salvation Farms
(Johnson, VT)
Here in Johnson, I’m in thrall
with the bright late-afternoon
light and scent of just-
beginning-to-rot leaves. These
Northeastern autumns are bit-
tersweet, and since I spent
the past four school years in
nearby Middlebury, they’ll
probably always remind me of
the start of the new semester.
Last October, I stood at the
brink of my final semester of
college: unsure of my next
steps, feeling both homesick
for New York and itching to go
forth into a new location alto-
gether, and overall pretty sure
I wouldn’t be staying in Ver-
mont post-February. Yet here
I am, relishing another Ver-
mont fall with no regrets.
It was a longtime connection
to the agricultural world and a
growing interest in gleaning
that lead me to Johnson in
late April of this year to start
my position. As a teenager I
worked at a commercial herb
garden, and since then I’ve
sought summer jobs with an
agricultural thread: a teaching
farm, a New York City door-
stop-delivery CSA. In college I
signed up through Addison
County HOPE to be a volun-
teer gleaner, and the first
gleaning event at a nearby
orchard had me hooked on
the concept. There was some-
thing solid-feeling about it:
the chit-chat between volun-
teers who’d never before met
each other, the sense of ca-
maraderie as we filled a truck
bed with trees’ last tenacious
apples, the sense—made tan-
gible by the act of collecting
donated, surplus apples
for the food shelf—of in-
terconnectedness (and
indeed, the overlap) be-
tween farmer, volun-
teer, and apple-eater.
In the past half year with
LYFS and Salvation
Farms, I’ve enjoyed tak-
ing part in some of the
initiatives to capture ag-
ricultural surplus that
Salvation Farms seeks to
strengthen throughout
the state. This summer I
gleaned squash and
beans with a group orga-
nized by the VT Food-
bank; a few weeks ago I
helped process peppers
harvested by the Caledonia
Work Crew in partnership with
Salvation Farms. Most
recently, I spent a Saturday
with volunteers from
Burlington’s Intervale (with a
few other VYT A*VISTA
recruits from my end!) at an
apple orchard. In a nod to my
first-ever gleaning experience
with HOPE, I enjoyed myself
immensely. The weather
smiled down on us with sun
and light breezes; the
volunteers were
multi-generational and all
very genial. The final yield
was around 6,700 lbs. of ap-
ples, over 6,500 lbs. of which
were later sorted and bagged
(for shelf life and ease of
distribution) at the Southeast
State Correctional Facility by
the crew working with my
Salvation Farms supervisor,
Theresa Snow. These will be
distributed to organizations
that help feed low-income
Vermonters.
As fall turns on, I’m looking
forward to exploring more
deeply the impact of gleaning.
My point of departure as a
volunteer primarily involves
feeling impactful in a positive
way, and it’s easy to focus on
the good interconnectedness
that I believe results from
gleaning. I hope my experi-
ences challenge me to under-
stand the nuances of my
service year and guide me to
both be critical and to
celebrate.
8
Marcella processes peppers at the
Hardwick Food Venture Center.
Page 8
As I’ve gotten to know my fellow VISTAs over
the past few months, I’ve discovered that the
men and women serving through Vermont
Youth Tomorrow this year have come to Ver-
mont from a wide spectrum of backgrounds,
experiences, and belief systems. One of the
things we have in common is a desire for work
that is fulfilling and which promotes a sense of
community. My own background is relatively
academic—after graduating with my Master’s
degree in Environmental History last summer, I
realized that academia was not the best
professional fit for me. I’m tempted to say I
took a fork in my career path, but in reality, I
jumped off the path and started wandering in
the woods. I started a temporary job and
began to think about what I wanted to do for a
living: I wanted work that was challenging and
dynamic, that let me work with a diverse set of
people, and which made me feel connected
with community and purpose. I was ecstatic to
land the position as Communications and Tech-
nology Specialist VISTA at Mobius, Vermont’s
Mentoring Partnership, because I knew I’d be
meeting passionate and dedicated people who
value community and service.
In my first two months as an AmeriCorps
VISTA member serving through the Vermont
Youth Tomorrow program with Mobius, I’ve
learned something new every day. I love that
each week at Mobius is different; the (mostly)
quiet days working in the office are inter-
spersed with days spent shuttling from meeting
to meeting or making a longer trip to a
mentoring event. My favorite part of the posi-
tion so far is the opportunities to visit and learn
tion. I loved fiction for its ability to transport me
to different worlds, and I also adored reading non-
fiction which helped teach me about the world
around me.
Books have continued to be one of my deepest
loves and play a part in how I perceive the world
around me. As an AmeriCorps VISTA at the
Franklin Grand Isle Bookmobile, I hope to pass on
my love for reading and knowledge to kids
throughout the counties of Grand Isle and Franklin
in northern Vermont. The Bookmobile provides a
huge collection of books to youth who might not
otherwise have access to them, and helps them
both in literacy and their imagination. Every year,
we visit over 800 children in rural communities
through stops at childcare providers and pre-
schools (and that number is growing every year!).
When we make a patron stop, we sing songs
and/or tell riddles, read a variety of stories, and
help the kids find books to check out and take
home with them. It is such a great feeling to see
children get excited about reading and wanting to
check out as many books as they can possibly
hold. The Bookmobile helps fight the vicious cycle
of the poverty by giving youth the tools they need
to succeed in school. With improved literacy skills,
they will be more successful in school and have
access to a wider range of options to have pros-
perous futures. The Bookmobile’s presence in the
community instills a positive image of reading as
fun and accessible to everyone, no matter their
situation. In addition, our collection contains
books and resources for adults, parents and
childcare providers to help them find the
knowledge to help them raise healthy, happy kids
and help continue their love of reading. Besides
my work with the Bookmobile, I am also assisting
with an after-school CrossRoads class called Ver-
Money, which will help teach 3rd-6th graders about
financial literacy. With the knowledge I hope to
teach them, they can begin to develop smart
spending and saving habits from an early age and
bring those habits into adulthood.
Throughout my year of service, I hope to make
the Bookmobile stronger as an organization
through increasing our funding stream, planning
fundraising and PR events, developing and
continuing programs, and making our relationship
with the community stronger and
farther-reaching. The Bookmobile’s mission is
important to me, and I look forward to
contributing my ideas and hard work to this great
organization.
Page 13
The Franklin-Grand Isle Bookmobile
Allie Pflughoeft, VYT A*VISTA member
Franklin Grand-Isle Bookmobile
(Swanton, VT)
Every year in May there is a ritual
within the Social Work depart-ment at the University of New Hampshire. As each graduating
class prepares to take off their metaphorical training wheels, the
Social Work department invites our families and friends to a cere-monial breakfast celebration,
where we as the graduates boast about our next adventures and
life plans. Unfortunately, for
graduates much like myself, this highlighted the fact that I didn’t have my life in order and that my
plans for after college consisted of my mother’s couch. I had
applied to and got accepted to multiple prestigious graduate programs but felt that “real life”
experience would be better than sitting in a classroom again.
As you may have guessed, the “real life” experience I was looking for landed me an
AmeriCorps VISTA position in Vermont. I was unlike many of
my social work colleagues--I didn’t have a specific population I wanted to work with; instead, I
wanted to work with communities (a macro social worker if you will), in particular, communities
with high needs. Being able to shepherd positive impacts and
help a community at large is what
got me inspired and jazzed about the otherwise depressing work we
social workers do.
Filling my car to the brim with clothing and random belongings, I
made my trek up Interstate 89, eager to begin a new chapter of my life. I felt a little like the Joan
of Arc (minus the whole burning at the stake part), setting off to a
land unknown, hopeful of being victorious against an enemy. My
enemy being poverty, a foe that
has proved to be unwavering to the people I would be serving. Hopeful, I made my way to
Vermont with barely enough money for a tank of gas and a dream, a dream that I would
leave Burlington better off than when I arrived.
I believe that the Nigerian proverb, “it takes a whole village to raise a child” is true, especially
in today’s society. In order to
fight poverty, it has to be a collaborative approach.
Community Friends Mentoring (CFM) offers a one-on-one friend-ship to children that might not
have a positive adult role model in their lives or children that just
need that extra support. The children referred to CFM, for whatever reason, just need a
solid friend, someone to hang out with and get their minds off of the
worries at home. The really cool thing about CFM is that not only do the kids benefit from the
friendship but mentors benefit from time spent with their
mentees as well.
You may be asking yourself “how does mentoring fix the issue of
poverty?” and well, I will tell you. By being a mentor to a child, we plant the seeds of hope and
future within them. Sometimes without knowing it, we inspire
kids to dream and hope, things
that are usually stripped of those who are impoverished. Talking
about a high school tassel around your rearview mirror might inspire your mentee to graduate
high school, a life milestone that may not be within your mentee’s radar. Or bringing a kid to a
restaurant that they’ve never been to might give them enough
excitement to stay out of trouble for a week and something to look
forward to each week. Being a
confidant to children, who otherwise have no one to talk to, might allow them to get things off
their chests that they may have had bottled up inside. You get the point. As minimal as hanging
out with a kid for a few hours a week may appear, it truly does
affect the lives of these children and ultimately their families.
The work that I do here at CFM
does in no way completely
reverse the effects of poverty; instead, it offers these children a
friend and the ability to dream. It is my goal to coordinate fun events for our matches, update
social media, compile and communicate resources within the
community, and provide support for our mentors in hopes that my efforts will ultimately make the
lives of these children a little better.
Sara Dillingham, VYT A*VISTA member
Community Friends Mentoring (Burlington, VT)
Sara and her supervisor,
Catherine, at a recent fundraising
event for Community Friends.
Page 14
VYT MEMBER ACCOMPLISHMENTS 2012-2013
We are very proud of the accomplishments of the Vermont Youth Tomorrow
A*VISTA members.
100% of organizations hosting VYT members reported that the members’ capacity building
activities made the organization more effective.
95% of organizations hosting VYT members reported that the members’ capacity building activities made the organization more efficient.
89% of organizations hosting VYT members reported that they had an increase in request for
services as a result of members’ service.
During the 2012-2013 program year, members accomplished the following:
Procured $557,432 in cash and in-kind donations used to create and improve programs that support low-income youth and families.
Recruited and/or managed 1,664 community volunteers, mentors, and tutors who gave 43,977
hours of service to communities, organizations, and youth (the equivalent of $791,586 in services).
Served 7,966 individual youth (unduplicated count) who benefited directly from their service; another 56,781 individual youth benefited indirectly from their service.
Managed 365 youth/mentor matches.
Established 198 new funding streams (donors, grants, events) benefitting 20 community-based organizations.
Provided services 598 family members of veterans and active duty troops.
Created 40 job training programs and activities benefiting 1,506 individuals.
Assisted 312 individuals with housing and basic needs.
Provided nutrition information and programs benefitting 2,137 youth and adults.
Developed 141 initiatives that engaged 1,230 youth in structured physical activity.
Developed and implemented 115 feeding programs or initiatives that provided healthy meals for 1,010 individuals.
Developed 547 public relations tools that will be used to create more awareness of the services,
programs, and initiatives our members help support.
Created or enhanced 230 business operations systems to make services more efficient and effective.
Members built community partnerships through collaborations with 424 community groups.
Members facilitated 130 presentations to community groups, reaching 2,848 individuals. Page 15
I came to Vermont Youth Tomorrow after living in Massachusetts for two years, though I grew up and
attended college in Washington State. While ser-vice learning was an integral component of my uni-
versity’s educational model, I never had direct con-versations about poverty, and never worked with anybody in poverty. I was involved with a men’s
feminist organization, which I loved, as well as a club that raised funds to support low-income unin-sured families, whose children required healthcare.
I never met any of these uninsured children or their low-income families. I raised funds almost entirely on campus, and once asked the owner of a
Mexican restaurant for an in-kind donation.
I looked for a VISTA position working with college students. I got excited about my service site, The DREAM Program, because the role of the Program
Empowerment VISTA involves working with college students. DREAM’s mission is to pair college men-
tors with youth in affordable housing communities.
The mentors, feeding off the empowerment I offer them, work to help youth recognize their options,
make informed decisions, and achieve their dreams.
When I began this position in August, I felt inter-ested in working with students because I had done
so in Boston, where I mentored volunteers on a suicide prevention helpline, and because I’d obvi-
ously done so when I was in college. I had a vague notion that I enjoyed working with college volun-teers, and an even vaguer notion that, like me,
many students studied really neat stuff, learning lots of things, without encountering the Big Stuff or the Big Things—the complex and confusing rela-
tional madhouse of most-of-adulthood—until life after college.
As it turns out, the college students I now serve
think and encounter and have big confused conversations about poverty every week. Over their (often) four years with DREAM, they get to
know the cultures of the housing communities they work with, and they work firsthand to mentor
youth through the compounded difficulties of living in poverty and growing older than the age of eight.
DREAM’s mentors are engaged in their
communities in ways I never remotely experienced when I was in college. I’m learning from them every day. Similarly, these mentors are learning
and growing as much as myself and the youth they serve. Sometimes, when I think about alleviating
poverty, I picture a big inclusive file cabinet of 401Ks—which have been explained to me but ac-tually I still don’t understand them. But alleviate
means “to make less severe,” and I basically
think that much of VISTA involves ameliorating the line between the “needy impoverished” and
the “helping middle-class.”
Now almost two months into service, I have a vision about how I’d like to assist DREAM,
though it’s a vision fueled with embarrassingly little research. I mostly hope to empower
mentors to build stronger relationships with the families of the youth they mentor. Cur-rently I know four parents by name, so I’m
working on that too.
Mark Hengstler, A*VISTA member
The DREAM Program (Burlington, VT)
As it turns out, the college students I now serve think and encounter and have big
confused conversations about poverty every week.
Page 16
Mark with DREAM Staff
My first encounter with
AmeriCorps came when I saw a
poster advertising a way to make
money for college in exchange for
community service. Fast forward a
year, 300 hours, and numerous
life changing experiences later,
the year was 2011 and I was in
my senior year at Mercyhurst
College in Erie, PA.
As my friends were busy writing
personal statements and finishing
job applications, I was simply
looking forward to graduation and
being done with tests, essays, and
reading assignments. As an Eng-
lish major with a concentration in
creative writing and a minor in
photography, I knew I wanted to
do something creative, but grad
school didn't interest me and I
needed time to figure out what
exactly I wanted to do with the
rest of my life.
During previous summers while
my classmates were working at
internships and gaining
experience, I
went home to
Indiana to
work at
summer camp,
sing silly
songs, and
encourage kids
to always try
their best. At
the time, I didn't think the skills
learned during my 3 summers as
a camp counselor applied to a
professional career, but I knew I
was having fun and I knew I was
doing something that actually
mattered and made a difference.
I also loved getting hugs from my
campers at the end of the week
when they didn’t want to leave.
When the time finally came to
apply to “real jobs,” my only re-
sult was an endless amount of
frustration. “Campsick” for the
outdoors and wanting a new ad-
venture, I applied to a camp in
Vermont, having only been to the
state for a few ski trips previously.
That summer, I not only fell in
love with New England, but also
met one of my best friends, and
when I learned she was applying
to AmeriCorps with NCCC, I decid-
ed that I needed a different ap-
proach to finding a job and using
my degree; thus came the idea to
revisit the AmeriCorps portal and
apply to become a VISTA.
The idea for the Bookmobile
stemmed from a grant written to
directly address the lack of
access to libraries and educational
reading materials in the rural and
poverty stricken areas of
northwestern Vermont. Over ten
years later and armed with an
8,800 book collection, the Book-
mobile serves roughly 800 low-
income youth a year with a mis-
sion to promote a lifelong love of
learning and provide greater ac-
cess to books, information, and
activities through valuable
community connections.
As a VISTA, I’ll work toward mak-
ing the Bookmobile a more sus-
tainable organization by helping
with resource and program devel-
opment, researching and writing
grants, and building partnerships
with the community members in
the area I serve. However, I think
my favorite parts will always be
making stops, singing silly songs,
and recommending books that will
send children on their own
magical adventures. And of
course, I’ll always love getting
hugs from the kids at the end of
the stop when they don’t want to
leave.
Sara Pierce, A*VISTA member
Franklin Grand-Isle Bookmobile
(Swanton, VT)
Hanging out with Clifford on a break between stops.
Over ten years later and armed with an 8,800 book collection, the Bookmobile serves roughly 800 low-income youth a year with a mission to promote a lifelong love of learning and provide greater
access to books, information, and activities through valuable community connections.
Page 17
Ryan Morra, VYT A*VISTA member
Big Picture South Burlington (South Burlington, VT)
At first glance my path to
AmeriCorps VISTA service with
Big Picture South Burlington may
seem long, winding, and puzzling,
but in my head and heart it all
makes perfect sense. I spent the
bulk of my adolescence wanting
to be a poor bohemian actor in
New York City. But after deferring
from a college acting program in
order to enter Ameri-
Corps NCCC, I ended
up spending three
years as a Corps Mem-
ber, Team Leader, and
staff member with
NCCC (all between the
ripe ages of 18 – 21).
Alongside my team-
mates, I served on a
variety of projects from
disaster relief after
September 11th to
building trails in West
Virginia, to painting
murals in Philadelphia
(and many, many
more!). All that service
spawned a passion for
conservation and education that
had not existed when I was grow-
ing up in a jam-packed suburb of
southern Connecticut.
Once I’d decided on a path for my
studies, I ventured south to War-
ren Wilson College in Asheville,
North Carolina, receiving my B.S.
in Biology. There, I deepened my
knowledge of environmental is-
sues while also working for the
college’s small-scale sustainable
forestry operation as a logger and
sawmill operator. It was during
one fateful summer break that I
headed to Vermont to work as a
backcountry caretaker with the
Green Mountain Club. It didn’t
take long for me to fall in love
with the mountains and culture of
Green Mountain State. The
Greens would wait a few years,
though, as I next headed west to
teach at Eagle Rock School in
Estes Park, Colorado through a
fellowship with Public Allies (an
AmeriCorps-funded program),
and received my teaching license
in secondary science education.
After a challenging and rewarding
year of teaching, I succumbed to
the travel bug and set forth on a
whirlwind of adventures ranging
from backpacking and canoeing
through the American West,
climbing volcanoes in Central
America, mountaineering in
Patagonia Chile, raising pigs on a
farm in Tuscany, Italy, and just
plain wandering through South-
east Asia.
Through all my travels, I
interspersed working with the
Vermont Youth Conservation
Corps and in the Montpelier
school system. I returned to
Vermont for graduate school in
the Field Naturalist &
Ecological Planning
Program at UVM. For my
master’s project, I worked
on a place-based
education project modeled
after the PLACE Program
(a UVM-Shelburne Farm
initiative) with a
community in central
Puerto Rico. While
volunteering with the
Partnership for Change
project in Burlington, I
encountered Big Picture
South Burlington, the
self-directed, real-world
learning program within
South Burlington High
School. Eager to learn from them
and to make a difference in the
lives of youth who haven’t
achieved success in traditional
high schools, I signed up for my
fourth(!) year of AmeriCorps.
Through VISTA, I am creating
curriculum centered on real-world
skills and partners students with
community mentors through pro-
fessional internships in order to
end the cycle of poverty that is
still alive and real for many
families in and around Burlington.
In his first month, Ryan created a food, agriculture, and nutrition curriculum "You Are What
You Eat" with the students, where they prepped two meals for Big Picture staff and
students to compare using local/organic ingredients and conventional ingredients.
Page 18
Kate
Cah
ala
ne,
VYT A
*VIS
TA m
em
ber
The D
REAM
Pro
gra
m (
White R
iver
Jct.,
VT)
DREAM is an amazing program
that pairs college student men-
tors with youth living in
affordable housing communi-
ties in Boston and Vermont. I
am serving as the Program
Empowerment VISTA in White
River Junction, supporting a
group of mentors at Dartmouth
College who are paired with
youth living in three different
communities in Windsor Coun-
ty. Four years ago I never
would have predicted that I
would be serving with Ameri-
Corps. I was just beginning to
settle in at UVM and I was
looking for a way to get
involved. I serendipitously
stumbled upon the program at
an activities fair freshman year
and it quickly became a very
important part of my life. I was
able to escape the bubble of
my college campus and devote
some of my time to something
meaningful, establishing rela-
tionships with other mentors as
well as with mentees and their
families. I became increasingly
invested in the program
throughout my college career,
serving as a Summer
AmeriCorps community intern
as well as a co-chair, and de-
cided to apply through Ameri-
Corps to serve as a Program
Empowerment Director. I was
interested in doing a year of
service and was looking
forward to seeing how the
DREAM program works from
behind the scenes after
experiencing direct service as a
mentor. I was able to see
first-hand the impact the
DREAM program has on the
lives of so many children and
families as well as the sense of
community that the program
creates among mentors and
mentees. This village mentor-
ing style is what drew me in to
the program and is what moti-
vates me today as a VISTA
serving with DREAM.
I view my service as an
opportunity to strengthen a
program that has the unique
ability to create opportunities
and inspire personal growth
and healthy futures for children
in thoughtful, inspiring and,
often, wacky ways. As a VISTA
I have the ability to support my
site by building capacity with
the overarching goal of
alleviating poverty. I hope that
I can strengthen the local
program I serve with in White
River Junction so that the
DREAM program can expand
and reach more communities in
this area. I hope that my
previous experience as a
mentor in the DREAM program
will help me more effectively
serve as a program
empowerment director,
comparing program successes
and relating
my experi-
ences to
those of the
mentors I am
supporting.
My name is Amanda Udoff
and I am originally from Aus-
tin, TX by way of Brooklyn,
NY and Baltimore, MD. The
path to my VISTA service has
been primarily twofold: the
experiences that I have had
in direct service and admin-
istration with youth through-
out my career and my time
in college pursuing a BA in
Political Science.
I’ll begin with the latter. In
studying political theory and
philosophy, I became
interested in the idea of
leadership and economics on
a community level rather
than a state or federal one. It
became clear to me that if
we serve and are held
accountable to our
immediate neighbors, we will
all be elevated to a better
standard of living. The
corruption that I witnessed in
the Baltimore political system
where I went to college only
served to reinforce this idea.
The city seemed to be crum-
bling around me and none of
the supposed leaders were
doing anything to help the
people who needed it most.
In regard to the former
aspect of my path to VISTA,
I spent time working with
underprivileged youth as a
director for a before-and-
after-school program in
Baltimore and in a more
administrative role in the
records department of the
Texas Department of Family
and Protective Services. It
was in these positions that I
realized what an impact we
can have in our communities
by working with local youth
and families that find
themselves in jeopardy of
poverty or bad decision
making.
These two experiences
dovetail nicely in my role as
a Development Specialist for
the Washington County
Youth Service Bureau. By
providing support with
everything from fundraising
to program development for
the youth of Washington
County, I am able to serve
my immediate community in
a way that I feel is
responsive and necessary. In
working with the prevention
team, I am able to help
provide our teens with
opportunities to live a life of
their choosing rather than
the rural and sometimes
impoverished lives that they
may feel obligated to.
Am
an
da U
do
ff, VYT A
*VIS
TA m
em
ber
Washin
gto
n C
ounty
Youth
Serv
ices B
ure
au/
Boys &
Girls
Clu
b P
reventio
n P
rogra
ms
(Montp
elie
r & N
orth
field
, VT)
Page 19
Alaina with youth from Winooski High School on a recent
service trip to the Burlington Emergency Shelter /
Ala
ina W
erm
ers,
A*VIS
TA
City o
f W
inooski Com
munity S
erv
ices D
epart
ment
Hello! My name is Alaina
Wermers, and I am serving a
second year with the City of
Winooski’s Community Services
Department as their Community
Engagement Coordinator.
Originally, I was only going to
serve one year and had no plans
of doing a second year. Howev-
er, just when I was getting my
feet under me it was already the
end of May. We were about to
start recruiting for the new me,
and I had a decision to make. I
hadn’t accomplished all that I
wanted that year and a second
year afforded me that oppor-
tunity. I also felt that Winooski
was on the verge of something
great, that it was about to come
into its own, and that our de-
partment was finally ready to
get its feet under itself after
several years of upheaval. The
City had spent the past couple
of years trying to right itself fi-
nancially and organizationally,
and it had finally come to a
point where it could look ahead
and do some long-range
planning.
This second year of service is
going to be far different from
my first year. I know my
organization now, and rather
than spend my time figuring it
out, I can spend my time work-
ing on programs and projects
that I had dreamt up during my
first year of service.
For instance, I will be leading a
series of service trips with
Winooski students to expose
them to community service that
is fun and engaging. I decided
to run this pilot program
because of gaps I saw in ser-
vices last year.
This year is also giving me the
chance to learn from my
mistakes during my first year of
service and improve upon them.
I started a new management
system for the community
gardens program, and with a
season under my belt I can see
what needs improvement and
have the relationships with the
gardeners on the Garden Team
to make the improvements. I
see a bright future for the pro-
grams and the community that I
am supporting. It is going to be
an exciting year with many
changes coming and I am truly
excited to be a part of it!
Alaina Wermers, VYT A*VISTA member
City of Winooski Community Services Department (Winooski, VT)
Alaina with youth from Winooski High School on a recent service trip to
the Burlington Emergency Shelter .
Page 20
I cannot believe it is already
October and I have just finished
my first month of my SECOND
year as the AmeriCorps VISTA
serving through Vermont Youth
Tomorrow at Montpelier Parks
and Conservation Commission.
My name is Stephanie Olsen and
as mentioned before, this is my
second year of service at my
site. Before I began serving the
community of Montpelier, I
graduated from Sterling College
with a degree in Conservation
Ecology focusing in on wildlife
management. After graduation in
2012, I wanted to start my ca-
reer in the field of conservation
while giving back to a community
in need. When I learned about
the AmeriCorps VISTA position at
the Parks department, which
accommodated both of the com-
ponents I was looking for, I im-
mediately applied. When I was
selected, that is when my adven-
tures as a VISTA began.
Last year I was able to make a
huge difference in the lives of at
risk youth while being a good
steward to our environment.
While coordinating and managing
volunteers from multiple places
throughout the year and while
teaching job skills to Department
of Labor Trainees – over 100
trees were planted in the parks
and around downtown Montpel-
ier, hundreds of invasive plant
species were removed in a envi-
ronmentally friendly way, an in-
terpretive trail was set up for the
use of the public, and new plots
were added to our community
garden. While a lot was accom-
plished during last term, I am
anticipating that this term will
exceed my last year!
So far in the past month, I have
been able to plant over a hun-
dred trees and have coordinated
about 100 volunteers. I want to
expand on the foundation that I
have created here at the parks
department. I look forward to
making AmeriCorps proud and
continue to alleviate poverty in
my community. Through my ser-
vice year, I look forward to
alleviating poverty by giving at-
risk youth the chance to have a
hands-on learning experience
about trail work and conserva-
tion. By showing and using my
passion, they might be able to
find their own passion and moti-
vation. My hope for these at-risk
youth is by being a positive role
model, they will change negative
lifestyles and want to better
themselves.
I also help to manage a
community garden here in
Montpelier that is aimed at giving
low-income families a place to
grow their own food. This garden
also has a plot that is grown to
be donated to the Vermont
Foodbank to help families who do
not have a plot in my
community. Lastly, the parks are
also free of charge! This becomes
an equal resource to the whole
community. Little by little, each
VISTA makes a difference… a
whole bunch of VISTAs create a
large difference!
We are the unsung heroes and I
am proud to carry the title of an
AmeriCorps VISTA!
Steph Olsen, VYT A*VISTA member
Montpelier Parks and Conservation Commission (Montpelier, VT)
Page 21
Steph and a SerVermont member prepare for a volunteer
project on the National Day of Remembrance (9/11/2013).
Steph and SerVermont members after finishing a service
project in Hubbard Park on 9/11/2013.
Hilary Watson, VYT A*VISTA member
Navicate—Burlington High School (Burlington, VT)
Hello Readers! If you had asked
me a year ago, I would have never known I would be introducing my-self to you all, but here I am—and
so happy to be! I am a native Se-attle-ite, born and raised just out-side the city. Prior to relocating for
my service, I had never been to Vermont-- boy was I missing out! Back in Seattle I was on a concrete
path. I had roots, a consistent job, and was planning to attend grad school when I asked myself
the question I now pose to my stu-dents: do you really know what is out there? Have you had enough
experiences to really know what a good next step might be? I wasn’t
sure I did.
That doubt is what lead me to a year of service with AmeriCorps. I find it slightly ironic that I am
doing a similar thing as all the students I now teach in my
internship class- I am trying
something new. I am gaining real world, hands-on experi-ence doing something I
am interested in, in order to help me figure out
where to go from here.
I am thrilled to be the VISTA Program Coordina-tor for Navicate, a spec-
tacular organization working to help inspire, connect, and prepare youth for their next steps after
high school! I feel so fortunate to be a part of their exceptional
team!
Throughout my year of service, I hope to fully immerse myself in Navicate’s programs. I want to
bring new ideas about program development, assist them with streamlining some of their
systems, help build new school
and business relationships, as well
as learn more about the resource development that keeps this or-ganization moving forward, helping
our youth. Thus far, each and eve-ry day has brought new opportuni-ties. I look forward to my year
ahead with the upmost excitement to channel my creativity, energy and love for helping others into all
that Navicate does.
Victoria Davis, VYT A*VISTA member
In-Sight Photography Project (Brattleboro, VT)
I became a VISTA after volun-
teering at In-Sight Photography
Project for two years while at-
tending Keene State College and
earning my BA in English Litera-
ture and Education. After I ap-
plied to the position, I began to
understand what the mission of
VISTA was. As a volunteer at In-
Sight, I had seen first hand the
impact that In-Sight is able to
achieve with its students. I also
saw the important role that the
former VISTA played with-
in the organization. I
decided that I wasn’t
ready to leave the In-Sight
family and wanted to
continue at In-Sight in a
more involved way while
building my skills.
In-Sight is a small organization
with a lofty mission of offering its
students a creative voice,
opportunity to experience success
tools for self-awareness and self-
worth, and encouragement to en-
gage with their community all
through photography. Youth ages
11-18 are able to join and classes
are available to anyone, regard-
less of their ability to pay.
In-Sight’s staff and budget are
minimal, but the organization
serves 150 students throughout
southern Vermont. With In-
Sight’s staff being so small, my
service has many capacities, from
working directly with students to
grant writing.
I would like to see an increase
In-Sight’s capacity and ability to
serve more youth. The best way
to see this happen would be
through fundraising and
increased volunteer involvement,
both things I believe I can
achieve with my service. I believe
strongly that youth involved in
after-school activities have more
opportunities to succeed.
Increasing the amount of youth
able to take classes at In-Sight
would have a correlation with the
VISTA mission of alleviating
poverty.
Learn to
Earn
Workshop:
Burlington
Page 22
Victoria at In-Sight.
Caitlin Wyneken, VYT A*VISTA member
Kellogg-Hubbard Library (Montpelier, VT)
When signed onto the AmeriCorps website to look at positions including the one I would eventually be accepted for at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, I first
had to have my old password sent to me and then create a new application- because so much of what
is in my first one had changed. I’ve been looking into positions with the organization for years now and, at that time, had been looking for work just
about anywhere for two years. But I still kept
coming back to AmeriCorps. I looked for positions involving writing/editing to match my background,
and found one at a library. Within two months, I was on my way 700 miles from Michigan to
Montpelier.
What drew me to AmeriCorps in the first place was the idea of serving in a local community, as part of
a national network, and in fields that actually mat-tered to me on a personal level. I also had a grow-ing interest in a permanent career in the non-profit
field. But the sector, like any, is subject to the vi-cious cycle that job seekers constantly find them-
selves caught in: to get a position, you need expe-
rience. But because you don’t have any experience in the first place, you can’t get a position to gain
the experience you need. By the time you get to the point that you want to call and personally thank those rare individuals who take the time to send
you a rejection letter on real paper, flipping burgers sounds like a godsend.
But I’m not flipping burgers. Instead, I’m doing
something that has the potential to make a real difference at a site whose presence in the local area
I could feel almost immediately. There are VYT training sessions that are far more fun than some-
thing called a “training” could ever be expected to be, with people I truly enjoy getting to hang out with once a month (or, hopefully, more often!).
Above all, there are people around me all the time who believe in the same things I do and are willing
to work for it, even if it means making sacrifices of their own in the process.
We’re very lucky to be part of a program that
supports us and has members that want to be there every day. And that’s what makes AmeriCorps members stand out.
What drew me to AmeriCorps in
the first place was the idea of
serving in a local community, as
part of a national network, and in
fields that actually mattered to me
on a personal level.
Page 23
The Kellogg-Hubbard Library
in Montpelier
Long before I began my VISTA service, I joined DREAM as a mentor in the Middlebury Local
Program, and was quickly hooked by the program’s fun-loving culture and emphasis on creating ownership for youth living in affordable
housing neighborhoods and their college student mentors. As graduation drew nearer, I was still un-sure of what I would do next, and I realized that
being a DREAM mentor had been the highlight of my college career. I had watched the program grow immensely and saw firsthand the impact
DREAM had, not only on its youth, but also on the
mentors. I wanted to continue to be part of such
an inspiring organization.
Now, as a Program Empowerment VISTA, I support the college student mentors from two of DREAM’s
Local Programs, who in turn plan weekly mentoring activities and special events for the youth they serve. While DREAM gives mentors a lot of owner-
ship in running their programs, I am there to make sure the programs at Bennington College and
Green Mountain College run smoothly and sustain-ably and remain successful. I hope that their expe-riences in DREAM will be as positive as mine was.
When I began my first year of VISTA service at DREAM, a colleague ex-plained to me that it can of-
ten take three semesters or more to see a real change in a Local Program, which
means that if I introduce a new idea to mentors, it
might be a year and a half before it is actually put into place. That thought stayed
with me through my first year, and I knew that
spending a second year as a
VISTA with DREAM would be the best way to see the results of my efforts.
Now that I am in my second year, I can do even more to build capacity in my programs. I will
continue to develop the training and tools I started last year, support mentors through logistical challenges, and maintain connections
between staff, mentors, families, and community partners. However, now I have gained experience and built relationships, which will allow me to be
more effective at these tasks, all of which contribute to my programs’ success.
This added capacity will ensure that mentors can
be confident in their weekly activities with their mentees, which in turn allows DREAM to continue
to be a positive force in the lives of the youth we serve. I am consistently inspired by all that DREAM mentors and youth are able to accomplish, and
through my VISTA service, I will continue to encourage them to dream bigger and better.
Ali, a Summer Community Intern, a volunteer, and
some DREAM youth at the Fun Spot in Lake George,
NY at their summer culminating experience.
Ali Siegel, VYT A*VISTA member
The DREAM Program (Bennington, VT)
Page 24
Hello, My name is Ashton and I am the VISTA with the
Willowell Foundation, an organization that (among
other things) provides land-based educational
opportunities to the youth Addison County.
I became a VISTA because of my desire to provide
alternative education to youth who live below or near
the poverty line. While studying Education at a college
in Minneapolis, MN, I became passionate about chang-
ing the education system in America. Unfortunately,
many alternative schools must operate privately and
charge tuition that most families cannot afford. I be-
lieve that it is important to create access to alternative
learning styles for youth of all economic backgrounds
because having the ability to participate in a dynamic
and flexible educational experience can help them rec-
ognize their needs and access their full potential. After
speaking to several former AmeriCorps members, I
realized that a year of service would provide me with
an opportunity to work with an organization devoted
to alternative education, as well as work with impov-
erished youth.
I am hopeful that my year of service will aid Willowell
in many ways. First, I'm excited to help the organiza-
tion develop a Farm to School program by applying for
a planning grant through the Vermont Agency of Agri-
culture, Department of Education, Department of
Health and the VT Food Education Every Day (FEED)
Program.
This resource would allow us to develop and prepare
to implement a partnership with our local public school
district, which will result in healthier school lunches
that feature local, organically grown foods.
Another aspect of the partnership will be a regular
"school to farm" field trip schedule, allowing us to
educate district youth about the food cycle,
composting, permaculture, ecology, and
environmental responsibility. By helping Willowell get
this grant, I will be part of creating a sustainable
program that will enable hundreds of kids to become
more knowledgeable and thereby more in-control of
the role food plays in their lives.
Another way that we are helping to alleviate poverty
in our community is by offering an assortment of
land-based educational programs for youth ages 3-
18. These programs are designed to teach skills that
will help them navigate and preserve the natural
world around them, while building an active, caring
community. My role consists of finding resources
(such as grants, donations, and volunteers) as well
as some direct service. The youth who participate in